MUS2026-009 - museum specimen
Lardil bull-roarer (museum specimen)
Australia - Mornington Island, Gulf of Carpentaria - Queensland
Play / practical
Source term: bull-roarer
A Lardil bull-roarer from Mornington Island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, collected by George R. Moule and accessioned by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in 1955. The flat ovoid hardwood blade is painted vermilion ochre and worked over with white lines, V-shapes and rows of punctations, and still carries a stub of its cord. Unusually for a museum specimen, the catalogue card records what it was for: in the collector's words it was "used to assemble the group and in some of their dances" — a summoning call that drew people together and a sound carried into the dancing. The note fixes a working role rather than a hidden cult: here the roar served as a signal and a dance voice, not, on this record, as a secret instrument of initiation.
Used to assemble the group and in some of their dances.
Collector's note (George R. Moule), Smithsonian NMNH Anthropology catalogue card, Lardil bull-roarer, accession 203876 (accessioned 1955)
- Object
- Bull-roarer of the Lardil, in the collection of Smithsonian NMNH (NMNH Anthropology).
- Function
- The collector's card records the use: "used to assemble the group and in some of their dances" — a summons and a dance voice, with no initiation or secrecy noted (Moule, 1955).
- Map confidence
- medium - approximate culture/locality centroid
- Source location
Page references
NMNH Anthropology, record nmnhanthropology_8422821 (accession 203876)