{"id":"STEWART1942-002","label":"Moanunts Ute wind-making bullroarer","people_or_site":"Moanunts Ute","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Salina Canyon / upper Sevier valley, central Utah","macroregion":"North America / Great Basin","local_name":"niã'painöpö","source_term":"Bull-roarer: whirrer of wood","source_language":"English","object_description":"Whirrer of wood swung on a string with a wooden handle.","function_summary":"Whirled to make wind blow and to clear away clouds; effective only for people born in summer.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"stewart1942_ute_southern_paiute","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/83548","page_or_plate":"printed p. 291 (els. 2792, 2795, 2799, 2800, 2802 +; 2797 toy -); vocabulary p. 352; band p. 236; informants p. 238","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Salina, Utah anchor at the mouth of Salina Canyon; the band held the pass at the canyon's head ('Moavi', pass in the mountain, Stewart p. 236) and lived on both slopes, and informant Mianna Provo was Moanunts from near Salina.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Whoever swung the Moanunts whirrer had to be born in summer: only such hands could drive the niã'painöpö to raise a wind or wipe the clouds from the sky. The band took its name from Moavi, 'pass in the mountain' — the gap at the head of Salina Canyon — and lived on both slopes of the mountain, sagebrush valleys below, pine and aspen forest above. Their bull-roarer, a wooden blade swung on a handled string, was no toy in their telling; it was weather work.","pull_quote":"Used effectively only by people born in summer.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Stewart 1942:291, element 2802","term_gloss":"niã'painöpö: the Moanunts Ute word for the bull-roarer.","cls":"weather","class_label":"Weather / fertility magic","color":"#2F6FA3","is_candidate":false,"flags":["weather"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Omer C. Stewart, Culture Element Distributions: XVIII, Ute-Southern Paiute, Anthropological Records 6(4) (1942), pp. 236, 291 and 352","url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/83548","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013023604/https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/83548"}],"source_citations":"Omer C. Stewart, Culture Element Distributions: XVIII, Ute-Southern Paiute, Anthropological Records 6(4) (1942), pp. 236, 291 and 352","source_display":"Omer C. Stewart, Culture Element Distributions: XVIII, Ute-Southern Paiute, Anthropological Records 6(4) (1942), pp. 236, 291 and 352","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Whirrer of wood swung on a string with a wooden handle.","function_display":"Whirled to make wind blow and to clear away clouds; effective only for people born in summer.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"moanunts ute","display_name":"Moanunts Ute wind-making bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_15/VANSTONE1961-001_fmnh60974_fig37f.png","thumb":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_15/thumbs/VANSTONE1961-001_fmnh60974_fig37f_thumb.png","alt":"Northern Ute bullroarer 60974, collected by George A. Dorsey in 1900: a flat blade with a long buckskin line bent into a large angular loop above it.","credit":"Field Museum of Natural History (60974; negative 113080), via Biodiversity Heritage Library","license":"CC BY-NC-SA 3.0","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/ethnographiccoll28vans","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Northern Ute bullroarer with its buckskin line.","pool_id":"auto-review_2026_07_15--VANSTONE1961-001_fmnh60974_fig37f"},"slug":"stewart1942-002-moanunts-ute"}