{"id":"KUNST1973-001","label":"Alor bamboo humming toy","people_or_site":"Children of Alor","country_current":"Indonesia","historic_region":"Alor Island, Alor Regency, East Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda Islands)","macroregion":"Southeast Asia / Indonesia","local_name":"","source_term":"bull-roarer (Kunst’s first Javanese form, the (o)wer-(o)wer)","source_language":"English / German","object_description":"A narrow, thin bamboo lath with a small hole at one end for its cord, swung round to hum; reported on Alor in exactly the form of the Javanese toy.","function_summary":"A children’s toy.","attestation_type":"secondary_catalog","source_key":"kunst1973_music_in_java_alor","source_type":"comparative_secondary","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/musicinjavaitshi0001kuns","page_or_plate":"Music in Java I, pp. 240–241 (archive.org leaf n444); MGG 1 vol. 6 col. 1195","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Alor island centroid (OpenStreetMap \"Pulau Alor\"); Kunst names the island only, no village.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"On Alor, the rugged island at the eastern end of the Lesser Sunda chain north of Timor, children swung a sliver of bamboo on a string: a narrow, thin lath pierced at one end, which hums as it turns. It took the same guise as in Java and kept the same company, the whizzing bow, a strip of coconut leaf folded over a bent leaf-rib and whirled on a long rib for a cord. On Alor, as on Java, Nias and Timor, both had come down to the rank of toys.","pull_quote":"They have been degraded to the rank of toys in these places, as well in Java","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Jaap Kunst, Music in Java (3rd ed., 1973), vol. I, p. 241","term_gloss":"","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":"Jaap Kunst, Music in Java: Its History, Its Theory and Its Technique, 3rd enlarged ed. (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1973), vol. I, pp. 240–241.","url":"https://archive.org/details/musicinjavaitshi0001kuns"},{"citation":"Jaap Kunst, “Indonesische Musik,” Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 1st ed., vol. 6, col. 1195."}],"source_citations":"Jaap Kunst, Music in Java: Its History, Its Theory and Its Technique, 3rd enlarged ed. (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1973), vol. I, pp. 240–241.; Jaap Kunst, “Indonesische Musik,” Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 1st ed., vol. 6, col. 1195.","source_display":"Jaap Kunst, Music in Java: Its History, Its Theory and Its Technique, 3rd enlarged ed. (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1973), vol. I, pp. 240–241.; Jaap Kunst, “Indonesische Musik,” Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 1st ed., vol. 6, col. 1195.","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A narrow, thin bamboo lath with a small hole at one end for its cord, swung round to hum; reported on Alor in exactly the form of the Javanese toy.","function_display":"A children’s toy.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"secondary catalog","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"children alor","display_name":"Alor bamboo humming toy","image":{"full":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_30/SEA-001_fowler_x78_l920.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_30/SEA-001_fowler_x78_l920_thumb.jpg","alt":"A rectangular dark blade with cord wrapped around it.","credit":"Fowler Museum at UCLA, X78.L920","source_page":"https://argus.fowler.ucla.edu/final/Portal/Default.aspx?component=AAFG&record=b174faaa-fbe5-46ca-83eb-3915d3d56089","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"An Ifugao bing-ngi-gan with its cord wrapped around the blade","pool_id":"auto-hunt_2026_10_30--SEA-001_fowler_x78_l920","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-11-03"},"slug":"kunst1973-001-children-of-alor"}