{"id":"FROELICH1959-001","label":"Mbum Ngan-Ha circumcision rhombe","people_or_site":"Mboum (Ngan-Ha)","country_current":"Cameroon","historic_region":"Adamaoua / Ngan-Ha","macroregion":"Africa / Central Africa","local_name":"Djerr / Sirr / Dirr (wider Mbum)","source_term":"rhombe","source_language":"French","object_description":"Froelich does not describe the Ngan-Ha blade. Wooden forms among the wider Mbum were kept in a mountain cave and learned by initiates.","function_summary":"Sounded at boys' circumcision: at Ngan-Ha the niadok turned the rhombe while women indoors were told fe-mbaka, 'the devourer,' was present; among the wider Mbum the cave-kept Djerr voiced the leopard, Mbaga the lion.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"froelich1959_mboum","source_type":"academic_article","source_url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/jafr_0037-9166_1959_num_29_1_1901","page_or_plate":"p. 110 | Frobenius 1925:148, 150–151","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Nganha locality anchor","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"At Ngan-Ha the bullroarer entered the boys' circumcision at a moment of deliberate terror: as the niadok set it turning, women and the uncircumcised were ordered indoors and told that fe-mbaka, 'the devourer,' was abroad. Among the wider Mbum, Frobenius heard the same instruments called Djerr, Sirr or Dirr, kept in a mountain cave no woman might see; when the whirring rolled in from the bush, women who asked were told it was Djerr the leopard or Mbaga the lion moving among the boys.","pull_quote":"le niadok fait tourner le rhombe","pull_quote_translation":"the niadok makes the bullroarer turn","pull_quote_cite":"Froelich 1959, p. 110","term_gloss":"rhombe: French for bullroarer, the word Froelich uses for the Ngan-Ha instrument.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","initiation","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Froelich 1959, p. 110; Leo Frobenius, Dichten und Denken im Sudan (1925), pp. 148 and 150-151","url":"https://www.persee.fr/doc/jafr_0037-9166_1959_num_29_1_1901","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20240903130415/https://www.persee.fr/doc/jafr_0037-9166_1959_num_29_1_1901"}],"source_citations":"Froelich 1959, p. 110; Leo Frobenius, Dichten und Denken im Sudan (1925), pp. 148 and 150-151","source_display":"Froelich 1959, p. 110; Leo Frobenius, Dichten und Denken im Sudan (1925), pp. 148 and 150-151","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Froelich does not describe the Ngan-Ha blade. Wooden forms among the wider Mbum were kept in a mountain cave and learned by initiates.","function_display":"Sounded at boys' circumcision: at Ngan-Ha the niadok turned the rhombe while women indoors were told fe-mbaka, 'the devourer,' was present; among the wider Mbum the cave-kept Djerr voiced the leopard, Mbaga the lion.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"mboum","display_name":"Mbum Ngan-Ha circumcision rhombe","image":{"full":"assets/objects/EXH2026-027_tessmann1919_abb2.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/EXH2026-027_tessmann1919_abb2_thumb.jpg","alt":"Tessmann's 1919 diagram of two tall ancestor forms flanking a notched bullroarer with a cord; the right-hand Bafia form has a face between two pointed projections.","credit":"G. Tessmann, \"Die Bafia,\" Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 51 (1919), Abb. 2","license":"Public domain (published 1919)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/zeitschriftfre51berluoft","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Tessmann's 1919 drawing of Bafia blades","pool_id":"auto-EXH2026-027_tessmann1919_abb2","auto_assigned":true},"slug":"froelich1959-001-mboum-ngan-ha"}