MAT1898-004 - ethnographic attestation
Oscar Ranges Kimberley bullroarer
Oscar Ranges, Kimberley, Western Australia
Restricted
Source term: bull-roarer
In the Kimberley the bull-roarer was an instrument of men's initiation: Froggatt recorded these West Australian roarers sounded at the ceremony of circumcision that carried boys into manhood. This one — nearly two feet of carved hardwood from the Oscar Ranges — he passed to R. H. Mathews, who turned it over and found something peculiar. One face swelled convex while the other lay flat, a quirk he had met before only in bull-roarers from the west. Each face carried its own incised drawings; the timber itself he could not name.
One side is convex, and the other flat, a peculiarity I have before observed in bull-roarers from West Australia.
R. H. Mathews, plate description of the Oscar Ranges (Kimberley) specimen lent by W. W. Froggatt, "Bullroarers used by the Australian Aborigines" (Journal of the Anthropological Institute 27, 1898); text as reprinted in "Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales"
- Function
- Kimberley bullroarers are reported by Froggatt as used at the ceremony of circumcision; Plate figs. 1-4 show the Oscar Ranges specimen, with carved convex and flat faces.
- Map confidence
- medium - representative coordinate for named people, ceremony, river, or region in Mathews
- Source location
Page references
JAI 27:52-60; Plate figs. 1-4
- Initiation rite