{"id":"NAMER-011","label":"Northern Paiute toy-and-charm bullroarer","people_or_site":"Northern Paiute, Utah","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Utah","macroregion":"North America / Great Basin","local_name":"","source_term":"Toy and charm to drive away evil spirits; bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Bullroarer: a worked wood handle with a red-pigmented, serrated paddle attached by a twisted cord; overall 16.6 x 3.5 x 0.7 cm. Wood, vegetable fibre, and pigment.","function_summary":"Both a child's toy and a charm to drive away evil spirits; possibly connected with the Bear Dance.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"PEABODY_76_20_10_9421","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://collections.peabody.harvard.edu/objects/details/8767","page_or_plate":"Peabody Museum object 76-20-10/9421","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Utah state-level representative anchor; the catalog gives the people (Northern Paiute) and the state but no exact locality.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A Northern Paiute bullroarer from Utah that is two things at once: a child's toy and a charm to drive away evil spirits. A worked wooden handle carries a red-pigmented, serrated paddle on a twisted cord, about seventeen centimetres overall, and it may belong to the Bear Dance. The botanist Edward Palmer collected it around 1875; it is now at Harvard's Peabody Museum, which keeps the object's image restricted.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard, object 76-20-10/9421; Northern Paiute, Utah; collected by Edward Palmer, Peabody Museum Expedition, 1875","url":"https://collections.peabody.harvard.edu/objects/details/8767"}],"source_citations":"Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard, object 76-20-10/9421; Northern Paiute, Utah; collected by Edward Palmer, Peabody Museum Expedition, 1875","source_display":"Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard, object 76-20-10/9421; Northern Paiute, Utah; collected by Edward Palmer, Peabody Museum Expedition, 1875","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bullroarer: a worked wood handle with a red-pigmented, serrated paddle attached by a twisted cord; overall 16.6 x 3.5 x 0.7 cm. Wood, vegetable fibre, and pigment.","function_display":"Both a child's toy and a charm to drive away evil spirits; possibly connected with the Bear Dance.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"northern paiute","display_name":"Northern Paiute toy-and-charm bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/finna_vk4834_411.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/finna_vk4834_411_thumb.jpg","alt":"Mesa Verde Ruin 14 deer-bone bullroarer with terminal hole and incised lines.","credit":"Finnish Heritage Agency / National Museum of Finland (VK4834:411), via Finna","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"https://www.finna.fi/Record/museovirasto.17F4ECF5450D702E586AA5B520CF263A","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Mesa Verde Ruin 14 deer-bone bullroarer with terminal hole and incised lines.","pool_id":"american-west-mesa-verde-bone","last_modified":"2026-08-11"},"slug":"namer-011-northern-paiute-utah"}