The Bullroarer Atlas

HORNE1924-001 - primary ethnography

Wangkangurru (Wonkonguru)

Australia - Mungeranie - country east of Lake Eyre - Oceania - Sahul

Restricted

Representative—not this record’s object: Australian herringbone-carved bullroarer, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own...
Representative—not this record’s object: Australian herringbone-carved bullroarer, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own object is available yet. Emile Clement, Ethnographische Beobachtungen in Nordwest-Central-Australien (1903), Plate IV; Bayerische Staatsbibliothek scan Public domain Image source
A board carved edge to edge with a herringbone zigzag pattern — an Aboriginal Australian bull-roarer held by the Wereldmuseum, shown for the...
Representative image. A board carved edge to edge with a herringbone zigzag pattern — an Aboriginal Australian bull-roarer held by the Wereldmuseum, shown for the general form; not the Martuthunira boonangharry from the Pilbara coast documented here. Wereldmuseum / NMVW (acc. RV-2306-7) CC BY-SA Image source

inchitcha English / Wonkonguru name

Source term: Churinga or bull-roarer

inchitcha: Wonkonguru name glossed Churinga or bull-roarer

When Wangkangurru men prepared a ceremony at Mungeranie, a large inchitcha growled after a woman looked out from her shelter; a smaller one then sent every woman and child away from camp. In the Wilyaroo initiation a leader swung the same bullroarer into a circle of waiting women, thrust it under warm ashes, jerked it out and hid it at once. Horne and Aiston stated the rule plainly: women were not to see it.

The bull-roarer - not to be seen by women.

Horne and Aiston 1924:174
Object
Wooden bullroarer with a drilled hole for its string; large and small forms are sounded. No dimensions or isolated object figure.
Function
Sounded to clear women and children from ceremonial preparation; swung and hidden during Wilyaroo initiation; forbidden for women to see.
Map confidence
high - Mungeranie source-locality anchor for the recorded ceremonies; not a centroid for all Wangkangurru country.
Source location
printed pp. 90, 112, 174-175

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