{"id":"MUS2026-214","label":"Oyo palm-midrib bullroarer pair","people_or_site":"Yoruba (Oyo)","country_current":"Nigeria","historic_region":"Oyo, Nigeria","macroregion":"Africa / West Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"Bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Two bullroarers: one a slim, pointed blade cut from a palm-leaf midrib, 226 x 18 mm, with its cord wrapped around the shaft; the other wooden, 196 x 40 mm, on a long twisted-hide thong.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"prm_1926_91_21_22_oyo_pair","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39582","page_or_plate":"PRM 1926.91.21 (prm-object-39582); PRM 1926.91.22","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Oyo town anchor from the record's sole geographical field; no quarter, compound, findspot or use site is recorded, and the field collector is unknown, so the point locates the town named on the accession.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"At Oyo they tell how Oro and Egungun were once inseparable friends who went out into the world to seek their fortune. Egungun saved what he made and came home in splendour, a homecoming still re-enacted at egungun festivals. Oro squandered his, and came home poor, by night, naked but for a flat board on a string hanging from his neck, and with it he made a weird buzzing that filled everyone with terror. The Alaafin gave him into the keeping of the head of Jabata village, who was to let no woman see his nakedness; so Oro became the Alaafin's own deity. Palm leaf took the place of wood in one member of this Oyo pair. The midrib makes a long, slim shaft, while its companion keeps the more familiar form of a wooden blade on a twisted-hide thong.","pull_quote":"'Bullroarer' of palm mid-rib.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Pitt Rivers Museum 1926.91.21, object description","term_gloss":"","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 1926.91.21 and 1926.91.22 (Yoruba, Oyo; purchased from S. G. Hewlett, 1926)","url":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39582","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260917174840/https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39582"}],"source_citations":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 1926.91.21 and 1926.91.22 (Yoruba, Oyo; purchased from S. G. Hewlett, 1926)","source_display":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 1926.91.21 and 1926.91.22 (Yoruba, Oyo; purchased from S. G. Hewlett, 1926)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Two bullroarers: one a slim, pointed blade cut from a palm-leaf midrib, 226 x 18 mm, with its cord wrapped around the shaft; the other wooden, 196 x 40 mm, on a long twisted-hide thong.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"yoruba","display_name":"Oyo palm-midrib bullroarer pair","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-214_mus2026-214-prm-1926-91-21.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-214_mus2026-214-prm-1926-91-21_thumb.jpg","alt":"Yoruba palm-midrib bullroarer from Oyo: a single long narrow blade with a squared end and pointed opposite tip, its cord wound around the middle.","credit":"© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, 1926.91.21","license":"Rights reserved (© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford); rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://prd-online.glamdigital.io/v2/item/prm-object-39582","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Palm-midrib bullroarer, Yoruba, Oyo, before 1926."},"slug":"mus2026-214-yoruba-oyo"}