MCKENNAN1959-001 - museum specimen
Nabesna John's pole-mounted roarer
United States - Alaska - Upper Tanana River - Nabesna - North America - Subarctic
Sacred / spirit
Source term: bull-roarer
For Upper Tanana children, the bullroarer was commonly a toy. Nabesna John gave the same form another life. McKennan watched the shaman mount a roarer on a long stave for seances, whirl it gently as a ceremony ended, and later use it to purify a cabin so a visiting mail carrier would not bring disease spirits inside. The practice, McKennan cautioned, was John’s own.
John purified his cabin with the aid of his bull-roarer
McKennan 1959:154
- Object
- Thin ovate wooden board with notched edges, attached by babiche to a handle; McKennan figures the Hood blade (42.41.8528) at 14 × 2 inches, now restrung with nylon. On the seance stave's roarer a swastika was painted on one side and a crude sketch of a moose, John's medicine animal, on the other (p. 152).
- Function
- Commonly used as a toy; McKennan personally saw the shaman Nabesna John use one on a long pole during seances and to purify a cabin against disease spirits.
- Map confidence
- medium - Nabesna village-area anchor for the named shaman; the museum gives only the Tanana River region and McKennan does not pin the seance cabin.
- Source location
Page references
fig. 4B, pp. 44–45; pp. 102, 152–154
- Toy / secular survival