{"id":"MATHEWS1900-001","label":"Western Cape York pipe-ra-chy initiation bullroarer","people_or_site":"Tjungundji (Mathews's Joonkoonjee) and neighbouring western Cape York tribes","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Western Cape York Peninsula / Batavia (Wenlock) River","macroregion":"Australia","local_name":"pipe-ra-chy","source_term":"pipe-ra-chy","source_language":"English","object_description":"Bloodwood blade about sixteen to twenty inches long, holed at the narrow end for a long string; often painted with one lengthwise and several crosswise bars of red ochre on one or both sides.","function_summary":"Swung round the operator's head at the inaugural (initiation) ceremonies, in which youths are scarred, nose-pierced, and have a front tooth punched out over at least three tribal meetings.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"mathews1900_capeyork_piperachy","source_type":"journal_article","source_url":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Journal_and_proceedings_of_the_Royal_Society_of_New_South_Wales_%28IA_journalproceedi341900roya%29.pdf","page_or_plate":"printed p. 134 (appendix pp. 131-135)","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Mapoon / Batavia (Wenlock) River anchor — Mathews's best-documented Joonkoonjee (Tjungundji) locality; the attestation covers a cluster of ten named western Cape York tribes.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"On western Cape York a youth's making stretched over years: at not less than three great meetings of the tribes, scars were raised on his body, his septum pierced, and a front tooth punched out. At these gatherings sounded the pipe-ra-chy, a bloodwood blade swung round the operator's head, its sides often barred with red ochre. Until he had graduated through it all, a man could not take a wife or sit in the councils of the men. Mathews knew the ceremonies best among the Tjungundji of the Batavia River, near Mapoon.","pull_quote":"A 'bullroarer,' called by the natives pipe-ra-chy, is used by the tribes on these occasions; it is generally made of bloodwood, of the usual shape, with a hole drilled in the smaller end, through which a long string is fastened, to enable the operator to swing it round his head.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"R. H. Mathews, 'Marriage and Descent among the Australian Aborigines,' Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 34 (1900), p. 134","term_gloss":"pipe-ra-chy: the name Mathews records among western Cape York tribes for the initiation bullroarer; no literal gloss given.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["initiation"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"R. H. Mathews, 'Marriage and Descent among the Australian Aborigines,' Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 34 (1900), appendix 'Some Tribes of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland,' pp. 131-135, at p. 134","url":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Journal_and_proceedings_of_the_Royal_Society_of_New_South_Wales_%28IA_journalproceedi341900roya%29.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20250713055250/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Journal_and_proceedings_of_the_Royal_Society_of_New_South_Wales_%28IA_journalproceedi341900roya%29.pdf"}],"source_citations":"R. H. Mathews, 'Marriage and Descent among the Australian Aborigines,' Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 34 (1900), appendix 'Some Tribes of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland,' pp. 131-135, at p. 134","source_display":"R. H. Mathews, 'Marriage and Descent among the Australian Aborigines,' Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 34 (1900), appendix 'Some Tribes of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland,' pp. 131-135, at p. 134","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bloodwood blade about sixteen to twenty inches long, holed at the narrow end for a long string; often painted with one lengthwise and several crosswise bars of red ochre on one or both sides.","function_display":"Swung round the operator's head at the inaugural (initiation) ceremonies, in which youths are scarred, nose-pierced, and have a front tooth punched out over at least three tribal meetings.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"tjungundji","display_name":"Western Cape York pipe-ra-chy initiation bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/EXH2026-048_haddon1901_fig24_umbalako.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/EXH2026-048_haddon1901_fig24_umbalako_thumb.jpg","alt":"Haddon's plate depicts two small painted umbalako blades hanging from long slender sticks, with their cords looping loosely around the sticks.","credit":"A. C. Haddon, Head-Hunters: Black, White, and Brown (1901), fig. 24, p. 191 — via archive.org","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/headhuntersblack00hadduoft","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Haddon's own drawing of two painted umbalako swinging from their sticks","pool_id":"auto-EXH2026-048_haddon1901_fig24_umbalako","auto_assigned":true},"slug":"mathews1900-001-tjungundji-mathews-s-joonkoonjee-and-neighbouring-western-cape-york-tribes"}