The Bullroarer Atlas

CHENG2015-002 - ethnographic attestation

Pinuyumayan / Puyuma (Katratripulr)

Taiwan - Katratripulr (Zhiben), Taitung - East Asia

Play / practical

The Tainan bullroarer: a cardboard aircraft on red nylon thread.
Representative — not this record’s object. · The Tainan bullroarer: a cardboard aircraft on red nylon thread Image source

Sangpuy Katatepan of Katratripulr, the Puyuma community at Zhiben, remembered the instrument from his own childhood: a thin slip of bamboo on a string, tied to a bamboo stick and swung until it sounded. 'That was a toy during our childhood,' he told the ethnomusicologist Jen-hao Cheng in 2009 — and then turned the question around: 'Can it be regarded as a musical instrument?' Among the Puyuma, he confirmed, it was a plaything.

Sanpuy: That was a toy during our childhood. Can it be regarded as a musical instrument?

Sangpuy Katatepan, interview with L. J. Cheng, 10 Aug 2009; Cheng 2015, printed p. 899
Object
A thin slip of bamboo tied by one string to a bamboo handstick, swung by the string.
Function
Remembered childhood toy.
Map confidence
high - Zhiben (Katratripulr), Taitung City.
Source location
printed pp. 899-901 (interview transcript)

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