The Bullroarer Atlas

BROWN1913-001 - primary ethnography

Kariyarra (Kariera)

Australia - Pilbara coast around Port Hedland - Oceania - Sahul

Sacred / spirit

Representative—not this record’s object: Gascoyne bullroarer, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own object is available...
Representative—not this record’s object: Gascoyne bullroarer, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own object is available yet. W. D. Hambly, Primitive Hunters of Australia (Field Museum of Natural History, 1936), plate I, fig. 10 Public domain Image source
Western Australia, Giglioli 1886. The entire historical page is shown; object 3 is handwritten Mooryumkarr, probably the Gascoyne-mouth...
Western Australia, Giglioli 1886. The entire historical page is shown; object 3 is handwritten Mooryumkarr, probably the Gascoyne-mouth spirit-chaser later described by Pettazzoni. Enrico H. Giglioli, Western Australian objects at the Colonial Exhibition, London (1886) Public domain Image source

banangari English

Source term: bullroarer

banangari: Kariyarra name recorded by Brown for the bullroarer; no literal lexical gloss recovered

At the close of a Kariyarra initiation on Western Australia's Pilbara coast, the boy received not one banangari but two: a large bullroarer worn at the front of his belt and a smaller one fastened behind his head. Brown's field account adds a striking local exception to the usual Australian secrecy rule: Kariyarra women were permitted to see the bullroarer.

Two bullroarers (banangari) were given to him, a large one and a small.

Brown 1913:168
Object
Two bullroarers, one large and one small; no object dimensions, cord, or figure supplied.
Function
Given during initiation; the larger was worn at the front of the belt and the smaller in the rear headband. Kariera women were explicitly permitted to see the bullroarer.
Map confidence
medium - Port Hedland regional anchor within Brown's Kariera coastal territory; not a performance site.
Source location
printed p. 168; PDF p. 27

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