{"id":"SA-Z1953-031","label":"Mataco, Choroti and Ashluslay toy bullroarers","people_or_site":"Mataco; Choroti; Ashluslay","country_current":"Argentina; Paraguay; Bolivia","historic_region":"Gran Chaco","macroregion":"South America","local_name":"koyék (-quyeq)","source_term":"koyék [-quyeq]","source_language":"Wichí (Mataco; Mataco-Mataguaya family)","object_description":"","function_summary":"Chiefly a toy: rare toy use among the Choroti and Ashluslay, the instrument also present among the Mataco and Caduveo.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","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":"Nordenskiöld 1912/1913:70 (Choroti/Ashluslay toy); Izikowitz 1935:211-212 (Mataco = Rydén field info; Caduveo = Manizer 1934:329; Toba fork-sling roarer = Rydén); Métraux 1946:343 (Caduveo); as compiled in Zerries 1953:288-289; Nordenskiold 1919, Comparative Ethnographical Studies 1, p. 162 (collections from Choroti/Ashluslay and six further tribes, in his own voice)","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Regional anchor for the named people; not a findspot.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In the Gran Chaco the bullroarer was mostly a child's plaything. Erland Nordenskiöld, living among the Chaco peoples around 1910, saw it whirled only as a rare toy by the Choroti and Ashluslay, two subtribes of the Mataco (Indianerleben, p. 70). Karl Gustav Izikowitz, sifting the South American sound-instruments in 1935, could place it among the true Chaco tribes only with the Mataco — known from Sten Rydén's field collection — and the Caduveo, whose specimen Manizer had recorded; whether they used it in ceremony was a question he declined to press. Ritual use was fixed to that one people, the Mbaya-Caduveo, whose roarers were carved with the elaborate designs that mark their work; Alfred Métraux reported they \"are said to whirl them during funeral ceremonies, but like the Mataco, they give them to the children as playthings.\" A separate Toba device sat at the edge of the category — a forked stick that slung out a corded stick to spin and buzz in the air, used by the medicine man to keep too much rain from falling.","pull_quote":"Selten sieht man das Schwirrholz als Spielzeug. Wie bekannt, verursacht es, wenn es schnell durch die Luft geschwungen wird, einen brummenden Laut.","pull_quote_translation":"Only rarely does one see the bullroarer as a toy. As is well known, when it is swung quickly through the air it makes a humming sound.","pull_quote_cite":"Erland Nordenskiöld, Indianerleben: El Gran Chaco (Leipzig, 1912), p. 70","term_gloss":"\"the toy that repeats the song of Welán\" (Welán = a shamanic divinity, name literally \"metamorphosed\"; Wichí gloss \"moonstruck/mad/cannibal\")","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"etymology":"The Wichí (Mataco) name for the bullroarer, koyék (-quyeq), belongs to the laquyeq (\"toy/plaything\") class — a derivative of the verb iquy, \"to play.\"","literal_gloss":"-quyeq ≈ \"(its) toy / plaything\" (obligatorily-possessed noun stem; cf. general Wichí toy term laquyeq, the patientive derivative in -eq of the verb iquy \"to play\")","semantic_cluster":"spirit_voice; toy_or_game; motion_sound","etymology_confidence":"medium","sources":[{"citation":"Erland Nordenskiöld, Indianerleben: El Gran Chaco (Leipzig, 1912), p. 70"},{"citation":"Karl Gustav Izikowitz, Musical and Other Sound Instruments of the South American Indians (Göteborg, 1935), pp. 211-212, citing Rydén field information and Manizer (1934), p. 329"},{"citation":"Alfred Métraux, \"Ethnography of the Chaco,\" Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 1, BAE Bulletin 143 (1946), p. 343"},{"citation":"Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 288-289","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"},{"citation":"Erland Nordenskiöld, Comparative Ethnographical Studies 1 (1919), p. 162"},{"citation":"Manizer (1934), p. 329, via Izikowitz (1935), pp. 211-212"}],"source_citations":"Erland Nordenskiöld, Indianerleben: El Gran Chaco (Leipzig, 1912), p. 70; Karl Gustav Izikowitz, Musical and Other Sound Instruments of the South American Indians (Göteborg, 1935), pp. 211-212, citing Rydén field information and Manizer (1934), p. 329; Alfred Métraux, \"Ethnography of the Chaco,\" Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 1, BAE Bulletin 143 (1946), p. 343; Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 288-289; Erland Nordenskiöld, Comparative Ethnographical Studies 1 (1919), p. 162; Manizer (1934), p. 329, via Izikowitz (1935), pp. 211-212","source_display":"Erland Nordenskiöld, Indianerleben: El Gran Chaco (Leipzig, 1912), p. 70; Karl Gustav Izikowitz, Musical and Other Sound Instruments of the South American Indians (Göteborg, 1935), pp. 211-212, citing Rydén field information and Manizer (1934), p. 329; Alfred Métraux, \"Ethnography of the Chaco,\" Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 1, BAE Bulletin 143…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"","function_display":"Chiefly a toy: rare toy use among the Choroti and Ashluslay, the instrument also present among the Mataco and Caduveo.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"mataco","display_name":"Mataco, Choroti and Ashluslay toy bullroarers","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-031_vkm_1936_04_0358.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-031_vkm_1936_04_0358_thumb.jpg","alt":"Mataco bullroarer from the Gran Chaco, with a perforated tab and plaited cord.","credit":"Världskulturmuseet, Göteborg (1936.04.0358)","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"https://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-vkm/web/object/1936.04.0358","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Mataco bullroarer from the Gran Chaco, with a perforated tab and plaited cord.","also":[{"label":"The Ashluslay (Nivaclé) slat itself: collected by Erland Nordenskiöld at Guachalla on the Pilcomayo, 1908 (SMVK 1913.01.0300a)","page":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-031_smvk_1913-01-0300a.jpg","credit":"Världskulturmuseet, Göteborg / SMVK (1913.01.0300a)","license":"CC BY 4.0"}]},"slug":"sa-z1953-031-mataco-choroti-ashluslay"}