{"id":"SA-Z1953-038","label":"Maleku (Guatuso) Jafara divinatory bullroarer","people_or_site":"Maleku (Guatuso), Rio Frio basin","country_current":"Costa Rica","historic_region":"Rio Frio basin / northern Costa Rica","macroregion":"Mesoamerica / Central America","local_name":"Jafara / Lhafara; sabara","source_term":"bramadera / bramador (bullroarer)","source_language":"Spanish","object_description":"A piece of pejibaye wood tied with a burio-fibre cord; when turned, it makes a loud sound through the air.","function_summary":"Divinatory bullroarer: a seer decoded sacred messages from Lhafara/Jafara through its sound.","attestation_type":"secondary_catalog","source_key":"SOLIS2021_MALEKU_JAFARA","source_type":"ethnographic_thesis","source_url":"https://colmich.repositorioinstitucional.mx/jspui/bitstream/1016/1102/1/Sol%C3%ADsAguilarDavidA.2021Tesis.pdf","page_or_plate":"pp. 15, 69, 84","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Rio Frio-basin Maleku territory anchor; sources describe sacred riverheads and Caño Negro rather than one performance site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Maleku of Costa Rica’s Río Frío basin, the Jafara was cut from pejibaye wood and tied to a cord of burio fibre. When a seer turned it, its strong voice carried sacred messages from Lhafara, the female deity associated with the waters of Caño Negro.","pull_quote":"Bramadera o hablador llamado jafára ... un trozo de madera de pejibaye sujetado por una cuerda de fibras de burío, que al girarse provocaba un fuerte sonido mientras cortaba el aire, permitiéndole al vidente decodificar mensajes sagrados.","pull_quote_translation":"A bullroarer or speaker called jafara: a piece of pejibaye wood tied with a burio-fibre cord which, when turned, made a strong sound through the air, allowing the seer to decode sacred messages.","pull_quote_cite":"Solís Aguilar, Territorialidades del pueblo originario maleku en Costa Rica (2021), p. 69.","term_gloss":"Jafara / Lhafara — the name shared by the bullroarer and the female deity whose messages it carried; lh is pronounced like Spanish j. sabara — an earlier recorded Maleku name.","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"David A. Solís Aguilar, Territorialidades del pueblo originario maleku en Costa Rica (MA thesis, El Colegio de Michoacán, 2021), pp. 15-16, 59-60 and 69","url":"https://colmich.repositorioinstitucional.mx/jspui/bitstream/1016/1102/1/Sol%C3%ADsAguilarDavidA.2021Tesis.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260312170153/https://colmich.repositorioinstitucional.mx/jspui/bitstream/1016/1102/1/Sol%C3%ADsAguilarDavidA.2021Tesis.pdf"}],"source_citations":"David A. Solís Aguilar, Territorialidades del pueblo originario maleku en Costa Rica (MA thesis, El Colegio de Michoacán, 2021), pp. 15-16, 59-60 and 69","source_display":"David A. Solís Aguilar, Territorialidades del pueblo originario maleku en Costa Rica (MA thesis, El Colegio de Michoacán, 2021), pp. 15-16, 59-60 and 69","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A piece of pejibaye wood tied with a burio-fibre cord; when turned, it makes a loud sound through the air.","function_display":"Divinatory bullroarer: a seer decoded sacred messages from Lhafara/Jafara through its sound.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"secondary catalog","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"maleku","display_name":"Maleku (Guatuso) Jafara divinatory bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-038_zerries1953_fig6_choco.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SA-Z1953-038_zerries1953_fig6_choco_thumb.jpg","alt":"Nordenskiöld’s drawing of a bird-incised Chocó bullroarer from the Río Sambú.","credit":"Otto Zerries, The Bull-roarer among South American Indians (1953), Fig. 6 — figure first published Nordenskiöld 1928, p. 73, fig. 53c","license":"Public domain figure (Nordenskiöld 1928), scan via Zerries 1953","source_page":"https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Azerries-1953-bullroarer/Zerries_1953_TheBullroarerAmongSAmerIndians.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Nordenskiöld’s drawing of a bird-incised Chocó bullroarer from the Río Sambú."},"slug":"sa-z1953-038-maleku-guatuso-rio-frio-basin"}