{"id":"KIRBY1934-002","label":"Venda tshivhilivhi, the lion and Grandfather","people_or_site":"Venda (Vhavenda)","country_current":"South Africa","historic_region":"Venda (Vhembe, northern Limpopo)","macroregion":"Africa / Southern Africa","local_name":"tshivhilivhi / luvuva","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Made by children in both classes: a swung slat with a handle, and a twisted spinning-disk. The Venda specimens are described as particularly crude; no dimensions recorded.","function_summary":"Made by children as a plaything. In the murundu circumcision school, men hidden behind the boys' huts whirl tshivhilivhi so the novices, who take the noise for a whimpering lion, do not hear the makhulu ('grandfather') pole being raised; on the last night the roarers cover its cutting down and burning.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"kirby1934_south_africa","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://books.google.com/books?id=vjZjDwAAQBAJ","page_or_plate":"Kirby 2013 ed., p. 101; figs. 4.2 nos. 1, 4 (bull-roarers) and 4.3 no. 4 (spinning-disk); Blacking1969 Domba, ERA section Mbudzi na nngwe; Stayt 1931, p. 134 (pole raised and burnt under cover of the bull-roarers)","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Venda (Vhembe district, northern Limpopo) centroid; Kirby names no collection locality.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In the murundu, the circumcision school the Venda took up in the nineteenth century, a lion seemed to whimper behind the boys' huts. It was men whirling *tshivhilivhi*, and while the frightened novices listened, others raised a pole about thirty feet high in the enclosure, capped with baboon or rabbit skin. The boys were brought out and told it was their *makhulu*, their grandfather; every morning and evening until the school ended they danced around it, and the bold climbed it to shout from the top. On the last night the roarers sounded again while the pole was cut down and burnt. Called out to find it gone, the boys shouted that Grandfather was dead. Outside the lodge, children made their own: a slat swung from a handle, and a disk spun on a doubled string, both called *luvuva*.","pull_quote":"The noise frightens the boys, who think that it is a lion whimpering, and do not hear anything of the erection of the pole.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Stayt, The Bavenda, p. 134","term_gloss":"","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["initiation","toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Percival R. Kirby, 'Bull-Roarers and Spinning-Disks,' in The Musical Instruments of the Indigenous People of South Africa, 3rd ed. (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2013), p. 101; John Blacking, 'Songs, Dances, Mimes and Symbolism of Venda Girls' Initiation Schools, Part Three: Domba,' African Studies 28(3) (1969): 149–199; Hugh A. Stayt, The Bavenda (London: Oxford University Press, 1931), pp. 133-135","url":"https://books.google.com/books?id=vjZjDwAAQBAJ","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013013144/https://books.google.com/books?id=vjZjDwAAQBAJ"}],"source_citations":"Percival R. Kirby, 'Bull-Roarers and Spinning-Disks,' in The Musical Instruments of the Indigenous People of South Africa, 3rd ed. (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2013), p. 101; John Blacking, 'Songs, Dances, Mimes and Symbolism of Venda Girls' Initiation Schools, Part Three: Domba,' African Studies 28(3) (1969): 149–199; Hugh A. Stayt, The Bavenda (London: Oxford University Press, 1931), pp. 133-135","source_display":"Percival R. Kirby, 'Bull-Roarers and Spinning-Disks,' in The Musical Instruments of the Indigenous People of South Africa, 3rd ed. (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2013), p. 101; John Blacking, 'Songs, Dances, Mimes and Symbolism of Venda Girls' Initiation Schools, Part Three: Domba,' African Studies 28(3) (1969): 149–199; Hugh A. Stayt, The Bavenda…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Made by children in both classes: a swung slat with a handle, and a twisted spinning-disk. The Venda specimens are described as particularly crude; no dimensions recorded.","function_display":"Made by children as a plaything. In the murundu circumcision school, men hidden behind the boys' huts whirl tshivhilivhi so the novices, who take the noise for a whimpering lion, do not hear the makhulu ('grandfather') pole being raised; on the last night the roarers cover its cutting down and burning.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"venda","display_name":"Venda tshivhilivhi, the lion and Grandfather","image":{"full":"assets/objects/BATCH4-015_meg_ethmu_040238.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/BATCH4-015_meg_ethmu_040238_thumb.jpg","alt":"A G/wi g/ang/an from the Central Kalahari, with a long handle, connecting lace and feathered rotor.","credit":"Musée d'ethnographie de Genève (MEG), ETHMU 040238 (coll. Carlos Valiente-Noailles, 1979)","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=040238","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A G/wi g/ang/an from the Central Kalahari","pool_id":"auto-BATCH4-015_meg_ethmu_040238","auto_assigned":true},"slug":"kirby1934-002-venda-vhavenda"}