{"id":"POLY2026-010","label":"West Futuna ragohpa, the housefly roarer","people_or_site":"West Futuna (Futuna-Aniwa)","country_current":"Vanuatu","historic_region":"Futuna, Tafea Province","macroregion":"Oceania / Polynesian outliers","local_name":"ragohpa","source_term":"leaf whizzer","source_language":"English / West Futuna","object_description":"A coconut-leaf strip whirled for its buzz.","function_summary":"A children's toy.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"garland1998_west_futuna","source_type":"comparative_secondary","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/austriliapacific0009unse_1998","page_or_plate":"Garland vol. 9 p. 863; McLean 1999 p. 255","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Island anchor, Futuna, southern Vanuatu.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"West Futuna is a Polynesian island in a Melanesian sea, at the southern end of Vanuatu, where the people speak a Polynesian language among Melanesian neighbours. Its children whirled a strip of coconut leaf for its buzz and called it ragohpa. The name begins with rago, the island's word for the housefly. Tongans and Samoans built their leaf roarers' names on the same word, and Māori did the same with rango, the blowfly. The fly-name travelled with the canoes that settled the Pacific.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"ragohpa (West Futuna): leaf whizzer; built on rago, \"housefly\" (Proto-Polynesian *lago).","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 9, Australia and the Pacific Islands (1998), \"West Futuna\" article, p. 863; Mervyn McLean, Weavers of Song: Polynesian Music and Dance (Auckland University Press, 1999), p. 255 (instrument table)","url":"https://archive.org/details/austriliapacific0009unse_1998"}],"source_citations":"The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 9, Australia and the Pacific Islands (1998), \"West Futuna\" article, p. 863; Mervyn McLean, Weavers of Song: Polynesian Music and Dance (Auckland University Press, 1999), p. 255 (instrument table)","source_display":"The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 9, Australia and the Pacific Islands (1998), \"West Futuna\" article, p. 863; Mervyn McLean, Weavers of Song: Polynesian Music and Dance (Auckland University Press, 1999), p. 255 (instrument table)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A coconut-leaf strip whirled for its buzz.","function_display":"A children's toy.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"west futuna","display_name":"West Futuna ragohpa, the housefly roarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/pd_plates/buck1927_aitutaki_fig281_patangitangi.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/pd_plates/buck1927_aitutaki_fig281_patangitangi_thumb.jpg","alt":"Buck’s construction diagram of the Aitutaki coconut-leaflet patangitangi: a curved leaflet loop above a flat strip, an enlarged tied attachment and the assembled instrument on its cord, labelled A–D.","credit":"Te Rangi Hiroa (Peter Buck), The Material Culture of the Cook Islands (Aitutaki) (1927), fig. 281","license":"Public domain","source_page":"http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BucMate.html","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A coconut-leaflet roarer of the same kind, from Aitutaki in the Cook Islands.","pool_id":"auto-pd_plates--buck1927_aitutaki_fig281_patangitangi"},"slug":"poly2026-010-west-futuna-futuna-aniwa"}