{"id":"MUS2026-390","label":"Walembale, roarer of its own rite","people_or_site":"Wosera Abelam (Kwanimbandu village)","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"Kwanimbandu, Wosera, south of Maprik, East Sepik Province","macroregion":"Oceania / New Guinea","local_name":"walembale","source_term":"Walembale Schwirrholz; \"walembale bullroarer\"","source_language":"German; English","object_description":"A 41 cm wooden blade painted in bands of red, yellow and white, with a waisted, pierced head ending in two short prongs (MKB Vb 16535).","function_summary":"Sounded in the ceremonies called walembale, after the instrument.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"mkb_vb_16535_kwanimbandu","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/","page_or_plate":"MKB Vb 16535 (inventory card with mounted photograph); Bestandesliste 2022 PDF p. 1739","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Wosera (GeoNames PPL), the district the card names in brackets; Kwanimbandu itself was not found in GeoNames or OpenStreetMap.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Walembale was the name of the bullroarer and of the ceremony it sounded in. Anthony Forge bought it during his first fieldwork among the Abelam, in 1958 and 1959, at Kwanimbandu in the Wosera, the country of the southern Abelam south of Maprik. The blade is painted in bands of red, yellow and white, and its head is cut into a collar and two short prongs, like ears, with the cord tied through below them.","pull_quote":"Walembale bullroarer, used in ceremonies of the same name.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Anthony Forge, field note on the Museum der Kulturen Basel inventory card for Vb 16535","term_gloss":"walembale - the bullroarer and the ceremony in which it was used (Forge).","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, Vb 16535, Schwirrholz \"walembale\", Kwanimbandu (Wosera), coll. Anthony Forge","url":"https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261014144522/https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/"},{"citation":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, Bestandesliste Vb Melanesien (2022), Vb 16535","url":"https://www.mkb.ch/docroot/pdf/MKB-Bestandesliste-Vb-Melanesien_2022_234-MB.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20240407015638/https://www.mkb.ch/docroot/pdf/MKB-Bestandesliste-Vb-Melanesien_2022_234-MB.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, Vb 16535, Schwirrholz \"walembale\", Kwanimbandu (Wosera), coll. Anthony Forge; Museum der Kulturen Basel, Bestandesliste Vb Melanesien (2022), Vb 16535","source_display":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, Vb 16535, Schwirrholz \"walembale\", Kwanimbandu (Wosera), coll. Anthony Forge; Museum der Kulturen Basel, Bestandesliste Vb Melanesien (2022), Vb 16535","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A 41 cm wooden blade painted in bands of red, yellow and white, with a waisted, pierced head ending in two short prongs (MKB Vb 16535).","function_display":"Sounded in the ceremonies called walembale, after the instrument.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"wosera abelam","display_name":"Walembale, roarer of its own rite","image":{"full":"assets/objects/rowing_2026_11_12/MUS2026-390_mkb_vb16535.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/rowing_2026_11_12/thumbs/MUS2026-390_mkb_vb16535_thumb.jpg","alt":"Black-and-white photograph of a narrow pointed wooden blade painted in light and dark bands, with a collared head ending in two short prongs at the left and a cord looped from the collar.","credit":"Museum der Kulturen Basel (Vb 16535, coll. Anthony Forge)","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The walembale from Kwanimbandu, painted in bands, its two-pronged head tied to its cord."},"slug":"mus2026-390-wosera-abelam-kwanimbandu-village"}