GIFFORD1940-006 - ethnographic attestation
A roarer women might watch
United States - Cimarron, New Mexico - North America
Play / practical
Source term: bull-roarer
The Jicarilla Apache of northern New Mexico were two divisions: the Olleros of the mountains and the Llanero, the plains-side people, who followed buffalo out onto the eastern grass and wintered in the Cimarron country. The Llanero — Gusgayi — put the bullroarer in the hands of men and boys as a plaything, and Gifford's list makes a point of recording that women were permitted to see it used. Elsewhere in the same survey the instrument was a shaman's property, hidden from onlookers. Here it was fifteen inches of wood on three feet of cord, and nobody had to look away.
Ll men and boys as toy; women might see it used.
Gifford 1940:152, note to element 2218.
- Object
- Wooden blade about 15 by 3 inches, whirled on a cord about three feet long.
- Function
- Used as a toy by men and boys; women were allowed to see it in use.
- Source
- Gifford 1940 Ll column and note 2218
- Source location
- pp. 58-59, 151-152
- Source confidence
- medium Cimarron community/regional anchor.
- Toy / secular survival