{"id":"MUS2026-078","label":"Urama kaiaimunu, voices and mothers","people_or_site":"Urama","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"Gulf Province (Urama Island)","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"kaiaimunu","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Snorrebot / bull-roarer of the Urama, Wereldmuseum / NMVW TM-2670-364.","function_summary":"Small kaiaimunu were swung to sound; the larger, more powerful “mothers” were kept in the skull shrine and handled secretly by a few old men.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"wereldmuseum","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/86777","page_or_plate":"Newton 1961, pp. 19–20; Wirz 1937, pp. 408–409; Schultze-Westrum 2013, pp. 187–188; TM-2670-364","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"approximate culture/locality centroid","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In the eastern Delta of the Papuan Gulf, among the Urama, only the small kaiaimunu were swung: plain blades that made the voice. The larger ones were their “mothers.” Wrapped in bundles of pandanus leaves, they lay on the floor behind the row of kope boards in the skull shrine, and they were very powerful: the older a bullroarer, the more it held of imunu, magical power of the highest quality. The mothers could be handled only by a few old men, in secret, and they never left the ceremonial longhouse. Along the Era River the same name belonged to huge basketry creatures that kept bullroarers inside as their voices.","pull_quote":"The mothers can be handled only by some old men in secrecy","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Thomas Schultze-Westrum, in Michael Hamson (ed.), Collecting New Guinea Art (2013)","term_gloss":"Kaiaimunu names bullroarers in the Urama–Gope–Era region; Era basketry creatures share the name.","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":"Kaiaimunu names the bullroarer among Urama and neighbouring Gulf peoples. Era basketry creatures share the name and contain instruments as their voices. Schultze-Westrum distinguishes small sounding blades from powerful, secretly kept “mother” blades.","literal_gloss":"","semantic_cluster":"sacred_object; spirit_voice","etymology_confidence":"high","sources":[{"citation":"Wereldmuseum, TM-2670-364","url":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/86777"},{"citation":"Douglas Newton, Art Styles of the Papuan Gulf (1961), pp. 19–20","url":"https://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16028coll15/id/2174/","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20251118005357/https://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16028coll15/id/2174/"},{"citation":"Paul Wirz, 'The Kaiamunu-Ebiha-Gi Cult in the Delta-Region and Western Division of Papua', JRAI 67 (1937), pp. 408–409","url":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/2844146","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20250916031853/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2844146"},{"citation":"Thomas Schultze-Westrum, 'Bullroarers, Kaiaimunu', in Collecting New Guinea Art, ed. Michael Hamson (2013), pp. 187–188","url":"https://oceanicart.com/Oceanic-%26-New-Guinea-Art-Exhibition-Publications/Collecting-New-Guinea-Art-Oceanic-Tribal-Art/1/","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20240102103310/https://oceanicart.com/Oceanic-%26-New-Guinea-Art-Exhibition-Publications/Collecting-New-Guinea-Art-Oceanic-Tribal-Art/1/"}],"source_citations":"Wereldmuseum, TM-2670-364; Douglas Newton, Art Styles of the Papuan Gulf (1961), pp. 19–20; Paul Wirz, 'The Kaiamunu-Ebiha-Gi Cult in the Delta-Region and Western Division of Papua', JRAI 67 (1937), pp. 408–409; Thomas Schultze-Westrum, 'Bullroarers, Kaiaimunu', in Collecting New Guinea Art, ed. Michael Hamson (2013), pp. 187–188","source_display":"Wereldmuseum, TM-2670-364; Douglas Newton, Art Styles of the Papuan Gulf (1961), pp. 19–20; Paul Wirz, 'The Kaiamunu-Ebiha-Gi Cult in the Delta-Region and Western Division of Papua', JRAI 67 (1937), pp. 408–409; Thomas Schultze-Westrum, 'Bullroarers, Kaiaimunu', in Collecting New Guinea Art, ed. Michael Hamson (2013), pp. 187–188","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Snorrebot / bull-roarer of the Urama, Wereldmuseum / NMVW TM-2670-364.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"urama","display_name":"Urama kaiaimunu, voices and mothers","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/wereldmuseum_141.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/wereldmuseum_141_thumb.jpg","alt":"Long wooden Urama blade with a pale incised design near one end and a short cord loop tied through a hole at that end.","credit":"Wereldmuseum / NMVW (acc. TM-2670-364)","license":"","source_page":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/86777","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Urama bull-roarer — Wereldmuseum / NMVW (TM-2670-364)."},"slug":"mus2026-078-urama"}