GIFFORD1940-001 - ethnographic attestation
Eastern White Mountain Apache
United States - White River and Fort Apache country, east-central Arizona - North America - Southwest
Sacred / spirit
Source term: bull-roarer
The clown went first: whirling a bullroarer, he announced that the masked gan impersonators — the Mountain Spirit dancers — were coming, then kept it sounding through the dance itself. Charlie Shipp of White River, with old Little Johnnie called in on doubtful points, described the Eastern White Mountain instrument for E. W. Gifford: a blade of ash or gaspome wood about a foot long, swung on three feet of cord, always in the open where anyone could watch.
clown whirled bull-roarer to announce masked gan impersonators, after that whirled during dance.
Gifford 1940:152, note to element 2214.
- Object
- Blade of ash or gaspome wood, about 12 by 3 inches, whirled on a cord about three feet long; not made of lightning-struck wood.
- Function
- A clown whirled it to announce the masked gan impersonators, then kept whirling it during the dance; used publicly and in view, not for curing.
- Map confidence
- medium - Whiteriver CDP community anchor — the informant's home base (White River near Fort Apache) and Gifford's interview locality; not a specific dance ground.
- Source location
- pp. 2, 58-59 (elements 2208-2218), 151-152