{"id":"WIRZ1951-001","label":"Roarers of the swallowing house","people_or_site":"West Iatmul (Nyaura), Jentschemangua","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"Jentschemangua (Yensemangwa), middle Sepik River, East Sepik Province","macroregion":"Oceania / New Guinea","local_name":"","source_term":"Schwirrer","source_language":"German","object_description":"Bullroarers of the Jentschemangua cult house, named with the sacred flutes and three slit-drums; their form is not described.","function_summary":"With the sacred flutes and the cult house's three named slit-drums, bullroarers played an important part in the cult rites; by 1950 the drums only called the men to meetings.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"wirz1951_meine_sepikfahrt","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=hmb-002%3A1951%3A31%3A%3A233","page_or_plate":"Wirz 1951 pp. 132-134, Abb. 38 (p. 133); Olig p. 98","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Yentchanmangua (GeoNames PPL, one-decimal precision), the gazetteer spelling of Wirz's Jentschemangua on the middle Sepik.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"At Jentschemangua on the middle Sepik the great cult house was a monster. Its saddle roof swept almost to the ground, its two gables ran up into tall spires topped with birds, probably cranes, and a small human figure, and each gable end bore a huge grimacing face with gaping jaws. The novices once sat inside it, swallowed, it was said, by the beast. When Paul Wirz came collecting early in 1950 the house was a rest house open to strangers, yet nothing in it could be bought: the ancient figure-stool, the old plaited mask, the giant carved men guarding the palms in front were all \"strong from the ground\". Its three slit-drums had names, Kumbragawidimba, Rabiyanaguan and Mandangu, and with the sacred flutes and the bullroarers they had once carried the house's rites. By then the drums only called the men to meetings.","pull_quote":"Sie spielten, wie auch die heiligen Flöten, Schwirrer und andere Musikinstrumente, bei den kultischen Riten eine bedeutende Rolle.","pull_quote_translation":"They played, like the sacred flutes, bullroarers and other musical instruments, an important part in the cult rites.","pull_quote_cite":"Paul Wirz, Meine Sepikfahrt (1951), p. 134","term_gloss":"","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Paul Wirz, \"Meine Sepikfahrt: eine Sammelreise für das Bernische Historische Museum\", Jahrbuch des Bernischen Historischen Museums 31 (1951), pp. 132-134","url":"https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=hmb-002%3A1951%3A31%3A%3A233"},{"citation":"Silke Olig, Zeichen am Sepik (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), p. 98","url":"https://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/6514/1/Olig_Silke.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20240629132239/https://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/6514/1/Olig_Silke.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Paul Wirz, \"Meine Sepikfahrt: eine Sammelreise für das Bernische Historische Museum\", Jahrbuch des Bernischen Historischen Museums 31 (1951), pp. 132-134; Silke Olig, Zeichen am Sepik (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), p. 98","source_display":"Paul Wirz, \"Meine Sepikfahrt: eine Sammelreise für das Bernische Historische Museum\", Jahrbuch des Bernischen Historischen Museums 31 (1951), pp. 132-134; Silke Olig, Zeichen am Sepik (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), p. 98","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bullroarers of the Jentschemangua cult house, named with the sacred flutes and three slit-drums; their form is not described.","function_display":"With the sacred flutes and the cult house's three named slit-drums, bullroarers played an important part in the cult rites; by 1950 the drums only called the men to meetings.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"west iatmul","display_name":"Roarers of the swallowing house","image":{"full":"assets/objects/rowing_2026_11_12/WIRZ1951-001_wirz1951_abb38.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/rowing_2026_11_12/thumbs/WIRZ1951-001_wirz1951_abb38_thumb.jpg","alt":"Black-and-white photograph of a towering thatched Sepik cult house on posts, its steep gable rising to a tall spire, flanked by palms and trees, with a few people standing beneath it.","credit":"Paul Wirz, Jahrbuch des Bernischen Historischen Museums 31 (1951), fig. 38","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=hmb-002%3A1951%3A31%3A%3A233","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The cult house of Jentschemangua, photographed by Paul Wirz in 1950."},"slug":"wirz1951-001-west-iatmul-nyaura-jentschemangua"}