{"id":"WINDSOR1994-001","label":"Livitu soul-passing bullroarer","people_or_site":"Livitu villagers, New Ireland","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"New Ireland, New Ireland Province","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"","source_term":"bull roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A wooden blade on a long string, whirled to accompany the mortuary friction drum.","function_summary":"Whirled with the friction drum, which should be heard only when someone dies, its fluttering sound signifying the soul passing out of the body.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"windsor1994_thornley","source_type":"published_account","source_url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/money/style-now-that-s-what-he-calls-music-where-on-earth-does-radio-3-get-its-strange-ethnic-music-from-the-tiny-office-of-the-producer-john-thonrnley-reports-john-windsor-1415780.html","page_or_plate":"Newspaper article (online), paragraphs on the New Ireland friction drum","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Namatanai, central New Ireland, as an island anchor; “Livitu” not located in gazetteers","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In the Livitu villages of New Ireland, the friction drum was meant to be heard only when someone died: a solid block of polished wood, oiled with leaves and rubbed with the palm until it wailed. With it went a bullroarer, a wooden blade on a long string, whirled to make “a ghastly fluttering sound to signify the soul passing out of the body.” The villagers broke the taboo to play the drum for the BBC recordist John Thornley, who had been told it was extinct.","pull_quote":"a ghastly fluttering sound to signify the soul passing out of the body","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"John Thornley, in Windsor 1994","term_gloss":"","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"John Windsor, “Style: Now that’s what he calls music,” The Independent, 23 July 1994","url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/money/style-now-that-s-what-he-calls-music-where-on-earth-does-radio-3-get-its-strange-ethnic-music-from-the-tiny-office-of-the-producer-john-thonrnley-reports-john-windsor-1415780.html"}],"source_citations":"John Windsor, “Style: Now that’s what he calls music,” The Independent, 23 July 1994","source_display":"John Windsor, “Style: Now that’s what he calls music,” The Independent, 23 July 1994","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A wooden blade on a long string, whirled to accompany the mortuary friction drum.","function_display":"Whirled with the friction drum, which should be heard only when someone dies, its fluttering sound signifying the soul passing out of the body.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"livitu villagers","display_name":"Livitu soul-passing bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest2/MUS2026-275_mimo_MIR1283.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest2/thumbs/MUS2026-275_mimo_MIR1283_thumb.jpg","credit":"Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg (MIR 1283/1284) — via MIMO","license":"License unstated — via MIMO; rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://mimo-international.com/MIMO/doc/IFD/OAI_GNM_907602/schwirrholz","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A fish-headed roarer from New Britain, beside New Ireland.","pool_id":"auto-museum_harvest2--MUS2026-275_mimo_MIR1283"},"slug":"windsor1994-001-livitu-villagers-new-ireland"}