The Bullroarer Atlas

BRADSHAW2014-001 - lexical attestation

Bolomana, the bullroarer court of Siboma

Papua New Guinea - Siboma village, south coast of the Huon Gulf, Huon District, Morobe Province - Oceania - Sahul

Restricted

The bolomana entry: four ranks of bullroarer and the ritual that enforced sanctions.
The bolomana entry: four ranks of bullroarer and the ritual that enforced sanctions. Image source
Named balum bullroarers of the Bukaua, across the Huon Gulf from Siboma.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Named balum bullroarers of the Bukaua, across the Huon Gulf from Siboma. · Public domain Image source

bolomana

Source term: bullroarer, bullroarer ritual

bolomana: "bullroarer, bullroarer ritual"; dagalawa: the enclosure for the bullroarer ceremony; kuma: offence, and the guilty party in the bullroarer ceremony (kole kuma na, "transgressor"); bolomana matano: a croton plant.

At Siboma, on the south coast of the Huon Gulf, wrongdoers answered to the bullroarer. Among the Numbami, bolomana named both the instrument and the rite through which the village enforced its sanctions. It was held inside its own enclosure, the dagalawa, and it had its own word for the accused: kuma, meaning both the offence and the guilty party. The roarers themselves ranked in four named groups in fixed order, bolomana wosa first, then bamo, yagowi and asoli.

Object
Bullroarers ranked in four named groups in order of precedence: bolomana wosa (first), bolomana bamo (second), bolomana yagowi or yeliya (third) and bolomana asoli (fourth).
Function
The bullroarer ritual was used to enforce community sanctions. It was held in its own enclosure (dagalawa) and had its own word, kuma, for both the offence and the guilty party in the ceremony.
Source
Bradshaw 2014 Numbami Bolomana
Source location
Page references

Numbami-English Dictionary pp. 12, 15, 38 (PDF pages)

Source confidence
high
Location note
Siboma village, OpenStreetMap node 7725566885 (Huon District, Morobe); Bradshaw places the present village at the Sayama creek, the Numbami's single village. Community anchor, not a findspot.

Regions: Huon Gulf balum · Sahul · New Guinea · Melanesia

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