KOCHERSCHMID1993-001 - ethnographic attestation
Yopno ancestor and traditional-law bullroarer
Papua New Guinea - Madang Province - Rai Coast District - Teptep, upper Yupna Valley - Oceania - Sahul
Sacred / spirit
Source term: bullroarer
eserong: a Yopno settlement unit.
Near Teptep, a bullroarer stood for the ancestor of a Yopno settlement unit's oldest lineage—and for the law itself. It once rested in the subdistrict office, lending traditional authority to the official in charge. When lineage elders decided modern government could no longer keep order, they reclaimed the instrument and redirected its power to the new cultural centre.
a bullroarer, representing the ancestor of the oldest lineage of the Yopno eserong
Kocher Schmid 1993:791
- Object
- A lineage-held bullroarer representing an ancestor of the oldest lineage in a Yopno eserong; no material, dimensions, or physical form are recorded.
- Function
- Served as a symbol and vehicle of traditional legal authority: formerly kept in the subdistrict office, then reclaimed by lineage elders and transferred to the planned Teptep cultural centre when they judged modern structures unable to enforce law and order.
- Source
- Christin Kocher Schmid, ‘Cultural Identity as a Coping Strategy towards Modern Political Structures: The Nayudos Case, Papua New Guinea,’ BKI 149.4 (1993), pp. 791–792; wider Nayudos bullroarer ritual at p. 796
- Source location
Page references
pp. 791–792; p. 796
- Source confidence
- medium
- Location note
- Tapen/Teptep administrative-area anchor in Nayudo Rural LLG; the article fixes the cultural centre at Teptep but does not identify the nearby eserong or an object findspot.
Regions: Sahul · New Guinea · Melanesia