{"id":"POLY2026-001","label":"Māori pūrerehua bullroarer","people_or_site":"Maori / Aotearoa","country_current":"New Zealand","historic_region":"Aotearoa / New Zealand","macroregion":"Oceania / Polynesia","local_name":"pūrerehua / pūrorohū / turorohu","source_term":"purerehua / bullroarer","source_language":"English / Maori","object_description":"The pūrerehua is a slat of wood, stone or bone swung on a long cord. Pitt Rivers 1901.64.7 is an exceptionally large example, a lenticular carved board 625 x 115 mm pointed at both ends, its twisted fibre passed through a terminal perforation and bound and knotted around the tip. A smaller painted one in the British Museum, Oc.4879, is an oval blade pointed at both ends, 29 by 7.5 centimetres and half a centimetre thick, with pitau-series kowhaiwhai in bare wood across a black ground on both faces, its cord still at one end. Te Papa's ME016169 is a modern maker's piece: a wooden pūrerehua 427 × 60 × 13 mm (149 g), made and given to the museum by Bernard Makoare in 1997.","function_summary":"A taonga puoro with rainmaking and spiritual-wind associations, and — in some districts — swung beside a chief lying in state to drive off evil spirits.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"maori_purerehua_direct","source_type":"museum_catalog","source_url":"https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?keywords=purerehua","page_or_plate":"Te Aka purerehua entry; Te Ara page 3 'Rainmaker'; Te Papa purerehua object; Tregear 1904 pp. 54-55; Brown 1907 p. 206; Best 1925 pp. 293-296; Best 1900, JPS 9(4):181","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Aotearoa/New Zealand regional anchor for a pan-Maori source; not a single findspot.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In Māori practice the pūrerehua is a flat oval blade of resonant matai wood (or sometimes whalebone or stone) on a long flax cord and rod, swung overhead until it gives off a deep, eerie roar. It takes its name from the moth, pūrerehua, whose whirring wings the sound recalls; another name, rangorango, likens its buzz to a blowfly. Its great work is calling the rain: a Ngāti Porou expert, Tuta Nihoniho, described whirling the bullroarer while flinging ashes to the south, baring his buttocks to the rainy quarter, and reciting an insulting karakia to provoke the sky. Sounded too at funerals to draw out tears and to lure food and lizards from hiding, the pūrerehua is heard as a voice of Tāwhirimātea's bodiless wind-children — instruments said to carry the player's hopes out on ngā hau e whā, the four winds.","pull_quote":"Pūrerehua or turorohu create eerie sounds as they spin on the ends of their cords. Stories are told of them calling rain, summoning tears and even enticing food from hiding places.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Flintoff, Te Ara: The family of Papa – rhythmic instruments (Māori musical instruments – taonga puoro, page 3)","term_gloss":"pūrerehua = \"moth/butterfly\" (the instrument is named for the moth whose whirring wing-sound it imitates); the synonym rangorango refers to the blowfly, for the buzzing note; turorohu/purorohu are further names for the same bullroarer. mamae — the Taranaki name, where the instrument sings a farewell to the dead (Hamilton p. 430; Te Ara).","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","death_rebirth","agriculture","weather"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"etymology":"The instrument name is tied to wing-sound imitation: purerehua is moth/butterfly and also the Maori bullroarer.","literal_gloss":"moth / butterfly","semantic_cluster":"insect; sound_imitation","etymology_confidence":"high","sources":[{"citation":"Elsdon Best, 'Spiritual Concepts of the Maori,' Part I, Journal of the Polynesian Society 9(4) (1900): 173-199, p. 181"},{"citation":"Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, object 1901.64.7"},{"citation":"Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, object 440435"},{"citation":"Te Aka Māori Dictionary, s.v. pūrerehua","url":"https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?keywords=purerehua","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013025545/https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?keywords=purerehua"},{"citation":"Brian Flintoff, Te Ara, Māori musical instruments – taonga puoro, page 3, \"The family of Papa – rhythmic instruments,\" rainmaker section"},{"citation":"Edward Tregear, The Maori Race (1904), pp. 54-55"},{"citation":"J. Macmillan Brown, Maori and Polynesian (1907), p. 206"},{"citation":"Elsdon Best (1925), pp. 293-296, Tuta Nihoniho account cited by Flintoff"}],"source_citations":"Elsdon Best, 'Spiritual Concepts of the Maori,' Part I, Journal of the Polynesian Society 9(4) (1900): 173-199, p. 181; Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, object 1901.64.7; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, object 440435; Te Aka Māori Dictionary, s.v. pūrerehua; Brian Flintoff, Te Ara, Māori musical instruments – taonga puoro, page 3, \"The family of Papa – rhythmic instruments,\" rainmaker section; Edward Tregear, The Maori Race (1904), pp. 54-55; J. Macmillan Brown, Maori and Polynesian (1907), p. 206; Elsdon Best (1925), pp. 293-296, Tuta Nihoniho account cited by Flintoff","source_display":"Elsdon Best, 'Spiritual Concepts of the Maori,' Part I, Journal of the Polynesian Society 9(4) (1900): 173-199, p. 181; Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, object 1901.64.7; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, object 440435; Te Aka Māori Dictionary, s.v. pūrerehua; Brian Flintoff, Te Ara, Māori musical instruments – taonga puoro, page 3, \"The family of Papa –…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"The pūrerehua is a slat of wood, stone or bone swung on a long cord. Pitt Rivers 1901.64.7 is an exceptionally large example, a lenticular carved board 625 x 115 mm pointed at both ends, its twisted fibre passed through a terminal perforation and bound and knotted around the tip. A smaller painted one in the British Museum, Oc.4879, is an oval blade pointed at both ends, 29 by 7.5 centimetres and half a centimetre thick, with pitau-series kowhaiwhai in bare wood across a black ground on both faces, its cord still at one end. Te Papa's ME016169 is a modern maker's piece: a wooden pūrerehua 427 × 60 × 13 mm (149 g), made and given to the museum by Bernard Makoare in 1997.","function_display":"A taonga puoro with rainmaking and spiritual-wind associations, and — in some districts — swung beside a chief lying in state to drive off evil spirits.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"maori","display_name":"Māori pūrerehua bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/POLY2026-001_prm_1901-64-7_maori.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/POLY2026-001_prm_1901-64-7_maori_thumb.jpg","credit":"Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, accession 1901.64.7","license":"PRM Collections Online terms (noncommercial educational/community use with credit)","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39777","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"A Māori pūrerehua in the Pitt Rivers Museum, its twisted-fibre cord intact.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/pd_plates/POLY2026-001.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/pd_plates/POLY2026-001_thumb.jpg","alt":"Best’s fig. 102: drawings and a photograph of four Māori pūrerehua and a small kororohu whizzer, with patterned and plain blades, cords and whirling sticks.","credit":"Best, Games and Pastimes of the Maori (Dominion Museum Bulletin 8), 1925, Fig. 102","license":"Public domain (published 1925)","source_page":"http://web.archive.org/web/20140728130221im_/http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/etexts/BesGame/BesGame295a.jpg","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Best’s fig. 102: four Māori purerehua and one small kororohu whizzer."}]},"slug":"poly2026-001-maori-aotearoa"}