MCKENNAN1965-001 - primary ethnography
Chandalar storm-turning bullroarer
United States - Alaska - East Fork Chandalar and upper Sheenjek drainages - North America - Subarctic
Weather / fertility magic
Source term: bull roarer
When rain approached, Chandalar Kutchin weather-working offered more than one way to turn it back. A bullroarer could forestall the rain; so could rolls of willow bark pointed toward the clouds. McKennan's informants had recipes for the opposite errand too — hang a bullhead from a child’s neck, or bother a raven.
rain can be forestalled by the use of a bull roarer
McKennan 1965:84
- Object
- Bullroarer; construction not recorded.
- Function
- Used to forestall rain as a storm approached.
- Map confidence
- high - Arctic Village as a present-day Chandalar Gwich’in territorial anchor; the passage does not identify a performance site or settlement.
- Source location
Page references
printed p. 84; PDF p. 97
- Weather magic