LUND2020-005 - ethnographic attestation
Nenets reindeer-herding communities
Russia - Northwest Siberia - Asia - Arctic Siberia
Function not recorded
Source term: bullroarer
To break the summer plague of mosquitoes and biting gnats, a Nenets reindeer herder threaded a cord of reindeer sinew through a small board pierced at each end and spun it between both hands until it droned like a rising gale — a wind summoned to scour the insects and the heat off the tundra. Tundra Nenets call it vyvko, forest Nenets vylsu, "the buzzer," the noise of wind. Shamans turned the same droning voice to diagnosing hidden illness and chanting cures. Today it has dwindled to a child's toy.
A fact of interest in this context is that the indigenous reindeer-herding Nenets in North West Siberia still used the bullroarer as a ritual instrument in the late 20th century.
Cajsa S. Lund, "The Bullroarer. A Global and Timeless Sound Instrument," EMAP, p. 31
- Function
- Late twentieth-century ritual bullroarer use among Nenets.
- Map confidence
- low - Northwest Siberia / Nenets regional anchor; Lund gives no exact community.
- Source location
- EMAP p. 31