{"id":"NAAIN-017","label":"Eastern Cherokee Birdtown children's bullroarer","people_or_site":"Eastern Band Cherokee / Birdtown","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"North Carolina / Qualla Boundary / Birdtown","macroregion":"North America / Eastern Woodlands","local_name":"","source_term":"roarer; typical bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Narrow poplar board fastened to a long string by a hole at one end; swung around the head to make a deep roaring note.","function_summary":"Cherokee children's toy bullroarer, explicitly distinguished from a separate two-hole buzzer.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"parris_whistle_making_time_near_birdtown","source_type":"newspaper_column_reprint_pdf","source_url":"https://www.mymountainfolks.com/Articles/Whistle-Making_Time_Near.pdf","page_or_plate":"PDF p. 1","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Birdtown populated-place/community anchor from TopoZone/GNIS; Parris gives Birdtown as the column heading but no sub-community use site or collection location.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Eastern Cherokee of Birdtown, on the Qualla Boundary in the North Carolina mountains, the \"roarer\" was a child's plaything rather than a secret of the men's house: a narrow length of poplar bored with a single hole, fastened to a long string, and swung in fast circles around the head until its beveled edges threw off \"a deep, roaring note.\" John Parris, chronicling the old toys that Cherokee boys once made alongside willow whistles and elderberry popguns, carefully sets the roarer apart from the \"buzzer\" — a notched disc of soft wood or gourd strung through two central holes and spun between the hands. The one-hole board on its cord is, in his words, \"a typical bull-roarer,\" and unlike the sacred roarers of Australia or the Papuan Gulf, this one carries no spirit voice and no taboo: it is simply a toy that has now, like most of the old Cherokee playthings, all but disappeared.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"John Parris, \"Whistle-Making Time Near,\" Mountain Bred column (Asheville Citizen-Times)","term_gloss":"","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"John Parris, \"Whistle-Making Time Near,\" Mountain Bred column, Asheville Citizen-Times, reprinted by My Mountain Folks, PDF p. 1","url":"https://www.mymountainfolks.com/Articles/Whistle-Making_Time_Near.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013023908/https://www.mymountainfolks.com/Articles/Whistle-Making_Time_Near.pdf"}],"source_citations":"John Parris, \"Whistle-Making Time Near,\" Mountain Bred column, Asheville Citizen-Times, reprinted by My Mountain Folks, PDF p. 1","source_display":"John Parris, \"Whistle-Making Time Near,\" Mountain Bred column, Asheville Citizen-Times, reprinted by My Mountain Folks, PDF p. 1","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Narrow poplar board fastened to a long string by a hole at one end; swung around the head to make a deep roaring note.","function_display":"Cherokee children's toy bullroarer, explicitly distinguished from a separate two-hole buzzer.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"eastern band","display_name":"Eastern Cherokee Birdtown children's bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/NAAIN-004_nmnh_E391849_rappahannock.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/NAAIN-004_nmnh_E391849_rappahannock_thumb.jpg","alt":"Rappahannock wooden bullroarer with shallow notches along both long edges and cord wound around its middle, leaving a loose loop above.","credit":"Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution (USNM E391849-0)","license":"Usage Conditions Apply (Smithsonian)","source_page":"https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8422197","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Rappahannock bullroarer, Virginia.","pool_id":"auto-NAAIN-004_nmnh_E391849_rappahannock"},"slug":"naain-017-eastern-band-cherokee-birdtown"}