{"id":"PARKINSON1907-001","label":"A spirit's voice at circumcision festivals","people_or_site":"Witu (Vitu / French) Islanders","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"French Islands (Französische Inseln), German New Guinea; now the Vitu / Witu Islands, West New Britain Province","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"","source_term":"Schwirrholz","source_language":"German","object_description":"Thin lanceolate wooden blade, 24-30 cm long and 4-5 cm wide, on a single cord about three metres long tied to a rod of four to five metres; swung in circles, never seen ornamented.","function_summary":"Sounded at circumcision festivals as a spirit's voice; on Ghulu two bullroarer signals opened the Kakaparagha rite, the second sending the Miri dancers out. Kept in the men's houses, out of women's sight.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"parkinson1907_dreissig_jahre","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/dreissigjahreind00parkuoft/page/n763/mode/1up","page_or_plate":"pp. 640-641; Balane 1995, printed pp. 129-130","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Vitu (Witu) island-group anchor between Garove and Unea; Parkinson writes of the French Islands as a group and names no island or village.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"The harder the rod was swung, the louder the spirit called. In the Witu Islands — the French Islands of German New Guinea — a thin lance-shaped blade about the length of a forearm flew in circles on some three metres of cord, tied to a whippy rod of four or five metres. At circumcision festivals its hum was taken for the voice of a spirit that women were forbidden ever to see; between festivals the blades were stowed carefully in the men's houses, out of women's sight. On Ghulu Island, the Kakaparagha ritual began its public turn with two bullroarer signals: the second sent the Miri singers and dancers out, sometimes for a boy's circumcision, sometimes to honour a dead elder. Parkinson, who spent thirty years in the archipelago, never saw one ornamented: a plain working blade carried the voice.","pull_quote":"Charakteristisch ist ferner für diese ganze Gegend des westlichen Neupommerns, daß bei den Beschneidungsfestlichkeiten das Schwirrholz eine bedeutende Rolle spielt und wie in Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land und auf Bougainville als die Stimme eines Geistes angesehen wird, dessen Anblick den Weibern auf jeden Fall verboten ist.","pull_quote_translation":"Characteristic, further, of this whole region of western New Pomerania is that at the circumcision festivities the bullroarer plays a major role and, as in Kaiser Wilhelm Land and on Bougainville, is regarded as the voice of a spirit whose sight is in every case forbidden to the women.","pull_quote_cite":"Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee (1907), p. 640 (section 'Masken von den Französischen Inseln').","term_gloss":"","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","initiation","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Richard Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee (Stuttgart: Strecker & Schröder, 1907), “Masken von den Französischen Inseln,” pp. 640–641","url":"https://archive.org/details/dreissigjahreind00parkuoft/page/n763/mode/1up"},{"citation":"Luke Balane, “Music from Ghulu Island, West New Britain Province,” in Robert Reigle (ed.), New Guinea Ethnomusicology Conference Proceedings (1995), pp. 129–130"}],"source_citations":"Richard Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee (Stuttgart: Strecker & Schröder, 1907), “Masken von den Französischen Inseln,” pp. 640–641; Luke Balane, “Music from Ghulu Island, West New Britain Province,” in Robert Reigle (ed.), New Guinea Ethnomusicology Conference Proceedings (1995), pp. 129–130","source_display":"Richard Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee (Stuttgart: Strecker & Schröder, 1907), “Masken von den Französischen Inseln,” pp. 640–641; Luke Balane, “Music from Ghulu Island, West New Britain Province,” in Robert Reigle (ed.), New Guinea Ethnomusicology Conference Proceedings (1995), pp. 129–130","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Thin lanceolate wooden blade, 24-30 cm long and 4-5 cm wide, on a single cord about three metres long tied to a rod of four to five metres; swung in circles, never seen ornamented.","function_display":"Sounded at circumcision festivals as a spirit's voice; on Ghulu two bullroarer signals opened the Kakaparagha rite, the second sending the Miri dancers out. Kept in the men's houses, out of women's sight.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"witu vitu","display_name":"A spirit's voice at circumcision festivals","image":{"full":"assets/objects/PARKINSON1907-001_parkinson1907_witu_maskbearer.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/PARKINSON1907-001_parkinson1907_witu_maskbearer_thumb.jpg","alt":"Witu mask-bearer in a tall painted mask and layered leaf costume; Parkinson says this form appeared at circumcision festivals.","credit":"Richard Parkinson, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee (1907), p. 640, fig. 116","license":"Public domain (published 1907)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/dreissigjahreind00parkuoft/page/n763/mode/1up","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Witu mask-bearer; Parkinson says this form appeared at circumcision festivals."},"slug":"parkinson1907-001-witu-vitu-french-islanders"}