{"id":"RAY1942-002","label":"Wenatchi bull-roarer","people_or_site":"Wenatchi","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Wenatchee River / middle Columbia, central Washington","macroregion":"North America / Plateau","local_name":"","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Recorded in two forms, a wooden blade of cedar and one of deer rib, whirled on a cord held in the hand without a handle.","function_summary":"A weather instrument, not a toy: swung to call the Chinook, the warm wind that clears the snow.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"ray1942_plateau","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar008-003.pdf","page_or_plate":"printed p. 184, elements 4094-4103","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Middle Columbia near Wenatchee, central Washington -- territory anchor, not a findspot.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"The Wenatchi bullroarer was no toy. Alone on the Plateau, the Wenatchi denied the plaything use outright and kept the instrument for the weather: it influenced the sky, it called the Chinook, it brought rain — and children did swing it, at the direction of the old people, on occasions the old people chose. It is the one place where those two things separate cleanly, and it is a reason for thinking that 'toy' is very often a description of who is holding a thing rather than of what it is for.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"","cls":"weather","class_label":"Weather / fertility magic","color":"#2F6FA3","is_candidate":false,"flags":["weather"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Verne F. Ray, 'Culture Element Distributions: XXII, Plateau,' Anthropological Records 8:2 (Berkeley, 1942), p. 184, elements 4094-4103","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar008-003.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260814094023/https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar008-003.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Verne F. Ray, 'Culture Element Distributions: XXII, Plateau,' Anthropological Records 8:2 (Berkeley, 1942), p. 184, elements 4094-4103","source_display":"Verne F. Ray, 'Culture Element Distributions: XXII, Plateau,' Anthropological Records 8:2 (Berkeley, 1942), p. 184, elements 4094-4103","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Recorded in two forms, a wooden blade of cedar and one of deer rib, whirled on a cord held in the hand without a handle.","function_display":"A weather instrument, not a toy: swung to call the Chinook, the warm wind that clears the snow.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"wenatchi","display_name":"Wenatchi bull-roarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/BIRKET1930-001_birket1930-001-natmus-h165.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/BIRKET1930-001_birket1930-001-natmus-h165_thumb.jpg","alt":"A long, notched Chipewyan wooden bullroarer lies with its skin thong looped around a short cross-pin.","credit":"Nationalmuseet, Denmark, H1.65 (object 85119); photograph Mads Kildegaard Nielsen","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped and rotated from museum photograph","source_page":"https://samlinger.natmus.dk/es/object/85119","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Chipewyan notched wooden slab on a skin thong","pool_id":"auto-BIRKET1930-001_birket1930-001-natmus-h165"},"slug":"ray1942-002-wenatchi"}