{"id":"NAMER-020","label":"Tübatulabal ku·lišt, the yucca-stalk plaything","people_or_site":"Tübatulabal","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Upper Kern River and South Fork Kern River drainages, Kern River Valley, southern Sierra Nevada, Kern County, California","macroregion":"North America / California","local_name":"ku·lišt","source_term":"","source_language":"English","object_description":"An 8–10 inch section of dried, split Spanish-bayonet (Yucca whipplei) flower stalk, tied at its centre to a four-foot length of native twine; no stick handle.","function_summary":"Boys' toy; also whirled to attract birds when hunting.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"completeness_sweep_2026","source_type":"ethnographic_literature","source_url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar002-002.pdf","page_or_plate":"Voegelin 1938, UC Anthropological Records 2(1): 15, 36, 48; Hopkins et al. 2012: 136","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"approximate territory centroid (Kern River Valley / Lake Isabella basin, around the junction of the North Fork and South Fork Kern River near Weldon, Onyx and Kernville, the demographic core of Tübatulabal territory)","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Its name gives the game away: ku·lišt, “instrument for playing.” Tübatulabal boys of the upper Kern River cut it from the dried flower stalk of the Spanish bayonet, a yucca of the foothill and desert slopes, split it, and tied four feet of native twine to an eight- to ten-inch section — at the centre, so oddly that Voegelin added a “sic.” There was no handle; a boy simply whirled the cord. Whirled, the slat could also draw birds in to the hunter.","pull_quote":"Bull-roarer (ku·lišt, lit., instrument for playing, i.e., toy) made from stalk of Spanish bayonet … attached at center (sic) to 4-ft. length of native twine; stick handle lacking. Boys' toy.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Erminie W. Voegelin, \"Tübatulabal Ethnography,\" UC Anthropological Records 2(1) (1938), p. 36","term_gloss":"ku·lišt — literally “instrument for playing,” i.e. a toy (Voegelin 1938, p. 36). The Spanish bayonet is kuyat; its centre stalk, kuya'dibï·l, was “used in manufacture of bull-roarer” (Voegelin 1938, p. 15).","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":"Erminie W. Voegelin, “Tübatulabal Ethnography,” University of California Anthropological Records 2(1) (1938): 1–90, pp. 15, 36.","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar002-002.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200728002702/https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar002-002.pdf"},{"citation":"Jerry N. Hopkins, Gerrit L. Fenenga, Alan P. Garfinkel, Samantha Riding-Red-Horse and Donna Miranda-Begay, “Further Reflections on California Rain-Making Shamanism: ‘The Other Half’ of the Tübatulabal Shaman’s Rain-Making Bundle,” Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 32(2) (2012): 127–140, p. 136.","url":"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284551711_Further_Reflections_on_California_Rain-Making_Shamanism_The_Other_Half_of_the_Tubatulabal_Shaman%27s_Rain-Making_Bundle"}],"source_citations":"Erminie W. Voegelin, “Tübatulabal Ethnography,” University of California Anthropological Records 2(1) (1938): 1–90, pp. 15, 36.; Jerry N. Hopkins, Gerrit L. Fenenga, Alan P. Garfinkel, Samantha Riding-Red-Horse and Donna Miranda-Begay, “Further Reflections on California Rain-Making Shamanism: ‘The Other Half’ of the Tübatulabal Shaman’s Rain-Making Bundle,” Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 32(2) (2012): 127–140, p. 136.","source_display":"Erminie W. Voegelin, “Tübatulabal Ethnography,” University of California Anthropological Records 2(1) (1938): 1–90, pp. 15, 36.; Jerry N. Hopkins, Gerrit L. Fenenga, Alan P. Garfinkel, Samantha Riding-Red-Horse and Donna Miranda-Begay, “Further Reflections on California Rain-Making Shamanism: ‘The Other Half’ of the Tübatulabal Shaman’s Rain-Making…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"An 8–10 inch section of dried, split Spanish-bayonet (Yucca whipplei) flower stalk, tied at its centre to a four-foot length of native twine; no stick handle.","function_display":"Boys' toy; also whirled to attract birds when hunting.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"batulabal","display_name":"Tübatulabal ku·lišt, the yucca-stalk plaything","image":{"full":"assets/objects/LOEB1929-021_hearst_chukchansi_1-4035.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/LOEB1929-021_hearst_chukchansi_1-4035_thumb.jpg","alt":"Chukchansi wimias collected by Kroeber at Picayune Rancheria in 1904: a long flat wooden bullroarer with a broad rounded end and cord tied through its narrow tip.","credit":"Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley (1-4035)","license":"© Hearst Museum of Anthropology, UC Berkeley","source_page":"https://portal.hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/catalog/da7d2cec-016c-42b2-ae94-4f13133e6b0d","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Chukchansi wimias collected by Kroeber at Picayune Rancheria in 1904.","pool_id":"auto-LOEB1929-021_hearst_chukchansi_1-4035"},"slug":"namer-020-tubatulabal"}