No. KUNST1931-001
Mombum / Komolom Island bullroarer
Indonesia · Komolom Island (south of Yos Sudarso · Kolepom) · Oceania · New Guinea
Function not recorded
Source term: bullroarers
One island, one village, one people: Komolom, off New Guinea's south coast, held a single community, the Mombum, 308 strong in 1936 and 210 in 1948. Their language is not Marind, yet they had shaped their life on the model of their Marind-anim neighbours: alone among the island peoples the Marind raided for heads, they were spared, took part in the Marind mayo cult, and kept up friendly relations with Wamal. The bullroarer sounded among them too, on a low swamp island between the mouth of the Digul and the sea.
Bullroarers … do occur on Komolom Island and Frederick Hendrik Island and also on the upper Digul.
Jaap Kunst, The Native Music of Western New Guinea (1950), p. 173.
Particulars
- Object
- Bullroarer reported from Komolom Island; construction not recorded.
- Function
- Not recorded.
Source
Jaap Kunst, 'The Native Music of Western New Guinea' (1950), in Music in New Guinea: Three Studies (Verhandelingen KITLV 53, 1967), p. 173 and n. 220, citing Wirz, Die Marind-anim, vol. III, p. 46; J. van Baal, Dema: Description and Analysis of Marind-anim Culture (The Hague, 1966), p. 16 (Mombum population 1936/1948, non-Marind language, mayo-cult participation, relations with Wamal, exemption from Marind headhunting)