{"id":"PNG78","label":"Topura","people_or_site":"Topura","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"Milne Bay","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"","source_term":"","source_language":"English","object_description":"bullroarer occurrence; bullroarer use","function_summary":"Swung by the fasting men, set apart as holy, only while the walaga feast-platform posts were stepped.","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 78; Gourlay printed p. 3 (B and source x), Table 1 printed p. 7 entry 78 (BR in B)","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Topura village, Milne Bay (GeoNames 2132429).","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"On this coast the bullroarer spoke for one act only. As the fasting men of Awaiama and Taupota, east of Bartle Bay near the island's far southeastern tip, planted the tall posts of the walaga — the grandest feast of the district, drawing in even hostile villages — they swung the roarers without pause, while medicine men crouched at every post-hole and sucked the shade of the dead out of the timber, so no lingering ghost would be crushed as the pile went down. Then the roarers stopped. They were used at no other time, Seligman was told, and no reason for them could be given.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"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 and Port Moresby, 1975), p. 3 and Table 1, p. 7, entry 78; C. G. Seligman, The Melanesians of British New Guinea (1910), pp. 589–592","url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2027/inu.30000082089644"}],"source_citations":"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 and Port Moresby, 1975), p. 3 and Table 1, p. 7, entry 78; C. G. Seligman, The Melanesians of British New Guinea (1910), pp. 589–592","source_display":"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 and Port Moresby, 1975), p. 3 and Table 1, p. 7, entry 78; C. G. Seligman, The Melanesians of British New Guinea (1910), pp. 589–592","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"","function_display":"Swung by the fasting men, set apart as holy, only while the walaga feast-platform posts were stepped.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"topura","display_name":"Topura","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/smg_162.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/smg_162_thumb.jpg","alt":"A long reddish-brown wooden blade lies diagonally, with white geometric carving across its center and a cord at the pierced end.","credit":"Science Museum Group (acc. A242490)","license":"","source_page":"https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co105252","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A reddish-brown blade."},"slug":"png78-topura"}