{"id":"PNG5","label":"Bullroarers that banned the chestnut harvest","people_or_site":"Wogeo","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"East Sepik","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"mumumu","source_term":"mumumu","source_language":"English","object_description":"bullroarer occurrence; bullroarer use; sacred flute occurrence; sacred flute use; slit-gong occurrence; slit-gong use","function_summary":"Voice of the bush lewa spirit-monsters; a headman summoned them, embodied in bullroarers, to place a taboo on Tahitian chestnuts and other bush crops until the ban was lifted and the harvest gathered for a food distribution. Also used to ease log hauling.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"gourlay1975_sound_producing","source_type":"source_catalog","source_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2027/inu.30000082089644","page_or_plate":"Table 1, row 5; Hogbin 1970, pp. 58-59; Rubel & Rosman 1978, p. 101; Gourlay1975 printed p.55 (PDF p.65), citing Hogbin1970 p.50; Gourlay1975 printed pp.70,75 (PDF pp.80,85), citing Hogbin1970 pp.58,72","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Wogeo (Vokeo) Island, Schouten Islands, East Sepik (GeoNames 2084337).","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"On Wogeo, an island off the Sepik coast, the secret instruments of the men's cult lent their voices to spirit-monsters: bullroarers spoke for the bush lewa, whose power was summoned at district food distributions, while paired bamboo flutes voiced the nibek of the interdistrict festivals. The flutes were made in longer \"male\" and shorter \"female\" pairs and played only by men. The fullest account of the island comes from Ian Hogbin, who titled his ethnography for the Wogeo men's custom of incising the penis to make it bleed, a self-induced bloodletting they reckoned the male counterpart to menstruation. When a headman planned a food distribution he could close a crop by conjuring the monsters: the bush lewa arrived embodied in bullroarers — mumumu — and their presence banned the picking of Tahitian chestnuts and other bush crops until, days before the feast, the taboo was lifted and the harvest gathered in. Marigum, the famous headman of Dap, once banned the chestnuts this way for a month to mark his youngest son's admission to the men's house. Men also swung them to lighten the haul when dragging logs.","pull_quote":"If the crop is chestnuts, or another bush crop, then bush lewa, embodied in bull roarers, are summoned.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Rubel & Rosman, Your Own Pigs You May Not Eat (1978), p. 101, after Hogbin","term_gloss":"mumumu — the Wogeo bullroarer, which voices the bush lewa spirit-monsters (Hogbin 1970:59); lewa is also the word for 'mask'.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","women_special","agriculture"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":true,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Ian Hogbin, The Island of Menstruating Men (1970), pp. 50, 58–59, 72; Ian Hogbin, \"Food Festivals and Politics in Wogeo,\" Oceania 40 (1970), pp. 304–328; Paula G. Rubel and Abraham Rosman, Your Own Pigs You May Not Eat (Chicago, 1978), p. 101; K. A. Gourlay, Sound-Producing Instruments in Traditional Society: A Study of Esoteric Instruments and Their Role in Male-Female Relations, New Guinea Research Bulletin 60 (Canberra, 1975), Table 1, entry 5, and pp. 55, 70, 75","url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2027/inu.30000082089644"}],"source_citations":"Ian Hogbin, The Island of Menstruating Men (1970), pp. 50, 58–59, 72; Ian Hogbin, \"Food Festivals and Politics in Wogeo,\" Oceania 40 (1970), pp. 304–328; Paula G. Rubel and Abraham Rosman, Your Own Pigs You May Not Eat (Chicago, 1978), p. 101; K. A. Gourlay, Sound-Producing Instruments in Traditional Society: A Study of Esoteric Instruments and Their Role in Male-Female Relations, New Guinea Research Bulletin 60 (Canberra, 1975), Table 1, entry 5, and pp. 55, 70, 75","source_display":"Ian Hogbin, The Island of Menstruating Men (1970), pp. 50, 58–59, 72; Ian Hogbin, \"Food Festivals and Politics in Wogeo,\" Oceania 40 (1970), pp. 304–328; Paula G. Rubel and Abraham Rosman, Your Own Pigs You May Not Eat (Chicago, 1978), p. 101; K. A. Gourlay, Sound-Producing Instruments in Traditional Society: A Study of Esoteric Instruments and Their Role…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"","function_display":"","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"wogeo","display_name":"Bullroarers that banned the chestnut harvest","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/europeana_381.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/europeana_381_thumb.jpg","alt":"A dark Abelam wooden bullroarer with cord wound thickly around much of the blade and attached near its narrow end.","credit":"Ethnological Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (acc. DE-MUS-019118/2025365/2020-04-07_15-01-22)","license":"","source_page":"http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=2025365","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"An Abelam bull-roarer."},"slug":"png5-wogeo"}