{"id":"PNG80","label":"Awaiama and Taupota","people_or_site":"Taupota","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"Milne Bay","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"","source_term":"","source_language":"English","object_description":"bullroarer occurrence","function_summary":"Bull-roarers swung throughout the walaga feast as the dancing-platform posts are raised, while medicine men draw the arua (shade of a dead man) out of the timber so the soul is not injured.","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 80; Table 1, row 79; Seligmann 1910, p. 592","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Taupota villages on the north coast of mainland Milne Bay (GeoNames 2132457).","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"At Awaiama and Taupota, east of Bartle Bay, the bull-roarer belonged to the walaga, the largest feast of the district, built around a great dancing platform raised on piles. As the fasting men stepped the supporting posts into their dug holes, they swung bull-roarers the whole time, while medicine men rubbed the posts and sucked loudly through their cupped hands to draw out the arua, the shade of any dead man that might be lodged in the timber, so the soul should not be injured when the post was erected. The roarers sounded for this moment alone, in a feast whose pigs were speared slowly so the mangoes would hear them squeal and be fruitful.","pull_quote":"The gweri ravai [medicine men] then carried the soul away and released it in the grass or bush.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Seligman 1910, The Melanesians of British New Guinea, p. 592","term_gloss":"walaga = the raised wooden platform or feast-house built for the great mango feast at Bartle Bay; gweri ravai = ritual practitioners who officiated at the stepping of its posts.","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["agriculture"],"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), Table 1, entry 80; C. G. Seligman, The Melanesians of British New Guinea (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 592, 596; Gourlay 1975, Table 1, entry 79 (Awalama, i.e. Awaiama); Seligmann 1910, pp. 589-597 ('The Walaga Feast and the Cult of the Mango')","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), Table 1, entry 80; C. G. Seligman, The Melanesians of British New Guinea (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 592, 596; Gourlay 1975, Table 1, entry 79 (Awalama, i.e. Awaiama); Seligmann 1910, pp. 589-597 ('The Walaga Feast and the Cult of the Mango')","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), Table 1, entry 80; C. G. Seligman, The Melanesians of British New Guinea (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 592, 596; Gourlay 1975, Table 1, entry 79 (Awalama…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"","function_display":"","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"taupota","display_name":"Awaiama and Taupota","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/wereldmuseum_113.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/wereldmuseum_113_thumb.jpg","alt":"Gogodala bullroarer with dark spiral motifs and a cord hole at the centre of one.","credit":"Wereldmuseum / NMVW (acc. TM-2670-418)","license":"","source_page":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/86837","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Gogodala bull-roarer."},"slug":"png80-taupota"}