{"id":"MUS2026-301","label":"Sosom, the giant's voice","people_or_site":"Fly River region","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"Fly River / Western Province","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"Sosom","source_term":"Rhombe","source_language":"French","object_description":"Two fish-shaped wooden Sosom blades from one 1931 acquisition: a 52 cm blade engraved with a mask, circles and sawtooth designs filled with white lime (71.1931.49.22), and a 46.3 cm palette engraved with a two-headed animal, also lime-filled (71.1931.49.21).","function_summary":"Sounded as an ancestor's voice; women were warned away.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"mqb_71_1931_49_21_22","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/?action=search&field=/Record/ObjectNumber&label=N%C2%B0%20de%20gestion&value=71.1931.49.22","page_or_plate":"71.1931.49.21; 71.1931.49.22","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Fly River regional anchor from the exact record.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Two fish-tailed blades came into the Paris collections together in 1931, catalogued to the Fly River with no people named, and with two statements attached: that the roarer sounds as an ancestor's voice, and that women were warned away when it sounded. The name written into the record is heavy on this coast. To the Marind-anim, westward along the shore, sosom is a giant ancestral déma whose voice is the bullroarer — and their own telling has the giant arrive ‘from the Fly river.’ The name, the fish-tail form and the river connect these blades to him.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"Instrument associated with the voice of the ancestors.","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"sosom: the name in the museum record; along this coast it is also the name of a giant déma whose voice is the bullroarer.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","snake","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":true,"sources":[{"citation":"musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 71.1931.49.22 (André Breton and Paul Éluard sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 2 July 1931, lot 69) and 71.1931.49.21","url":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/?action=search&field=/Record/ObjectNumber&label=N%C2%B0%20de%20gestion&value=71.1931.49.22","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013034522/https://collections.quaibranly.fr/?action=search&field=/Record/ObjectNumber&label=N%C2%B0%20de%20gestion&value=71.1931.49.22"}],"source_citations":"musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 71.1931.49.22 (André Breton and Paul Éluard sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 2 July 1931, lot 69) and 71.1931.49.21","source_display":"musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 71.1931.49.22 (André Breton and Paul Éluard sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 2 July 1931, lot 69) and 71.1931.49.21","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Two fish-shaped wooden Sosom blades from one 1931 acquisition: a 52 cm blade engraved with a mask, circles and sawtooth designs filled with white lime (71.1931.49.22), and a 46.3 cm palette engraved with a two-headed animal, also lime-filled (71.1931.49.21).","function_display":"","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"fly river","display_name":"Sosom, the giant's voice","image":{"full":"assets/objects/mqb/mqb_71-1931-49-22.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/mqb/thumbs/mqb_71-1931-49-22_thumb.jpg","credit":"© musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac (71.1931.49.22 / 71.1931.49.21)","license":"© musée du quai Branly — rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/?action=search&field=/Record/ObjectNumber&label=N%C2%B0%20de%20gestion&value=71.1931.49.22","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The longer Sosom blade: mask faces stacked down its length to a fish-tail butt.","last_modified":"2026-09-01","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/mqb/mqb_71-1931-49-21.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/mqb/thumbs/mqb_71-1931-49-21_thumb.jpg","credit":"© musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac","license":"© musée du quai Branly — rehosted for non-commercial research","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The companion palette: a two-headed creature, a face at each end of its body, above a notched fish-tail."}]},"slug":"mus2026-301-people-unrecorded-fly-river-region"}