No. BARNETT1937-002
Chetco bull-roarer
United States · Chetco River, Curry County, Oregon · North America · Northwest Coast
Play / practical
Source term: bull-roarer (boy's plaything)
On the Chetco River the bullroarer was a boy's plaything. The river's own rite belonged to the salmon: whoever caught the first fish of the run handed it to the priest, who cooked it and recited a formula that ran all day, then put a pinch of salmon and angelica root into the mouth of every man present. The girls' puberty dance, the region's one public ceremony, never came this far — "the dance wasn't allowed to come … farther north than xawunhwut," Philip Drucker was told.
Particulars
- Object
- Form and material not recorded.
- Function
- A boy's plaything.
Sources
- Homer G. Barnett, 'Culture Element Distributions: VII, Oregon Coast,' University of California Anthropological Records 1:3 (Berkeley, 1937), p. 174, element 746 ('Bull-roarer (boy's plaything)') View · archived
- Philip Drucker, 'The Tolowa and Their Southwest Oregon Kin,' University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 36:4 (1937), p. 270 View · archived