{"id":"MUS2026-027","label":"Woman-slit-my-ear, the Nevinbur voice","people_or_site":"Malekula (Nevinbur)","country_current":"Vanuatu","historic_region":"Malekula, Vanuatu","macroregion":"Oceania / Melanesia","local_name":"nevin or or ndeling","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Wooden bull-roarer of the Nevinbur society, 29.4 by 10 cm, painted with red transverse bands, on a ten-foot string; MAA Cambridge 1927.2185 (Deacon).","function_summary":"Swung inside the screened enclosure throughout the Nevinbur rites that admit new members, as the voice of Nevinbumbaau; at the coming of dawn or the morning star, all the roarers 'sing out' together.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"maa_cambridge","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/512259","page_or_plate":"MAA 1927.2185 / object 512259; cf. Deacon 1934 (Nevinbur ceremonies, South West Bay); Deacon 1934 pp. 252 n. 1 and 462-463, Pl. XVI item 5","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"approximate culture/locality centroid","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Its name, as Deacon set it down, was \"woman-slit-my-ear\" — the roar a wound a woman's ear was never meant to hear. This red-tailed blade on its cord belonged to the Nevinbur, a secret society of South West Bay, Malekula, whose men brought spirit-puppets to life behind the dancing-ground fence: the grandchildren of Mansip, son-in-law of the ogress Nevinbumbaau, raised and destroyed; Mansip and his two wives speared and burned. Screened from all of that theatre, women were left only the voice — and the name records what the voice cost them.","pull_quote":"Nevinbumbaau is essentially connected with the bull-roarer (Pl. XVI, 5; c.f. f.n., p. 252), for she is the wife of Ambat Malondr, and the noise of this instrument is her voice crooning her child, Sasndaliep, to sleep. The whirring of the bull-roarer is the secret sound of this society, and is very ileo.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"A. B. Deacon, Malekula: A Vanishing People in the New Hebrides (1934), p. 462","term_gloss":"nevin or or ndeling — \"the female ear-slitter\", or \"woman slitting ear\". Nevinbur (Nivivbur in the museum register) — the most sacred secret society of Seniang, South West Bay, Malekula.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","initiation","death_rebirth","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"etymology":"The bullroarer of the Nevinbur, the secret society of South West Bay, Malekula, carries the local name nevin or or ndeling, which its collector A.B. Deacon glossed 'woman-slit-my-ear'.","literal_gloss":"woman-slit-my-ear","semantic_cluster":"secret_term; sound; clan_or_ritual_office","etymology_confidence":"high","sources":[{"citation":"MAA Cambridge 1927.2185, bullroarer of the Nivivbur society, collected by A. B. Deacon at Seniang, South West Bay, Malekula; A. B. Deacon, Malekula: A Vanishing People in the New Hebrides, ed. C. H. Wedgwood (London: Routledge, 1934), pp. 252 n. 1, 461-467 and Pl. XVI, 5; John Layard, Stone Men of Malekula (London: Chatto & Windus, 1942), p. 494 n. 2","url":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/512259","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013020216/https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/512259"}],"source_citations":"MAA Cambridge 1927.2185, bullroarer of the Nivivbur society, collected by A. B. Deacon at Seniang, South West Bay, Malekula; A. B. Deacon, Malekula: A Vanishing People in the New Hebrides, ed. C. H. Wedgwood (London: Routledge, 1934), pp. 252 n. 1, 461-467 and Pl. XVI, 5; John Layard, Stone Men of Malekula (London: Chatto & Windus, 1942), p. 494 n. 2","source_display":"MAA Cambridge 1927.2185, bullroarer of the Nivivbur society, collected by A. B. Deacon at Seniang, South West Bay, Malekula; A. B. Deacon, Malekula: A Vanishing People in the New Hebrides, ed. C. H. Wedgwood (London: Routledge, 1934), pp. 252 n. 1, 461-467 and Pl. XVI, 5; John Layard, Stone Men of Malekula (London: Chatto & Windus, 1942), p. 494 n. 2","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Wooden bull-roarer of the Nevinbur society, 29.4 by 10 cm, painted with red transverse bands, on a ten-foot string; MAA Cambridge 1927.2185 (Deacon).","function_display":"Swung inside the screened enclosure throughout the Nevinbur rites that admit new members, as the voice of Nevinbumbaau; at the coming of dawn or the morning star, all the roarers 'sing out' together.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"malekula","display_name":"Woman-slit-my-ear, the Nevinbur voice","image":{"full":"assets/objects/local_review/MUS2026-027_deacon1934_plate_xvi.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/local_review/MUS2026-027_deacon1934_plate_xvi_thumb.jpg","alt":"Deacon’s Plate XVI: the wrapped Nevinbur bullroarer, item 5 at far right, beside mounted effigies including Mansip and his two wives.","credit":"A. B. Deacon, Malekula: A Vanishing People (1934), Plate XVI, item 5","license":"","source_page":"https://www.odsas.net/object/86552","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The Nevinbur bullroarer (5, far right) beside effigies of Mansip and his two wives; Deacon, Plate XVI."},"slug":"mus2026-027-malekula-nivivbur"}