{"id":"TESSMANN1930-001","label":"Campa meromero jaguar bullroarer","people_or_site":"Campa (Asháninka)","country_current":"Peru","historic_region":"Perené-Tambo drainages, Selva Central montaña (Tessmann's Kampa area)","macroregion":"South America / Upper Amazon","local_name":"mēromēro","source_term":"Schwirrholz","source_language":"German / Kampa name","object_description":"","function_summary":"Small children are frightened with the bullroarer — told the jaguar is coming as it sounds — and it is also a toy, listed among Campa games as mēromēro.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"tessmann1930_kampa_meromero","source_type":"ethnographic_monograph","source_url":"https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001269948","page_or_plate":"printed p. 92 (games list, term) and pp. 99-100 (child-frightening); Kampa chapter pp. 83-102","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative point in the Perené-Tambo Asháninka (Campa) core, Satipo province; Tessmann does not localize his Kampa material to a settlement.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Campa — the Asháninka of Peru's Selva Central — the bullroarer lived in the nursery, on both sides of the line between delight and dread. As mēromēro it was a plaything, alongside balls plaited from maize husks; it was also the bogey, whirled to frighten the smallest children. Bigger children, the ethnographer Günter Tessmann adds, graduate to stinging nettles and the rod, their shirts stripped off first.","pull_quote":"Sind die Kinder klein, so werden sie mit dem Schwirrholz (das auch Spielzeug ist) erschreckt. Dabei sagt man ihnen, der Jaguar käme.","pull_quote_translation":"When the children are small they are frightened with the bullroarer (which is also a toy). As it sounds they are told the jaguar is coming.","pull_quote_cite":"Tessmann, Die Indianer Nordost-Perus (1930), pp. 99-100","term_gloss":"mēromēro: the Campa (Asháninka) name for the bullroarer, from Tessmann's list of their games; his German Schwirrholz is literally 'whirring wood'.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["initiation","toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Günter Tessmann, Die Indianer Nordost-Perus: Grundlegende Forschungen für eine systematische Kulturkunde (Hamburg: Friederichsen, de Gruyter, 1930), p. 92, pp. 99-100","url":"https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001269948"},{"citation":"Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 3 (1948), pp. 546, 548, digesting Tessmann"},{"citation":"Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 287, 296"},{"citation":"Karl Gustav Izikowitz, Musical and Other Sound Instruments of the South American Indians (1935), pp. 212-213"}],"source_citations":"Günter Tessmann, Die Indianer Nordost-Perus: Grundlegende Forschungen für eine systematische Kulturkunde (Hamburg: Friederichsen, de Gruyter, 1930), p. 92, pp. 99-100; Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 3 (1948), pp. 546, 548, digesting Tessmann; Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953), pp. 287, 296; Karl Gustav Izikowitz, Musical and Other Sound Instruments of the South American Indians (1935), pp. 212-213","source_display":"Günter Tessmann, Die Indianer Nordost-Perus: Grundlegende Forschungen für eine systematische Kulturkunde (Hamburg: Friederichsen, de Gruyter, 1930), p. 92, pp. 99-100; Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 3 (1948), pp. 546, 548, digesting Tessmann; Otto Zerries, 'The Bull-roarer among South American Indians,' Revista do Museu Paulista n.s. 7 (1953)…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"","function_display":"Small children are frightened with the bullroarer — told the jaguar is coming as it sounds — and it is also a toy, listed among Campa games as mēromēro.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"campa","display_name":"Campa meromero jaguar bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-084_mqb_71-1980-61-49_matsigenka.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-084_mqb_71-1980-61-49_matsigenka_thumb.jpg","credit":"© Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac","license":"N/A","source_page":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/#/objet/185048","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A Matsigenka bullroarer, Peru","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-084_mqb_71-1980-61-49_matsigenka"},"slug":"tessmann1930-001-campa-ashaninka"}