Yir-Yoront yoq-par-muw initiation board

yoq-par-muw

Source term: bullroarer, sacred board

yoq-par-muw: Yir-Yoront term glossed "bullroarer, sacred board"

Before a boy became a man, he had to pass through two Yir-Yoront initiations. Bullroarers were used in both. Men acted ancestral history before the novices: in one scene, a great snake made from grass came down a tree above the ancestors it had killed. Women and children stayed outside the secret portions. The boards were made for temporary use. Yir-Yoront speakers called the instrument yoq-par-muw, sacred board, and shaped it like a small smoothing-board before tying on the string and swinging it.

The bullroarer. The one they tie with string. They make it like a small smoothing-board. Then they swing that one.

Alpher 1991:818

Particulars

Object

Shaped like a small smoothing-board (thopm), then tied with a length of string before being swung.

Function

Used in the two compulsory male initiations; made for temporary use.