EA-TW-TSOU-001 - ethnographic attestation
Tsou
Taiwan - Central Mountain Range - Alishan-Tsou area - Asia
Weather / fertility magic
euvuvu English
Source term: Euvuvu (bull-roarer)
vuvu imitates the bullroarer's sound; the sources offer competing glosses for eu-, so no single English gloss is forced here.
Etymology. Cheng parses `eu-` as inducing wind and `vuvu` as the sound. (high confidence)
Among the Tsou of the Alishan mountains, a thin bamboo blade tied to a cord and handstick was swung until it revolved around the player, spinning about the cord and periodically reversing its rotation. Its valley-borne drone warned that an enemy was coming, but the euvuvu was also sounded to pray for rain and to scare birds. Later it became a children's plaything and a greeting at the opening of the fona life-bean festival. Its name carries its sound: vuvu, an imitation of the drone.
Euvuvu is the Tsou name for the bullroarer, a previously undocumented instrument. The term is composed of the prefix eu- and the onomatopoeic vuvu, in which vuvu indicates the sound of the bullroarer. It functioned as a signal to inform villagers by means of the echo of valleys that an enemy was coming.
Cheng 2015:120 (§12.6), 'Native Terminology and Classification of Taiwanese Musical Instruments'
- Object
- Tsou euvuvu: a thin bamboo blade tied to a cord and bamboo handstick, revolved around the player while the blade spins about the cord and periodically reverses its axial rotation; Hornbostel-Sachs 412.22.
- Function
- Valley-echo warning signal; also used to pray for rain and scare birds, later as children's play and at the opening of the fona life-bean festival.
- Map confidence
- medium - Alishan/Tsou regional anchor; Cheng gives a people/language attestation rather than a single village.
- Source location
- section 12.6, printed p. 120; Fig. 54; Cheng 2015, Fig. 6.15.6.1 and p. 742; Liu et al. 2007, p. 33
- Weather / fertility magic
- Toy / secular survival