{"id":"TUCCI1969-001","label":"Upper Illasi valley surla a man","people_or_site":"Mountain folk of the upper Illasi valley, Verona","country_current":"Italy","historic_region":"Veneto / Lessinia","macroregion":"Europe / Northeast Italy","local_name":"surla a man","source_term":"","source_language":"Italian","object_description":"Wooden slat bullroarer whirled from the hand; a more elaborate arm-worked form, the surla a brasso, was used beside it.","function_summary":"Boys' folk toy; two named forms, the hand-whirled surla a man and the arm-worked surla a brasso.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"tucci_1969_rombo_italia","source_type":"ethnographic_survey","source_url":"https://revistataeonline.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/0/2/22023964/studi_giovannitucci_tae21.pdf","page_or_plate":"Tucci 1969, p. 366","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Upper Illasi valley / Lessinia anchor above Verona.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In the mountain country at the head of the Illasi valley above Verona, the bullroarer took its name from an insect: surla, the local word for the chafer beetles whose midsummer drone it matched. Boys knew two forms — the plain surla a man, a slat whirled from the hand, and the more elaborate surla a brasso worked from the whole arm — and when Giovanni Tucci came asking in the 1960s, a valley correspondent could still send him the instruments themselves.","pull_quote":"Il rombo in tali contrade viene chiamato «surla», termine col quale i veronesi denominano le cetonie e i maggiolini, e pertanto la denominazione si collega al caratteristico rumore che questi insetti producono volando.","pull_quote_translation":"In these districts the rombo is called 'surla', the word by which the Veronese name the rose-chafers and cockchafers, and so the name is tied to the characteristic noise these insects make in flight.","pull_quote_cite":"Giovanni Tucci, 'Studi e ricerche sul rombo in Italia', Rivista di Etnografia XXIII (1969), p. 366","term_gloss":"surla — Veronese for the chafer beetles and their buzz; a man 'by hand', a brasso 'by arm'.","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":"Giovanni Tucci, 'Studi e ricerche sul rombo in Italia,' Rivista di Etnografia XXIII (1969), pp. 363-377","url":"https://revistataeonline.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/0/2/22023964/studi_giovannitucci_tae21.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260917113515/https://revistataeonline.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/0/2/22023964/studi_giovannitucci_tae21.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Giovanni Tucci, 'Studi e ricerche sul rombo in Italia,' Rivista di Etnografia XXIII (1969), pp. 363-377","source_display":"Giovanni Tucci, 'Studi e ricerche sul rombo in Italia,' Rivista di Etnografia XXIII (1969), pp. 363-377","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Wooden slat bullroarer whirled from the hand; a more elaborate arm-worked form, the surla a brasso, was used beside it.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"mountain folk","display_name":"Upper Illasi valley surla a man","image":{"full":"assets/objects/TUCCI1969-008_tucci1969_p373_marzi.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/TUCCI1969-008_tucci1969_p373_marzi_thumb.jpg","alt":"A drawing of a Marzi rig with a rectangular perforated blade linked by a long cord to a separate whip handle.","credit":"Giovanni Tucci, Rivista di Etnografia XXIII (1969), p. 373","license":"© Rivista di Etnografia / Tucci heirs — rehosted low-res line drawing for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://revistataeonline.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/0/2/22023964/studi_giovannitucci_tae21.pdf","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A Marzi, Calabria wooden bullroarer rig.","pool_id":"auto-TUCCI1969-008_tucci1969_p373_marzi"},"slug":"tucci1969-001-mountain-folk-of-the-upper-illasi-valley-verona"}