The Bullroarer Atlas

KROLL1938-001 - ethnographic attestation

Bola (Bakovi)

Papua New Guinea - Willaumez - Talasea Peninsula - West New Britain - New Pommern - Oceania - Sahul

Function not recorded

Representative—not this record’s object: Island Melanesian bullroarer, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own object is...
Representative—not this record’s object: Island Melanesian bullroarer, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own object is available yet. © The Trustees of the British Museum (E/Oc1987-05-122) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

tuvura German / Bola term

Source term: Schwirrholz

tuvura: Bola/Bakovi bullroarer term; no literal gloss or morphology recovered

On the Willaumez Peninsula the Bola, or Bakovi, kept tuvura, the bullroarer, apart from Kuku, the masked season that travelled village to village along the coast — two voices in the same world of dance and transformed beings.

hat der Bola ausser dem tuvura (Schwirrholz) seinen Kuku.

The Bola has besides the tuvura bullroarer his Kuku.

Kroll 1938:412 footnote 1
Object
Bullroarer explicitly identified by local term; no material, dimensions, cord, hole, blade shape, mechanics, or object figure is supplied.
Function
Bola bullroarer explicitly distinguished from the separate Kuku mask season; precise use is not recorded.
Map confidence
medium - Bola village on the Willaumez Peninsula; representative community anchor rather than a documented performance site.
Source location
printed p. 412, footnote 1; viewer page 905

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  • AwalamaPapua New Guinea - Milne Bay - Function not recorded
  • Baluan IslandPapua New Guinea - Manus - Function not recorded
  • BarriaiPapua New Guinea - West New Britain - Function not recorded
  • BensbachPapua New Guinea - Western Province (Morehead) - Function not recorded
  • BonguPapua New Guinea - Rai Coast, Madang (Astrolabe B - Function not recorded
  • BosmanPapua New Guinea - Melanesia, Papua New Guinea - Function not recorded