No. DRUCKER1950-003
Clayoquot bullroarer
Canada · Clayoquot Sound, west coast of Vancouver Island · North America · Northwest Coast
Sacred / spirit
Source term: bullroarer
The Clayoquot were the richest and most powerful tribe of the central Nootkan province — their chiefs all drawn from one closely related family, and with the Ahousat and the Moachat the most ardent whale hunters on the coast. Their bullroarer was a Wolf Dance instrument, swung from a handle, and never a plaything: here the roarer belonged to a whaling aristocracy, and the peoples who called it a toy lived north of them.
Particulars
- Object
- A wooden slat swung on a cord fastened to a handle, the standard form all along this coast. Neither dimensions nor material recorded.
- Function
- Sounded in the Wolf Dance; not a child's toy.
Source
Philip Drucker, 'Culture Element Distributions: XXVI, Northwest Coast,' University of California Anthropological Records 9:3 (Berkeley, 1950), p. 199, elements 854-857, with notes p. 268