The Bullroarer Atlas

BROWN1913-002 - primary ethnography

Ngarluma (Ngaluma)

Australia - Pilbara coast between Maitland and Sherlock rivers - Oceania - Sahul

Sacred / spirit

Representative—not this record’s object: Australian herringbone-carved bullroarer, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own...
Representative—not this record’s object: Australian herringbone-carved bullroarer, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own object is available yet. Emile Clement, Ethnographische Beobachtungen in Nordwest-Central-Australien (1903), Plate IV; Bayerische Staatsbibliothek scan Public domain Image source
A board carved edge to edge with a herringbone zigzag pattern — an Aboriginal Australian bull-roarer held by the Wereldmuseum, shown for the...
Representative image. A board carved edge to edge with a herringbone zigzag pattern — an Aboriginal Australian bull-roarer held by the Wereldmuseum, shown for the general form; not the Martuthunira boonangharry from the Pilbara coast documented here. Wereldmuseum / NMVW (acc. RV-2306-7) CC BY-SA Image source

banangari English

Source term: bullroarer

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

When a Ngarluma boy returned from gathering neighboring camps for his initiation, his arms were bound with fur string, his body painted red, and eagle-hawk feathers fixed in his hair. Then he received the banangari, fastened behind his head in the headband. Women witnessed part of the ceremony, but Brown says only that other parts were closed to them; he does not make the bullroarer itself the forbidden sight.

A bullroarer (banangari) is given to him and he wears this fastened in his head-band at the back of his head.

Brown 1913:174
Object
Bullroarer worn fastened in the rear headband; no object dimensions, cord, or figure supplied.
Function
Given during initiation and worn behind the head. Women attended some parts of the ceremony but were excluded from other unspecified parts.
Map confidence
medium - Roebourne district regional anchor within Brown's Ngaluma coastal territory; not a performance site.
Source location
printed p. 174; PDF p. 33 | Bern 1903 Gualla/Turner River object record

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