{"id":"STEINEN1894-001","label":"Nahuquä matavu fish-form bullroarer","people_or_site":"Nahuquä (Nahukuá), Upper Xingu Carib","country_current":"Brazil","historic_region":"Kulisehu (Curisevo) river, Upper Xingu, Mato Grosso","macroregion":"South America / Brazil","local_name":"matavu","source_term":"Schwirrholz — matavu","source_language":"German (Nahuquä terms)","object_description":"Two fish-shaped wooden boards, 34 and 36 cm long, the 3 m cord wound round the narrowed tail; one painted with the snake zigzag, the other black with a row of fish- or bat-lozenges left in reserve.","function_summary":"Whirled for the merry mask dances, or simply as a plaything, out on the open village plaza; the women were not sent away.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"steinen1894naturvoelker","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/unterdennaturv00stei","page_or_plate":"p. 266 (snake-zigzag sentence); word-list appendix from p. 525; figures p. 327 (plate 22); Levi-Strauss, HSAI 3 (1948), p. 347 (fish form, no sexual prohibitions) and pp. 330-331 Fig. 34 caption g, h","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Kulisehu (Curisevo) river villages visited on von den Steinen's 1887–88 route; not an object-level findspot","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"On the Kulisehu river in 1887–88, Karl von den Steinen collected bullroarers from the Carib-speaking Nahuquä carved in the form of fish, and set their name down in his comparative word-list: matavu — printed directly opposite the Arawak Mehinaku word matapu. One word, two language families: the clearest trace of a cult term that crossed the Upper Xingu's deepest linguistic line. The zigzag running down the boards was the snake, just as it was on the back-boards the neighbouring Bakairi wore at their feasts. The Nahuquä's Carib descendants — the Kalapalo and Kuikuro of today — no longer keep the instrument; these fish-form boards are the word's only document on that side of the family line.","pull_quote":"Auf Schwirrhölzern der Nahuquá … kommen Zickzacks derselben Art wie auf dem Rückenholz vor und gelten auch hier als Bild der Schlange.","pull_quote_translation":"On the bull-roarers of the Nahuquá … zigzags of the same kind as on the back-board occur, and here too they count as the image of the snake.","pull_quote_cite":"von den Steinen 1894, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens, p. 266 (figure p. 327, Abb. 122)","term_gloss":"matavu = bullroarer (Upper Xingu Carib; ~ Arawak matapu)","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["snake","toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":true,"sources":[{"citation":"Karl von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens (Berlin: D. Reimer, 1894), pp. 266, 327, Abb. 122; word list from p. 525","url":"https://archive.org/details/unterdennaturv00stei"},{"citation":"Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 281-283"},{"citation":"Claude Lévi-Strauss, Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 3 (1948), p. 347; pp. 330-331, fig. 34 g-h"}],"source_citations":"Karl von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens (Berlin: D. Reimer, 1894), pp. 266, 327, Abb. 122; word list from p. 525; Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 281-283; Claude Lévi-Strauss, Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 3 (1948), p. 347; pp. 330-331, fig. 34 g-h","source_display":"Karl von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens (Berlin: D. Reimer, 1894), pp. 266, 327, Abb. 122; word list from p. 525; Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 281-283; Claude Lévi-Strauss, Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 3 (1948), p. 347; pp. 330-331, fig. 34 g-h","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Two fish-shaped wooden boards, 34 and 36 cm long, the 3 m cord wound round the narrowed tail; one painted with the snake zigzag, the other black with a row of fish- or bat-lozenges left in reserve.","function_display":"Whirled for the merry mask dances, or simply as a plaything, out on the open village plaza; the women were not sent away.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"nahuqu","display_name":"Nahuquä matavu fish-form bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/STEINEN1894-001_steinen1894-001-steinen1894-abb122-pair.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/STEINEN1894-001_steinen1894-001-steinen1894-abb122-pair_thumb.jpg","credit":"Karl von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens (1894), p. 327, Abb. 122","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/unterdennaturv00stei/page/327/mode/1up","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Von den Steinen’s two Nahuquä fish-form bullroarers."},"slug":"steinen1894-001-nahuqua-nahukua-upper-xingu-carib"}