{"id":"KOTZ1922-001","label":"Wapare ngurunguru (mshitu initiation)","people_or_site":"Pare (Wapare), Pare Mountains, north-eastern Tanzania","country_current":"Tanzania","historic_region":"Pare Mountains","macroregion":"Africa / East Africa","local_name":"ngurunguru","source_term":"","source_language":"German","object_description":"Bullroarers about 30 cm long and 10-15 cm broad, swung on a band by their bearers to give a humming tone.","function_summary":"Initiation instruments: the ngurunguru — 'children of the forest beast' — are swung ahead of the mshitu festival, voicing the monster that swallows the novices and gives them back.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"kotz_1922_pare","source_type":"published_account","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77152","page_or_plate":"Kotz 1922 (Gutenberg #77152; print pp. 62, 76)","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"North Pare anchor (Shigatini/Usangi district, Kotz's mission field).","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In the Pare mountains the ngurunguru went ahead of the mshitu: broad blades a forearm long, swung on their bands until the hills hummed. They were the children of the forest beast, and the beast itself waited in the initiation grove — the monster that swallowed the novices and, when the rites were done, gave them back as men. The humming was its household approaching.","pull_quote":"Das sind die Kinder des Waldtieres, denn selbst ist es zu groß, als daß es im Lande umherziehen könnte.","pull_quote_translation":"These are the children of the forest beast, for the beast itself is too big to travel about the land.","pull_quote_cite":"Kotz 1922:76","term_gloss":"ngurunguru — the Pare bullroarers of the mshitu initiation grove; called children of the forest beast.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","initiation","death_rebirth"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Ernst Kotz, Im Banne der Furcht: Sitten und Gebräuche der Wapare in Ostafrika (1922), pp. 62 and 76","url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77152","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260312073718/https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77152"}],"source_citations":"Ernst Kotz, Im Banne der Furcht: Sitten und Gebräuche der Wapare in Ostafrika (1922), pp. 62 and 76","source_display":"Ernst Kotz, Im Banne der Furcht: Sitten und Gebräuche der Wapare in Ostafrika (1922), pp. 62 and 76","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bullroarers about 30 cm long and 10-15 cm broad, swung on a band by their bearers to give a humming tone.","function_display":"Initiation instruments: the ngurunguru — 'children of the forest beast' — are swung ahead of the mshitu festival, voicing the monster that swallows the novices and gives them back.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"pare","display_name":"Wapare ngurunguru (mshitu initiation)","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/bm_E_Af1999-01-40.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/bm_E_Af1999-01-40_thumb.jpg","alt":"A plain brown wooden blade with a rectangular opening at the stepped end and a rounded point.","credit":"© The Trustees of the British Museum (E/Af1999-01-40)","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1999-01-40","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Plain wooden blade with a pierced stepped tang and rounded point.","pool_id":"auto-museum_harvest--bm_E_Af1999-01-40"},"slug":"kotz1922-001-pare-wapare-pare-mountains-north-eastern-tanzania"}