{"id":"HAYS1986-011","label":"Awa mahbi initiation roarer","people_or_site":"Awa (Papua New Guinea)","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"Mobuta River Awa / Eastern Family language region","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A bullroarer used alongside transverse flutes in Awa initiation; no size, form or local name is recorded.","function_summary":"Recorded in initiation, sounding with the transverse flutes as a sacred men's instrument.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"hays1986_sacred_flutes","source_type":"scholarly_article","source_url":"https://digitalcollections.ric.edu/record/1736/files/Sacred_Flutes2.pdf","page_or_plate":"p. 436 table","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Glottolog Awa language anchor; regional, not a performance site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"An Awa boy became a new mahbi at thirteen to fifteen, after nose-bleeding, penis-cutting and cane-swallowing. Both sacred instruments belonged to that initiation — the paired transverse flutes and the bullroarer — and where both occurred, Hays found, both were revealed together, in ceremonies everywhere forbidden for women or children to watch. Of the Awa bullroarer itself nothing further is recorded: no local name, no dimensions, no story of its own.","pull_quote":"in the regions where both instruments occurred both were revealed together at initiation, which everywhere was conducted in ceremonies which were forbidden for women or children to observe","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Hays 1986:443 (Anthropos 81)","term_gloss":"No Awa bullroarer term recorded by Hays.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["initiation","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Terence E. Hays, Sacred Flutes, Fertility, and Growth in the Papua New Guinea Highlands, Anthropos 81 (1986):435–453, at pp. 436, 443–44","url":"https://digitalcollections.ric.edu/record/1736/files/Sacred_Flutes2.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20250526055207/https://digitalcollections.ric.edu/record/1736/files/Sacred_Flutes2.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Terence E. Hays, Sacred Flutes, Fertility, and Growth in the Papua New Guinea Highlands, Anthropos 81 (1986):435–453, at pp. 436, 443–44","source_display":"Terence E. Hays, Sacred Flutes, Fertility, and Growth in the Papua New Guinea Highlands, Anthropos 81 (1986):435–453, at pp. 436, 443–44","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bullroarer used alongside transverse flutes in Awa initiation; no size, form or local name is recorded.","function_display":"Recorded in initiation, sounding with the transverse flutes as a sacred men's instrument.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"awa","display_name":"Awa mahbi initiation roarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/PNG135_meg_ethoc_029194.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/PNG135_meg_ethoc_029194_thumb.jpg","alt":"A long pale Kainantu rhombe with a fine cord tied through one end and looped below.","credit":"Musée d'ethnographie de Genève (MEG), ETHOC 029194 (coll. Georges Barbey, 1960)","license":"© Musée d'ethnographie de Genève — reproduction rights apply; rehosted low-res for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://collections.geneve.ch/meg/catalogue/musinfo_public.php?id=029194","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A Kainantu rhombe on its cord, one of four given by Georges Barbey in 1960","pool_id":"auto-PNG135_meg_ethoc_029194","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-09-03"},"slug":"hays1986-011-awa-papua-new-guinea"}