{"id":"TORRES-002","label":"Yam (Iama) Islanders","people_or_site":"Yam / Iama Islanders (Kulkalgal), central Torres Strait","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Yam (Iama) Island, central Torres Strait; territory of the Kulkalgal central-island people (Yam paired with neighbouring Tutu)","macroregion":"Oceania / Torres Strait","local_name":"bigu","source_term":"bigu (large bull-roarer; the small form is wanes); the painted garden-charm slab was called madub or bigu","source_language":"Kalaw Lagaw Ya (Kulkalgau Ya dialect, Western-Central Torres Strait Language)","object_description":"A flat oblong wooden slat (bigu) whirled on a cord round the head to roar and hum. Haddon distinguishes the large bigu from the small wanes, both whirled bull-roarers. At Yam a related large oblong painted slab — called madub or bigu — was hung from a tree in a secret bush place as a garden charm representing a human figure.","function_summary":"Increase magic: the bigu \"belonged\" to sweet-potatoes, yams, and turtle — whirled to make crops grow and to aid the turtle hunt; a related painted slab (madub/bigu) was a hidden garden charm.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"completeness_sweep_2026","source_type":"ethnographic_literature","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/reportsofcambrid05hadd","page_or_plate":"p. 347 (Yam bigu/madub; fig. 69, \"Garden charm, Yam\"); pp. 330-331 (bigu/wanes whirled round head; figs. 50-52, Pl. XX)","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Yam (Iama) Island, central Torres Strait — island centroid (9.9014 S, 142.7750 E), the named locality of the attestation","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"On Yam Island in the central Torres Strait, the bull-roarer was a tool of the garden and the hunt. Haddon recorded the large bigu — a flat slat swung round the head on a cord until it roared — as \"belonging\" to sweet-potatoes, yams, and turtle: whirled to make the crops grow and to aid the turtle catch. The headman Maino described a stranger object in the same family: a large oblong slab, painted black with a red central band and hung with human bones and white cowries, suspended from a shady tree in a secret place in the bush. Called madub or bigu, it plainly stood for a human figure; at night, islanders said, such garden charms \"turned devil,\" came alive, and went among the plants swinging their bull-roarers while singing of the coming rain.","pull_quote":"in Yam the same also occurred where the bigu \"belonged\" to sweet-potatoes and yams as well as to turtle.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"A. C. Haddon (ed.), Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, Vol. V (1904), p. 347.","term_gloss":"bigu — the western Torres Strait term for the large bull-roarer (the smaller form is wanes); at Yam the word also named a painted garden-charm slab, recorded interchangeably as madub or bigu.","cls":"weather","class_label":"Weather / fertility magic","color":"#2F6FA3","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","agriculture"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"etymology":"Lexically solid as the larger western Torres Strait bullroarer; at Yam the same word also labels a painted garden-charm slab.","literal_gloss":"large bullroarer / big bullroarer class","semantic_cluster":"size_class; garden_magic","etymology_confidence":"medium","sources":[{"citation":"A. C. Haddon (ed.), Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, Vol. V: Sociology, Magic and Religion of the Western Islanders (Cambridge University Press, 1904), section \"Magic and Religion,\" p. 347 (madub / bigu at Yam, fig. 69); turtle-magic bull-roarer use described pp. 330-331","url":"https://archive.org/details/reportsofcambrid05hadd"}],"source_citations":"A. C. Haddon (ed.), Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, Vol. V: Sociology, Magic and Religion of the Western Islanders (Cambridge University Press, 1904), section \"Magic and Religion,\" p. 347 (madub / bigu at Yam, fig. 69); turtle-magic bull-roarer use described pp. 330-331","source_display":"A. C. Haddon (ed.), Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, Vol. V: Sociology, Magic and Religion of the Western Islanders (Cambridge University Press, 1904), section \"Magic and Religion,\" p. 347 (madub / bigu at Yam, fig. 69); turtle-magic bull-roarer use described pp. 330-331","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A flat oblong wooden slat (bigu) whirled on a cord round the head to roar and hum. Haddon distinguishes the large bigu from the small wanes, both whirled bull-roarers. At Yam a related large oblong painted slab — called madub or bigu — was hung from a tree in a secret bush place as a garden charm representing a human figure.","function_display":"Increase magic: the bigu \"belonged\" to sweet-potatoes, yams, and turtle — whirled to make crops grow and to aid the turtle hunt; a related painted slab (madub/bigu) was a hidden garden charm.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"yam","display_name":"Yam (Iama) Islanders","image":{"full":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_08/TORRES-002_haddon1904_v5_fig52_bigu_wanes.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_08/thumbs/TORRES-002_haddon1904_v5_fig52_bigu_wanes_thumb.jpg","alt":"Haddon’s plate of five Mabuiag bull-roarer models—four large bigu and one small wanes—with their cords.","credit":"A. C. Haddon (ed.), Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, vol. V (1904), fig. 52, p. 332","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/reportsofcambrid05hadd","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Mabuiag models of large bigu and small wanes roarers.","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_08/TORRES-002_haddon1904_v5_fig69_yam_madub.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_08/thumbs/TORRES-002_haddon1904_v5_fig69_yam_madub_thumb.jpg","alt":"Maino’s drawing of the Yam garden charm called madub or bigu: a tall panel with crosshatched sides, a narrow central strip, knobs along its edges, fringe below and a suspension line above.","credit":"A. C. Haddon (ed.), Reports … Torres Straits, vol. V (1904), fig. 69, p. 347 (after a drawing by Maino)","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/reportsofcambrid05hadd","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Maino’s drawing of the Yam garden charm he called madub or bigu, hung from a tree in a secret place."}]},"slug":"torres-002-yam-iama-islanders-kulkalgal-central-torres-strait"}