{"id":"KUNST2026-001","label":"Bamana lion-voice in wood and iron","people_or_site":"Bamana","country_current":"Mali","historic_region":"Segou region, middle Niger (eastern Bamana)","macroregion":"Africa / West Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"жужжалка обрядовая (ritual roarer)","source_language":"Russian","object_description":"Pair of eastern Bamana ritual bullroarers: a leaf-shaped wooden blade, 25 × 4.5 × about 2 cm, and a forged tapering iron blade, 17 × 3 × about 0.4 cm, both with cord knotted through the narrow end. A third body for the same voice sits in the musée du quai Branly, Paris: a Bamana roarer cut from the wall of a calabash at Kayes, eleven centimetres across and one thick, its rim notched into teeth, threaded on a single cord, five grams.","function_summary":"Catalogued as sacred or ritual roarers; the particular ceremony is not recorded.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"KUNSTKAMERA_MAE_1688_57","source_type":"museum_catalog","source_url":"https://collection.kunstkamera.ru/entity/OBJECT/16960","page_or_plate":"МАЭ № 1688-57 and 1688-58 (objects 16960 and 16961)","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Segou, historic core of the eastern Bamana (Bamana Kingdom of Segou) on the middle Niger, matching the original inventory's «восточные бамана» and the DIAFE route through the French Sudan","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"The Bamana likened the bullroarer's drone to the roar of a lion, and told how the first one was born under the hand of the first blacksmith — a boy carving a mask from sacred acacia when a splinter tore loose and flew off booming like the great cat, so he bored it, threaded a cord, and set it spinning. This Kunstkamera pair carries that voice in two bodies: a dark, leaf-shaped wooden blade and, beside it, a smaller one forged in iron, the smith's own element, each still corded through the narrow end. The museum entered them only as sacred roarers.","pull_quote":"Una esquirla de madera de acacia se desprendió y saltó lejos produciendo un zumbido semejante al rugido del león. El niño llamó a dos de sus camaradas, tomó el fragmento de madera, abrió un agujero en una de sus extremidades, pasó por allí una cuerda y la hizo girar.","pull_quote_translation":"A splinter of acacia wood broke off and flew far away, producing a droning sound like the roar of a lion. The boy called two of his companions, took the fragment of wood, opened a hole in one of its ends, ran a cord through it, and made it spin.","pull_quote_cite":"Jean Servier, El hombre y lo invisible, pp. 136-137","term_gloss":"","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), online collection catalogue, object 16960, МАЭ 1688-57","url":"https://collection.kunstkamera.ru/entity/OBJECT/16960","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20240712104937/https://collection.kunstkamera.ru/entity/OBJECT/16960"},{"citation":"Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), online collection catalogue, object 16961, МАЭ 1688-58"},{"citation":"Jean Servier, El hombre y lo invisible, pp. 136–137"},{"citation":"Leo Frobenius, Auf dem Wege nach Atlantis (Berlin, 1911), campaign field report"}],"source_citations":"Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), online collection catalogue, object 16960, МАЭ 1688-57; Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), online collection catalogue, object 16961, МАЭ 1688-58; Jean Servier, El hombre y lo invisible, pp. 136–137; Leo Frobenius, Auf dem Wege nach Atlantis (Berlin, 1911), campaign field report","source_display":"Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), online collection catalogue, object 16960, МАЭ 1688-57; Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), online collection catalogue, object 16961, МАЭ 1688-58; Jean Servier, El hombre y lo invisible, pp. 136–137; Leo Frobenius, Auf dem Wege nach Atlantis (Berlin…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Pair of eastern Bamana ritual bullroarers: a leaf-shaped wooden blade, 25 × 4.5 × about 2 cm, and a forged tapering iron blade, 17 × 3 × about 0.4 cm, both with cord knotted through the narrow end. A third body for the same voice sits in the musée du quai Branly, Paris: a Bamana roarer cut from the wall of a calabash at Kayes, eleven centimetres across and one thick, its rim notched into teeth, threaded on a single cord, five grams.","function_display":"Catalogued as sacred or ritual roarers; the particular ceremony is not recorded.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"bamana","display_name":"Bamana lion-voice in wood and iron","image":{"full":"assets/objects/KUNST2026-002.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/KUNST2026-002_thumb.jpg","alt":"Forged-iron Bamana bullroarer collected by Leo Frobenius, with a tapering rust-brown blade and a cord through a hole at its narrow end.","credit":"© МАЭ РАН, Кунсткамера (МАЭ № 1688-58)","license":"In copyright — МАЭ РАН (Kunstkamera); rehosted low-res for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://collection.kunstkamera.ru/entity/OBJECT/16961","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Forged-iron Bamana ritual bullroarer collected by Leo Frobenius.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/KUNST2026-001.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/KUNST2026-001_thumb.jpg","credit":"© МАЭ РАН, Кунсткамера (МАЭ № 1688-57)","license":"In copyright — МАЭ РАН (Kunstkamera); rehosted low-res for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://collection.kunstkamera.ru/entity/OBJECT/16960","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The wooden member of the same Bamana pair: a dark leaf-shaped ritual bullroarer collected by Leo Frobenius."},{"full":"assets/objects/mqb/mqb_71-1930-61-86.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/mqb/thumbs/mqb_71-1930-61-86_thumb.jpg","credit":"© musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac (71.1930.61.86)","license":"© musée du quai Branly — rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/?action=search&field=/Record/ObjectNumber&label=N%C2%B0%20de%20gestion&value=71.1930.61.86","rehosted":true,"caption":"A Bamana companion from Kayes, held in Paris at the musée du quai Branly: a serrated calabash disc on its cord."}]},"slug":"kunst2026-001-bamana"}