{"id":"KIPKORIR1973-001","label":"Marakwet kaptorus beast, the roar round the hut","people_or_site":"Marakwet (Kalenjin)","country_current":"Kenya","historic_region":"Marakwet, Cherangani escarpment above the Kerio Valley (Elgeyo-Marakwet County)","macroregion":"Africa / East Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"bull-roarers; kimaketip kaptorus, \"the kaptorus wild animal\"","source_language":"English","object_description":"Bull-roarers whirled by men at different speeds to produce an array of sounds; no object is described further.","function_summary":"The voice of kimaketip kaptorus, the wild beast of the initiation seclusion. On a moonless night men approach the initiands' hut whirling bull-roarers; inside, the initiation instructors (motiren) snap goat and sheep jaws against the initiands' legs and strike them with nettles, and some initiands confess hidden wrongs. The ordeal is explained to them the next morning at kaaiso or kiai, the final counselling of initiates.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"kipkorir_welbourn1973_marakwet","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/marakwetofkenyap0000beki","page_or_plate":"pp. 47-48 (page break inside the passage, running head 'THE MARAKWET OF KENYA 48')","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Kapsowar, central Marakwet on the escarpment above the Kerio Valley; the source names no single rite site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Marakwet boys in seclusion lived in the huts of kaptorus, 'the place of initiands', and were warned long in advance that a wild beast would come for them. It came on a moonless night: kimaketip kaptorus, 'the kaptorus wild animal'. Men closed in on the hut whirling bull-roarers at different speeds, filling the dark with a confusion of roars, while inside, the men guarding the initiands snapped the jaws of goat and sheep skulls against their legs and struck them with nettles. Some of the boys confessed wrongs they had kept hidden. In the morning, at the final counselling called kaaiso or kiai, the whole ordeal was explained to them.","pull_quote":"a number of men approach the hut, whirling bull-roarers at different speeds, producing an array of sounds which frightens the torus out of their wits.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Kipkorir and Welbourn, The Marakwet of Kenya (1973), pp. 47-48","term_gloss":"kimaketip kaptorus: 'the kaptorus wild animal', the beast whose coming is staged with bull-roarers; kaptorus: 'the place of initiands', the seclusion huts; torus: the initiands.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","initiation"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"B. E. Kipkorir and F. B. Welbourn, The Marakwet of Kenya: A Preliminary Study (Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1973), pp. 47-48","url":"https://archive.org/details/marakwetofkenyap0000beki"}],"source_citations":"B. E. Kipkorir and F. B. Welbourn, The Marakwet of Kenya: A Preliminary Study (Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1973), pp. 47-48","source_display":"B. E. Kipkorir and F. B. Welbourn, The Marakwet of Kenya: A Preliminary Study (Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1973), pp. 47-48","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bull-roarers whirled by men at different speeds to produce an array of sounds; no object is described further.","function_display":"The voice of kimaketip kaptorus, the wild beast of the initiation seclusion. On a moonless night men approach the initiands' hut whirling bull-roarers; inside, the initiation instructors (motiren) snap goat and sheep jaws against the initiands' legs and strike them with nettles, and some initiands confess hidden wrongs. The ordeal is explained to them the next morning at kaaiso or kiai, the final counselling of initiates.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"marakwet","display_name":"Marakwet kaptorus beast, the roar round the hut","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/bm_E_Af1908-0723-86.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/bm_E_Af1908-0723-86_thumb.jpg","alt":"A Nandi bull-roarer with a broad reddish wooden blade and hide thong passing across and around it; the Nandi, Sebei kin, also call it “lion.”","credit":"© The Trustees of the British Museum (Af1908,0723.86)","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (already rehosted in the atlas)","source_page":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1908-0723-86","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A bull-roarer of the Nandi, Kalenjin neighbours of the Marakwet.","pool_id":"auto-museum_harvest--bm_E_Af1908-0723-86"},"slug":"kipkorir1973-001-marakwet-kalenjin"}