{"id":"SERBAN2007-001","label":"Gorj shingle vuva","people_or_site":"Children of the Gorj villages","country_current":"Romania","historic_region":"Gorj county, Oltenia","macroregion":"Europe / Eastern Europe","local_name":"vuva (vâjâietoarea)","source_term":"vuva / vâjâitoare","source_language":"Romanian","object_description":"A piece of roof shingle 30–40 cm long, pierced at one end with a nail and tied to a thread.","function_summary":"Children’s sound toy, whirled by hand; its noise imitated a storm.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"serban2007_gorj_vuva","source_type":"secondary_literature","source_url":"https://adevarul.ro/stiri-locale/targu-jiu/cele-mai-frumoase-jocuri-ale-copilariei-1750215.html","page_or_plate":"Adevărul 2016, toy passage quoted from Șerban 2007 (book page not given)","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Târgu Jiu, seat of Gorj county; the account describes Gorj village childhood generally and names no village.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"For the children of Gorj, in the Oltenian foothills of the Southern Carpathians, the vuva was a special pleasure. They took a piece of roof shingle thirty or forty centimetres long, drove a nail through one end, tied on a thread and swung it round by hand until it roared like a storm, the noise that gave it its name. It belonged to a whole homemade childhood: the hoarcă, a walnut spun on a nail that rumbled as its string wound and unwound; paper darts tipped with a pin, dangerous enough to take an eye; and elder popguns that fired plugs of tow with a crack.","pull_quote":"Un fel de vâjâitoare, imitând furtuna.","pull_quote_translation":"A kind of whizzer, imitating the storm.","pull_quote_cite":"Alexandru Doru Șerban, Cultura țărănească gorjeană (2007), quoted in Adevărul, 25 November 2016","term_gloss":"vuva, vâjâietoarea: Romanian, “the whizzer,” from ași vâjâi, to whizz or whistle through the air.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Alexandru Doru Șerban, Cultura țărănească gorjeană (Târgu Jiu: Măiastra, 2007)."},{"citation":"Alin Ion, “Cele mai frumoase jocuri ale copilăriei,” Adevărul (Târgu Jiu), 25 November 2016.","url":"https://adevarul.ro/stiri-locale/targu-jiu/cele-mai-frumoase-jocuri-ale-copilariei-1750215.html"}],"source_citations":"Alexandru Doru Șerban, Cultura țărănească gorjeană (Târgu Jiu: Măiastra, 2007).; Alin Ion, “Cele mai frumoase jocuri ale copilăriei,” Adevărul (Târgu Jiu), 25 November 2016.","source_display":"Alexandru Doru Șerban, Cultura țărănească gorjeană (Târgu Jiu: Măiastra, 2007).; Alin Ion, “Cele mai frumoase jocuri ale copilăriei,” Adevărul (Târgu Jiu), 25 November 2016.","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A piece of roof shingle 30–40 cm long, pierced at one end with a nail and tied to a thread.","function_display":"Children’s sound toy, whirled by hand; its noise imitated a storm.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"children gorj","display_name":"Gorj shingle vuva","image":{"full":"assets/objects/hunt_fifty_2026_10_30/lang1884_001_10.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/hunt_fifty_2026_10_30/thumbs/lang1884_001_10.jpg","alt":"A long notched wooden board with a cord tied through its rounded end.","credit":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, 1922.386","source_page":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects-and-photographs/?keyword=1922.386","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A notched wooden bullroarer and cord from Hemsby, Norfolk","pool_id":"auto-hunt_fifty_2026_10_30--lang1884_001_10","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-11-03"},"slug":"serban2007-001-children-of-the-gorj-villages"}