The Bullroarer Atlas

MINE2026-075 - ethnographic attestation

Elko and Battle Mountain Shoshoni

United States - Elko and Battle Mountain, Humboldt River, Nevada - North America - Great Basin

Weather / fertility magic

The illustration Steward used for the Saline Valley Shoshoni wumuitui — a saw-edged oval whirler strung through one end. The Elko and Battle...
Representative image. The illustration Steward used for the Saline Valley Shoshoni wumuitui — a saw-edged oval whirler strung through one end. The Elko and Battle Mountain instruments themselves went unillustrated; Steward names them only in his text. Steward, Culture Element Distributions: XIII, Nevada Shoshoni (Anthropological Records 4:2, 1941), Fig. 4f Public domain Image source

Source term: bull-roarer

Along the Humboldt River, the Nevada Shoshoni swung the bullroarer at the weather from both ends of the year. At Elko, anyone might sound one in early spring to bring the warm wind; downstream at Battle Mountain, boys swung theirs in hot weather to set the air moving. Steward set both practices down in a single line of his 1941 survey.

S-Elko: anyone may use bull-roarer in early spring to bring warm wind. S-BtlM: boys used it to make wind blow during hot weather.

Steward 1941:347, item 1874.
Object
Steward records the bullroarer as a local instrument at both Humboldt River towns; no specimen description is given.
Function
At Elko, anyone could use the bullroarer in early spring to bring warm wind; at Battle Mountain, boys used it in hot weather to make the wind blow.
Map confidence
high - Elko anchor for a two-town Humboldt River attestation (Elko and Battle Mountain); Steward gives town-level localities only.
Source location
p. 347, item 1874

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