{"id":"SA-Z1953-003","label":"Eastern Timbira - Canela and Chakamekra","people_or_site":"Eastern Timbira - Canella and Chakamekra","country_current":"Brazil","historic_region":"Eastern Brazil","macroregion":"South America / Brazil","local_name":"","source_term":"Schwirrgerät / Schwirrholz / bullroarer","source_language":"German / English extraction","object_description":"","function_summary":"Second phase male initiation; class leader sounds bullroarer at night; larger Chakamekra specimens imply stronger former role","attestation_type":"secondary_catalog","source_key":"zerries1953","source_type":"source_catalog","source_url":"https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Azerries-1953-bullroarer/Zerries_1953_TheBullroarerAmongSAmerIndians.pdf","page_or_plate":"Nimuendaju 1946:186 (primary); Zerries 1953:279-280, 293-294 (intermediary)","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Representative Canella/Eastern Timbira coordinate.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Ramkokamekra (Canela) and the now-extinct Chakamekra of eastern Brazil, the bullroarer belonged to the second phase of male initiation, the pepyé. After nightfall and before daybreak the class leader was to swing the instrument, the booming alarm passed from cell to cell so that no secluded novice had fallen asleep; a sleeper would be punished by the commandant. When Curt Nimuendajú took part in the pepyé festival of 1933, he found the signal given only now and then, and at first did not understand the sound he occasionally heard. He recorded one exchange between two novices: \"Did you hear my bull-roarer this noon?\" \"Yes!\" \"I thought you were asleep.\" Outside this rite the object was otherwise rare, turning up mainly as a children's toy. That its modest role was a decline from something larger is suggested by the Chakamekra, whose specimens were considerably larger and more carefully made than the surviving Ramkokamekra examples, and who had a special term, pepyetokárčą, marking it as insignia of the pepyé.","pull_quote":"It seems clear that the comparative insignificance of the bull-roarer at initiation does not represent its original role.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Curt Nimuendajú, The Eastern Timbira, trans. Robert H. Lowie (1946), p. 186","term_gloss":"pĩkwęk — the Ramkokamekra-Canela name for the bull-roarer; among the now-extinct Chakamekra it carried a special term, pepyetokárčą, \"insignia of the pepyé,\" marking it as proper to the second initiation phase.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["initiation","toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Curt Nimuendajú, The Eastern Timbira, ed. and trans. Robert H. Lowie, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 41 (1946), p. 186; Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 279-280 and 293-294","url":"https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Azerries-1953-bullroarer/Zerries_1953_TheBullroarerAmongSAmerIndians.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260420134455/https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Azerries-1953-bullroarer/Zerries_1953_TheBullroarerAmongSAmerIndians.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Curt Nimuendajú, The Eastern Timbira, ed. and trans. Robert H. Lowie, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 41 (1946), p. 186; Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 279-280 and 293-294","source_display":"Curt Nimuendajú, The Eastern Timbira, ed. and trans. Robert H. Lowie, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 41 (1946), p. 186; Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 279-280 and 293-294","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"","function_display":"Second phase male initiation; class leader sounds bullroarer at night; larger Chakamekra specimens imply stronger former role","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"secondary catalog","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"eastern timbira","display_name":"Eastern Timbira - Canela and Chakamekra","image":{"full":"assets/objects/pd_plates/nimuendaju1946_timbira_pl35e.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/pd_plates/nimuendaju1946_timbira_pl35e_thumb.jpg","alt":"Nimuendajú’s plate image of two Eastern Timbira (Canela) bullroarers with long cords: one short and broad, the other longer and narrower.","credit":"Curt Nimuendajú, The Eastern Timbira (1946), pl. 35e","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/timbira","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Eastern Timbira (Canela) bull-roarers with cords, figured by Nimuendajú (1946)."},"slug":"sa-z1953-003-eastern-timbira-canella-and-chakamekra"}