The Bullroarer Atlas

KOTZ1922-001 - ethnographic attestation

Pare (Wapare), Pare Mountains, north-eastern Tanzania

Tanzania - Pare Mountains - East Africa

Restricted

Plain wooden blade with a pierced stepped tang and rounded point.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Plain wooden blade with a pierced stepped tang and rounded point · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

ngurunguru German

ngurunguru — the Pare bullroarers of the mshitu initiation grove; called children of the forest beast.

In the Pare mountains the ngurunguru went ahead of the mshitu: broad blades a forearm long, swung on their bands until the hills hummed. They were the children of the forest beast, and the beast itself waited in the initiation grove — the monster that swallowed the novices and, when the rites were done, gave them back as men. The humming was its household approaching.

Object
Schwirrholzer about 30 cm long and 10-15 cm broad, swung on a band by their bearers to give a humming tone.
Function
Initiation instruments: the ngurunguru — 'children of the forest beast' — are swung ahead of the mshitu festival, voicing the monster that swallows the novices and gives them back.
Map confidence
low_medium - North Pare anchor (Shigatini/Usangi district, Kotz's mission field).
Source location
Kotz 1922 (Gutenberg #77152; print pp. 62, 76)

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