The Bullroarer Atlas

EVANS2019-001 - lexical attestation

Meyang, the clan roarers of Bimadbn

Papua New Guinea - Bimadbn (Bimadeben) village, Morehead district, South Fly District, Western Province (Trans-Fly) - Oceania - Sahul

Sacred / spirit

Representative—not this record’s object: a palmwood bullroarer from the Bensbach River.
Representative — not this record’s object. · a palmwood bullroarer from the Bensbach River. · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source
The Nen dictionary entry for meyang, the bullroarer, with its handle.
The Nen dictionary entry for meyang, the bullroarer, with its handle. · CC BY 4.0 Image source
The male Diospyros gives the string bundles; the female is named for her strength.
The male Diospyros gives the string bundles; the female is named for her strength. · CC BY 4.0 Image source

meyang (synonym är bolo); mérmér; agalsge; basolsge; giñgiñ meyang

Source term: bull-roarer

meyang: "bull-roarer" (also är bolo); mérmér: a second type of bullroarer, different from meyang; agalsge: the Seregu clan's bullroarer; giñgiñ meyang: the Kiembturer people's bullroarer; basolsge: a bullroarer made from the basol plant; meyang dég̅én-dég̅én: the handle. dénd: a leaf noisemaker swung like a bullroarer (bi dénd, "sago bullroarer"). In neighbouring Nmbo, spoken by the Kerake, the word is mwyang.

In Bimadbn, the Nen-speaking village of the Morehead country, a bullroarer's name could tell you whose it was. Besides the ordinary meyang and a second, different kind called mérmér, the Nen named roarers for their owners: agalsge for the Seregu clan, giñgiñ meyang for the Kiembturer people, basolsge, made from the basol plant, for certain other clans. Every part came from its own plant. The blade was cut from the qét palm, the wood of spears; the cord from one of the four strangler figs; and the bundles of string from the "male" Diospyros tree.

Object
Blade of qét palm (Gulubia), on a cord of strangler fig (mati sébim), with a handle (meyang dég̅én-dég̅én) and string bundles from the "male" Diospyros tree. Mérmér is a second, different type.
Function
A religious instrument. Distinct named types belong to particular clans and peoples: agalsge to the Seregu clan, giñgiñ meyang to the Kiembturer people, basolsge, made from the basol plant, to certain other clans. Its secular counterpart is the dénd, a coconut- or sago-leaf noisemaker swung in the air like a bullroarer.
Source
Evans 2019 Nen Meyang
Source location
Page references

Dictionaria 8, entries nen-meyang, LX000790, agalsge, basolsge, LX000544, LX001169, LX000772, LX000401

Source confidence
high
Location note
Bimadeben (Bimadbn) village, OpenStreetMap node 12676578802, the Nen-speaking village (Kashima 2020 p. iii: "the neighbouring Nen language village of Bimadbn"); about 2 km from the Glottolog nenn1238 point (-8.62183, 142.032). Community anchor, not a findspot.

Regions: Sahul · New Guinea · Melanesia

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