No. GIFFORDKROEBER1937-004
Buldam–Willits: lie down for the roarer
United States · California, Mendocino County, Willits Valley and Big River mouth (Buldam) · North America
Sacred / spirit
Source term: bull-roarer
Buldam: the Northern Pomo settlement at the mouth of Big River, Mendocino coast; Gifford's 'Buldam–Willits' community had its central village near Willits.
In the assembly house of the Buldam–Willits Pomo the bullroarer was swung even with women and children in the room, and the onlookers lay flat on the floor so the whirling blade would not hit them. Unlike their neighbours at Kabedile and Kalekau, these people did not hide it. Their central village lay near Willits, in the inland valley, and they owned a strip to the sea at Buldam, the mouth of Big River. When white settlers drove them out of Willits Valley, they went down to the coast and settled there; Charlie Snow was born at Buldam soon after the Mendocino reservation opened at Fort Bragg in 1856.
Swung in assembly (dance) house, even when women and children present. Spectators lie down to avoid being hit.
Gifford and Kroeber, "Culture Element Distributions: IV—Pomo" (1937), p. 186, n. 543.
Particulars
- Object
- A bullroarer swung in the Buldam–Willits assembly (dance) house.
- Function
- Swung in the assembly house even when women and children were present; spectators lay down to avoid being hit.
Source
E. W. Gifford and A. L. Kroeber, 'Culture Element Distributions: IV—Pomo', University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 37(4) (1937): 117–254, pp. 121, 123, 126, 145, 186