The Bullroarer Atlas

ARCTIC-006 - museum specimen

St. Lawrence Island Yupik (Siberian Yupik), Bering Sea, Alaska

United States - St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Alaska Territory - North America - Arctic

Sacred / spirit

Two flat wood strips lashed together with cord and a paper tag, photographed loose on a dark cloth — a generic Arctic bull-roarer bundle...
Representative image. Two flat wood strips lashed together with cord and a paper tag, photographed loose on a dark cloth — a generic Arctic bull-roarer bundle standing in for the type. The St. Lawrence Island Yupik 'Devil-Chaser,' a long curved rod carved with a small human face at the handle, is held elsewhere and not shown here. © The Trustees of the British Museum (E/Am1920-1008-20) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

Source term: Devil-Chaser

English museum nickname for the object, catalogued by the Smithsonian as a 'bull-roarer'; a spirit-/predator-driving noisemaker class-name, not a recorded St. Lawrence Island Yupik word.

Collected on St. Lawrence Island in the middle of the Bering Sea and accessioned by the Smithsonian in 1913, this Yupik bullroarer is a long, slightly curved wooden rod that, swung on its cord, throws off a low vibrating roar; a small human face is carved into the end of its handle. The museum keeps it under the nickname "Devil-Chaser" and admits it does not know why, noting only that the Inupiaq farther north called such whirled rods 'wolf-scarers.' Its single-rod form sets it apart from the doubled-cord buzz-disk that was the other spinning toy of these islands.

This long, slightly curved wooden rod was swung with a circular motion fast enough that it would emit a loud, low, vibrating noise... The 'Devil Chaser' has a small face carved into the end of the handle.

Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center / National Museum of Natural History, collection feature on the St. Lawrence Island Yupik (Smithsonian Learning Lab), describing the bull-roarer ("Devil-Chaser") collected by R. D. Moore, accessioned 19 October 1913.
Object
A bullroarer collected on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea: a long, slightly curved wooden rod, swung in a circle on a cord fast enough to emit a loud, low, vibrating roar, with a small human face carved into the end of the handle. Held by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Department of Anthropology), collected by Riley D. Moore and accessioned 19 October 1913. The Smithsonian catalogues the object as a bull-roarer; its museum nickname is "Devil-Chaser." The single-rod, swung-on-a-cord form distinguishes it from the doubled-cord perforated buzz-disk that was the other common whirled toy of the Bering Sea islands.
Function
Function not recorded for this specimen; the Smithsonian states the reason for the name "Devil-Chaser" is uncertain. Bullroarers of the region (the Inupiaq call them 'wolf-scarers') were used as predator- and spirit-driving noisemakers, but no specific ritual use is documented for this object.
Map confidence
medium - Representative anchor at Gambell (Sivuqaq), the northwest-tip village of St. Lawrence Island where Riley D. Moore did his Bering Sea Yupik fieldwork; the museum record gives only 'St. Lawrence Island' as the locality.
Source location
Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center / Learning Lab object feature (Devil-Chaser bull-roarer, St. Lawrence Island, R. D. Moore coll., acc. 19 Oct 1913); comparanda Murdoch 1892: 377-379; Nelson 1899: 340-342; Whitridge 2015: 19-20

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