The Bullroarer Atlas

No. CAPELL1956-014

Djinang maralbindi

Australia · Crocodile Islands and Milingimbi south to the middle Blyth River and east to the Glyde River, north-central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory

Function not recorded

Minneapolis Institute of Art 99.163.2, the incised Australian ceremonial…
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. Minneapolis Institute of Art 99.163.2, the incised Australian ceremonial… Public domain · Image source

maralbindi

Source term: BULLROARER: maralbindi

maralbindi: bullroarer (Capell 1956, p. 18, BULLROARER column)

Djinang speakers called the bullroarer maralbindi, the same word as their Burarra neighbours to the west and the Ritharrngu inland, and Gupapuyngu speakers said ralbindi. Djinang country runs from the Crocodile Islands and Milingimbi south to the middle Blyth River, and east to the Glyde and the edge of the Arafura Swamp. The Djinang were among the peoples of the Murngin ceremonies, in which the roar of the blade was the voice of the great python Yurlunggur.

Particulars

Object
A bullroarer, called maralbindi; its form is not recorded.
Function
Not recorded.

Sources

  1. Arthur Capell, A Vocabulary of 600 Words in Forty North Australian Languages (typescript, Sydney, 1956), State Library of New South Wales A 6929, p. 18 View
  2. W. Lloyd Warner, A Black Civilization: A Social Study of an Australian Tribe (rev. ed., New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1964), pp. 282, 291 View
  • Alawa dudugulindjiAustralia · Southern tributaries of the Roper River, upstream of the Hodgson River mouth, Northern Territory · Function not recorded
  • Burarra maralbindiAustralia · Coast on both sides of the Blyth River mouth, east to Cape Stewart, north-central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory · Function not recorded
  • Djinba malaidjaraAustralia · Inland from the northern Arafura Swamp to the upper Goyder River, central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory · Function not recorded
  • Wandarang wugunabibiAustralia · Inland from the Phelp River coast, west toward Mount Leane, south-eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory · Function not recorded
  • Yan-nhaŋu djurburAustralia · Crocodile Islands (Milingimbi, Murrungga, Rapuma) off north-central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory · Function not recorded
  • Gunwinggu gubarAustralia · Western Arnhem Land stone country, Liverpool River to Oenpelli (Gunbalanya), Northern Territory · Function not recorded

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.