The Bullroarer Atlas

No. JENSEN1936-003

Gedeo Darassa emimissa restricted bullroarer

Gedeo highlands · southern Ethiopia · Africa

Restricted

Amhara Rorata / Furrit from Gondar: a long wooden wand lies horizontally with a broad blade suspended from it on a short cord.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. An Amhara blade with cord and wand, Gondar, Ethiopia. Image source

emimissa

Source term: Schwirrholz

emimissa: the Darassa (Gedeo) name for the bullroarer.

Among the Gedeo, historically called the Darassa, the emimissa was a cult instrument hidden from women — anxiously hidden, Jensen wrote. Its name survives from a ceremonial life in which the bullroarer's sound belonged to restricted knowledge.

Das Schwirrholz, bei den Darassa noch ein kultisches Werkzeug und vor den Frauen ängstlich verborgen ...

The bullroarer, among the Darassa still a cult implement kept anxiously hidden from women ...

Jensen, Wohlenberg and Wohlenberg 1936:178

Particulars

Object
Bullroarer identified by instrument class; no material, dimensions, cord, perforation, blade shape, mechanics, handle, or object figure is supplied.
Function
Cult implement carefully hidden from women.

Source

Jensen, Wohlenberg and Wohlenberg, Im Lande des Gada (1936; reprinted as Im südlichen Abessinien), p. 178 and glossary p. 575

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Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.