{"id":"SA-Z1953-037","label":"Chocó toy and spirit-protection bullroarer","people_or_site":"Choco","country_current":"Colombia; Panama","historic_region":"Choco / Darien","macroregion":"South America","local_name":"","source_term":"Schwirrgerät / Schwirrholz / bullroarer","source_language":"German / English extraction","object_description":"","function_summary":"Mostly a children's toy; sometimes carried through the forest at night, painted red with bija, to frighten evil spirits.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"zerries1953","source_type":"source_catalog","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/EtnologiskaStudier01","page_or_plate":"Wassén 1935:65-66, fig. 12 D (p. 67); Nordenskiöld 1928:71-73, figs. 53 a-e (fig. 53 e = 16 cm Sambú roarer, p. 73)","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Representative Choco/Darien coordinate; the Choco occurrence is attested, while the bullroarer-like medicine-hut objects are less certain.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Chocó of the Colombian and Panamanian rainforests the bull-roarer was chiefly a children's toy, roughly made and, in recent years, often painted with aniline dyes. Henry Wassén, working among the Noanamá in the 1930s, recorded its one magical use: an Indian who had to cross the forest alone at night, passing from one place to another, might carry a bull-roarer painted red with bija to frighten away evil spirits. Erland Nordenskiöld, on the Río Sambú, found painted wooden objects hung in the medicine men's huts during certain magical rites — figures of snakes, turtles, iguanas, eagles, and butterflies, some of them oval and giving the impression of bull-roarers, though the genuine whirled ones seemed to serve only as playthings. One Chocó bull-roarer he collected on the Sambú stood about sixteen centimeters high.","pull_quote":"The bull-roarer is of course chiefly a toy, but I was told of one occasion where its use corresponds with its magical character among other tribes.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Wassén 1935:65-66 (Notes on Southern Groups of Choco Indians in Colombia), transcribed verbatim in Zerries 1953:290-291","term_gloss":"","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","initiation","toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Henry Wassén, \"Notes on Southern Groups of Choco Indians in Colombia,\" Etnologiska Studier 1 (Göteborg, 1935), pp. 65-66, fig. 12 D, p. 67, via Zerries (1953)","url":"https://archive.org/details/EtnologiskaStudier01"},{"citation":"Erland Nordenskiöld, Indianerna på Panamanäset (Stockholm, 1928), pp. 71-73, figs. 53 a-e, via Zerries (1953)"},{"citation":"Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 290-291, 297-298, transcribing Wassén and Nordenskiöld"}],"source_citations":"Henry Wassén, \"Notes on Southern Groups of Choco Indians in Colombia,\" Etnologiska Studier 1 (Göteborg, 1935), pp. 65-66, fig. 12 D, p. 67, via Zerries (1953); Erland Nordenskiöld, Indianerna på Panamanäset (Stockholm, 1928), pp. 71-73, figs. 53 a-e, via Zerries (1953); Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 290-291, 297-298, transcribing Wassén and Nordenskiöld","source_display":"Henry Wassén, \"Notes on Southern Groups of Choco Indians in Colombia,\" Etnologiska Studier 1 (Göteborg, 1935), pp. 65-66, fig. 12 D, p. 67, via Zerries (1953); Erland Nordenskiöld, Indianerna på Panamanäset (Stockholm, 1928), pp. 71-73, figs. 53 a-e, via Zerries (1953); Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"","function_display":"Mostly a children's toy; sometimes carried through the forest at night, painted red with bija, to frighten evil spirits.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"choco","display_name":"Chocó toy and spirit-protection bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-037_zerries1953_fig5.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-037_zerries1953_fig5_thumb.jpg","alt":"Wassén's drawing of a Noanamá bullroarer from Isla de Munguidó, Colombia, about 30 cm long: a stepped blade with crosshatched bands and a narrow neck ending in a rounded knob.","credit":"Otto Zerries, The Bull-roarer among South American Indians (1953), Fig. 5, after Wassén 1935","license":"Scholarly figure crop; non-commercial research use","source_page":"https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Azerries-1953-bullroarer/Zerries_1953_TheBullroarerAmongSAmerIndians.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Wassén's drawing of a Noanamá bull-roarer from Isla de Munguidó, Colombia, about 30 cm high, as reproduced by Zerries.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-037_smvk_1927-27-0443_vinare.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/review_2026_10_03/SA-Z1953-037_also-1_thumb.jpg","alt":"Río Sambú Chocó bullroarer: a pale wooden blade with a narrow neck and broad rounded end beside its loosely coiled cord.","credit":"Statens museer för världskultur, Etnografiska museet Göteborg, obj. 1927.27.0443","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Río Sambú Chocó bull-roarer with its cord."},{"full":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-037_smvk_1935-14-0065_sigurwauma.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/review_2026_10_03/SA-Z1953-037_also-2_thumb.jpg","credit":"Statens museer för världskultur, Etnografiska museet Göteborg, obj. 1935.14.0065, Henry Wassén expedition 1934-35","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Painted bamboo sígûrwáuma, a Noanamá bull-roarer that Wassén collected on Isla de Munguidó."}]},"slug":"sa-z1953-037-choco"}