{"id":"MINE2026-075","label":"Elko and Battle Mountain Shoshoni wind bullroarer","people_or_site":"Elko and Battle Mountain Shoshoni","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Elko and Battle Mountain, Humboldt River, Nevada","macroregion":"North America / Great Basin","local_name":"nui; tsahanunu","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"At Battle Mountain, a whirrer made from an antelope patella, hung on a string from a stick handle and called tsahanunu; Steward gives no description of the Elko instrument.","function_summary":"At Elko, anyone could use the bullroarer in early spring to bring warm wind; at Battle Mountain, boys used it in hot weather to make the wind blow.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"STEWARD1941_NEVADA_SHOSHONI_ELKO","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/84152/files/ucar004-003.pdf","page_or_plate":"p. 347, item 1874; description printed p. 250","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Elko anchor for a two-town Humboldt River attestation (Elko and Battle Mountain); Steward gives town-level localities only.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Along the Humboldt River, the Nevada Shoshoni swung the bullroarer at the weather from both ends of the year. At Elko, anyone might sound one in early spring to bring the warm wind; downstream at Battle Mountain, boys swung theirs in hot weather to set the air moving. Yet the Elko name for it, nui, is the word for play.","pull_quote":"[The bull-roarer] was used in some localities to produce a warm wind that would dispel snow.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Steward, Culture Element Distributions: XIII, Nevada Shoshoni (1941), p. 262","term_gloss":"nui (Elko) and tsahanunu (Battle Mountain). Nui means 'play', as in nui dua, 'play child', a Shoshoni name for a clay doll.","cls":"weather","class_label":"Weather / fertility magic","color":"#2F6FA3","is_candidate":false,"flags":["weather"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Julian H. Steward, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIII, Nevada Shoshoni,' Anthropological Records 4:2 (1941), p. 250 and p. 347, element 1874","url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/84152/files/ucar004-003.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013012733/https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/84152/files/ucar004-003.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Julian H. Steward, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIII, Nevada Shoshoni,' Anthropological Records 4:2 (1941), p. 250 and p. 347, element 1874","source_display":"Julian H. Steward, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIII, Nevada Shoshoni,' Anthropological Records 4:2 (1941), p. 250 and p. 347, element 1874","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"At Battle Mountain, a whirrer made from an antelope patella, hung on a string from a stick handle and called tsahanunu; Steward gives no description of the Elko instrument.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"elko","display_name":"Elko and Battle Mountain Shoshoni wind bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/HAD1898-009_penn-na10426.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/HAD1898-009_penn-na10426_thumb.jpg","alt":"Point Barrow bone bullroarer with short rows of sawtooth notches near its narrow end, linked by sinew to a long wooden handle.","credit":"Object NA10426. Courtesy of the Penn Museum","license":"Penn Museum terms — research/educational use with credit; rehost low-res","source_page":"https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/112178","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Point Barrow bone blade on sinew beside its wooden handle","pool_id":"auto-HAD1898-009_penn-na10426"},"slug":"mine2026-075-elko-and-battle-mountain-shoshoni"}