{"id":"NAMER-014","label":"Ingalik (Deg Hit'an)","people_or_site":"Ingalik (Deg Hit'an), lower Yukon / Innoko River, interior Alaska","country_current":"United States (Alaska)","historic_region":"Deg Hit'an (Ingalik) territory, lower Yukon and Innoko rivers, Anvik-Shageluk-Holy Cross region, interior Alaska","macroregion":"North America / Subarctic","local_name":"","source_term":"bull roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A narrow strip of spruce about a foot long with serrated edges, pierced at one end where a roughly six-foot babiche (rawhide) line is fastened, whipped around the head to produce a loud burr.","function_summary":"A boys' noisemaking toy: a serrated spruce slat whirled on a long rawhide cord.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"completeness_sweep_2026","source_type":"ethnographic_literature","source_url":"https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-ANT-050129","page_or_plate":"YPM ANT 050129 (museum catalog record); Osgood 1940, commonly cited at ca. pp. 257-258","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"approximate territory centroid (anchored on Anvik, on the lower Yukon, the principal Deg Hit'an village and Osgood's fieldwork base; Anvik 62.656 N, 160.207 W)","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Deg Hit'an (Ingalik) of the lower Yukon, the bull roarer was a boys' toy. Cornelius Osgood, working out of Anvik in the mid-1930s, described it as a narrow strip of spruce about a foot long with serrated edges, pierced at one end so a six-foot rawhide line could be tied through it; a boy would whip it around his head to raise a loud burr. One such roarer, made at Anvik by Billy Williams, survives in the Yale Peabody Museum. In this corner of subarctic Alaska the roaring slat belonged to the boys.","pull_quote":"Made of spruce wood with a rawhide line attached at one end. Used only as a toy by small boys. Made by Billy Williams at Anvik, Alaska.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Yale Peabody Museum, Division of Anthropology, catalog record YPM ANT 050129, \"Bull Roarer\" (Deg Hit'an, Northern Athapaskan).","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":"Cornelius Osgood, Ingalik Material Culture, Yale University Publications in Anthropology No. 22 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940), describing a boys' spruce bull roarer on a babiche line; an associated specimen survives as Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology, catalog YPM ANT 050129 (Deg Hit'an, Northern Athapaskan; bull roarer made by Billy Williams at Anvik, Alaska). Osgood wording also quoted in F. Riede, S. Lew-Levy, N. N. Johannsen, N. Lavi & M. Andersen, \"Toys as Teachers: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Object Use and Enskillment in Hunter-Gatherer Societies,\" Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 30 (2023)","url":"https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-ANT-050129","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013024337/https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-ANT-050129"}],"source_citations":"Cornelius Osgood, Ingalik Material Culture, Yale University Publications in Anthropology No. 22 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940), describing a boys' spruce bull roarer on a babiche line; an associated specimen survives as Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology, catalog YPM ANT 050129 (Deg Hit'an, Northern Athapaskan; bull roarer made by Billy Williams at Anvik, Alaska). Osgood wording also quoted in F. Riede, S. Lew-Levy, N. N. Johannsen, N. Lavi & M. Andersen, \"Toys as Teachers: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Object Use and Enskillment in Hunter-Gatherer Societies,\" Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 30 (2023)","source_display":"Cornelius Osgood, Ingalik Material Culture, Yale University Publications in Anthropology No. 22 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940), describing a boys' spruce bull roarer on a babiche line; an associated specimen survives as Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology, catalog YPM ANT 050129 (Deg Hit'an, Northern Athapaskan; bull…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A narrow strip of spruce about a foot long with serrated edges, pierced at one end where a roughly six-foot babiche (rawhide) line is fastened, whipped around the head to produce a loud burr.","function_display":"A boys' noisemaking toy: a serrated spruce slat whirled on a long rawhide cord.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"ingalik","display_name":"Ingalik (Deg Hit'an)","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/ypm_ANT050129.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/ypm_ANT050129_thumb.jpg","alt":"Deg Hit’an (Ingalik) bull-roarer made by Billy Williams at Anvik, Alaska: a pale spruce blade with saw-toothed edges and a rawhide line wound around and across the blade.","credit":"Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (YPM ANT 050129)","license":"CC0","source_page":"https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-ANT-050129","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Deg Hit'an (Ingalik) bull-roarer, spruce with rawhide line, made by Billy Williams at Anvik, Alaska — the documented object."},"slug":"namer-014-ingalik-deg-hit-an-lower-yukon-innoko-river-interior-alaska"}