{"id":"FROBENIUS1925-002","label":"Dakka Sama Mum Langa ancestral-voice bullroarer","people_or_site":"Sama (Dakka / Samba Daka; Sama Mum)","country_current":"Nigeria","historic_region":"Sugu / Tsugu / Ganye LGA / Adamawa State","macroregion":"Africa","local_name":"Langa","source_term":"Schwirrholzer","source_language":"German / Dakka term","object_description":"Wooden bullroarers explicitly swung on sacred days; iron forms remained in a shrine urn.","function_summary":"Swung on sacred days as the voice of the fathers; sounded at harvest, circumcision, and the death of a king or Kameni.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"frobenius_1925_dakka_langa","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/files/59375/Dichten_und_Denken_im_Sudan.pdf","page_or_plate":"printed pp. 42, 44-45, 54, 67","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Sugu/Tsugu, the relocated Dakka capital that Frobenius names Sugu/Gassubi; representative settlement anchor, not an object findspot.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Dakka, wooden Langa were swung on sacred days while iron examples rested silent in a shrine urn. Their sound was the voice of the fathers: at harvest women and children hid indoors, while boys at circumcision were told that the old grandfathers were crying.","pull_quote":"Dagegen werden die Schwirrholzer an den entsprechenden heiligen Tagen geschwungen.","pull_quote_translation":"The wooden bullroarers are swung on the corresponding sacred days.","pull_quote_cite":"Frobenius 1925:42","term_gloss":"Langa: Dakka name for the sacred bullroarers; the same term includes silent iron forms and sounded wooden instruments","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","initiation","death_rebirth","women_taboo","agriculture"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Leo Frobenius, Dichten und Denken im Sudan (1925), pp. 42, 44-45, 54 and 67","url":"https://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/files/59375/Dichten_und_Denken_im_Sudan.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20240701022026/https://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/files/59375/Dichten_und_Denken_im_Sudan.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Leo Frobenius, Dichten und Denken im Sudan (1925), pp. 42, 44-45, 54 and 67","source_display":"Leo Frobenius, Dichten und Denken im Sudan (1925), pp. 42, 44-45, 54 and 67","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Wooden bullroarers explicitly swung on sacred days; iron forms remained in a shrine urn.","function_display":"Swung on sacred days as the voice of the fathers; sounded at harvest, circumcision, and the death of a king or Kameni.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"sama dakka","display_name":"Dakka Sama Mum Langa ancestral-voice bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/FROBENIUS1925-002_frobenius1913-p191-dakka-langa-fig7-8.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/FROBENIUS1925-002_frobenius1913-p191-dakka-langa-fig7-8_thumb.jpg","credit":"Leo Frobenius, Unter den unsträflichen Äthiopen (1913), p. 191, figs. 7-8 (drawn by B. Bauschke)","license":"Public domain (published 1913)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_MJYPAQAAMAAJ","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Two Dakka langa, 27 and 19.5 cm, wood, drawn for Frobenius's 1913 volume."},"slug":"frobenius1925-002-sama-dakka-samba-daka-sama-mum"}