{"id":"GARTH1953-001","label":"Atsugewi Hat Creek children's bullroarer","people_or_site":"Atsugewi (Atsuge and Apwaruge)","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Hat Creek and Dixie Valley","macroregion":"North America / California","local_name":"","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Bullroarer of wood; neither ethnography gives dimensions, cord detail or an Atsugewi name.","function_summary":"Children twirled it for fun but adults stopped them because its sound could cause sickness.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"garth1953_atsugewi_bullroarer","source_type":"ethnographic_survey","source_url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/84175/files/ucar014-003.pdf","page_or_plate":"Garth p. 175; Voegelin p. 94","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Cassel / Hat Creek regional anchor. Voegelin's positive account is Hat Creek; Garth's positive maker was Apwaruge, associated with Fall River Mills and later Dixie Valley.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"At Hat Creek, children twirled a bullroarer for fun until adults stopped them: the sound itself, they warned, was liable to bring sickness and misfortune — the same fate that awaited a child who whirled a burning brand around his head. The Atsugewi had little patience for idleness of any kind: 'he doesn't know how to sleep' was their highest praise, and the lazy man — the Brumui, naked, propertyless, starving through winter — stood at the very bottom of the social scale. John LaMar still remembered making a bullroarer despite the warning, as an Apwaruge boy.","pull_quote":"JL stated that he had made a bull-roarer as a child, but that children were ordinarily not allowed to use bull-roarers for they were liable to bring sickness and misfortune.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Thomas R. Garth, Atsugewi Ethnography (1953), p. 175.","term_gloss":"bull-roarer: English fieldwork term; no Atsugewi name recovered.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Thomas R. Garth, Atsugewi Ethnography (1953), p. 175; Erminie W. Voegelin, Culture Element Distributions XX: Northeast California (1942), p. 94","url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/84175/files/ucar014-003.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20240708065746/https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/84175/files/ucar014-003.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Thomas R. Garth, Atsugewi Ethnography (1953), p. 175; Erminie W. Voegelin, Culture Element Distributions XX: Northeast California (1942), p. 94","source_display":"Thomas R. Garth, Atsugewi Ethnography (1953), p. 175; Erminie W. Voegelin, Culture Element Distributions XX: Northeast California (1942), p. 94","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bullroarer of wood; neither ethnography gives dimensions, cord detail or an Atsugewi name.","function_display":"Children twirled it for fun but adults stopped them because its sound could cause sickness.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"atsugewi atsuge","display_name":"Atsugewi Hat Creek children's bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-008_nmai_18-9685_karuk.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-008_nmai_18-9685_karuk_thumb.jpg","alt":"A Karuk bone bullroarer with fine diamond-chevron engraving and fibre cord wound around one end.","credit":"National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution (18/9685)","license":"Usage Conditions Apply (NMAI)","source_page":"https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_202773","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Karuk bone bullroarer with diamond-chevron engraving.","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-008_nmai_18-9685_karuk"},"slug":"garth1953-001-atsugewi-atsuge-and-apwaruge"}