The Bullroarer Atlas

GALIS1954-001 - ethnographic attestation

Wap, taught by the serpent mother

Indonesia - Kamtuk country on the Genyem to west Sentani road, and the Nimboran (Grime) plain, Jayapura Regency, Papua - Oceania - New Guinea

Sacred / spirit

Representative—not this record’s object: a north Papuan roarer, Leiden 1914.
Representative — not this record’s object. · a north Papuan roarer, Leiden 1914. · CC BY-SA 4.0 Image source

wap

Source term: brom-hout

wap: bullroarer (Dutch brom-hout). Ndjo: the Nimboran primal mother. eram: adat chief; eram-kabi, the feast that installs one. remöku manggum: the rainbow, "little red snake, python".

Among the Nimboran and their Kemtuk neighbours west of Lake Sentani, the chiefs' rite, the bullroarer and the flutes all came from one teacher. The Nimboran call her Ndjo, the old woman, the primal mother. She could show herself as a cuscus or as a snake, and in her nature she was both female and male. She gave birth to people and made the earth. Then she taught them how to make love, how to hold the eram, the feast that raises a man to adat chief, how to use the bullroarer, wap, and later the sacred flutes. Here snakes do not die; they only change their skins, and so they rule over life and death. Even the rainbow is a little red snake.

In wezen is zij tweeslachtig, zij „baart" mensen, schept ook de aarde, […] leert de mensen de geslachtsgemeenschap, het eram-ritueel, het gebruik van het brom-hout (wap) en later van de heilige fluiten, bezit aardse rijkdommen, enz.

In essence she is two-sexed; she "bears" people, also creates the earth, […] teaches people sexual intercourse, the eram ritual, the use of the bullroarer (wap) and later of the sacred flutes, owns earthly riches, and so on.

Galis, "Het Eram-feest te Bonggrang" (1954), p. 36
Object
Bullroarer (Dutch brom-hout); its form is not described.
Source
K. W. Galis, "Het Eram-feest te Bonggrang (met platen)," Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 110, no. 1 (1954), pp. 20-37, at pp. 20, 29, 35-36
Source location
pp. 20, 29, 35-36
Source confidence
medium
Location note
Kamtuk country on the Genyem to west Sentani road, between Kwansu (named by Galis; OSM -2.5834, 140.2553) and Sama, the Kemtuk district seat (OSM -2.6279, 140.3439). Bonggrang itself is not located under that spelling.

Regions: New Guinea · Sahul · Melanesia

Discussed in: The Mother of All

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