Tandaravakwe, borrowed voice of Tambuan

tandaravakwe

Source term: bull-roarer

tandaravakwe: the 'female' bullroarer of a male/female pair (vakwe 'female'; the male is uka).

Etymology. The Taulil bullroarer is tandaravakwe, the 'female' member of a male/female pair (vakwe 'female'; the male counterpart is uka), cut from the kawa tree and swung in the bush and after a man's death. It was kept secret from women, who took its voice for the Tambuan — the masked spirit of the Gazelle Peninsula secret societies.

Swung in the bush and after a man's death, this palm-wood splint spoke with a borrowed voice: the Taulil women who heard it took its roar for the Tambuan, the masked ancestral spirit their Tolai neighbours dance over the dead. Cut from the kawa tree, it is the "female," tandaravakwe, of a male-female pair (uka being the male), and kept strictly secret from women. Gregory Bateson lifted it from a man who was carrying it in his bag.

Secret from women who think it is Tambuan

MAA Cambridge object 523257, accession 1930.464

Particulars

Object

Narrow black palm-wood splint, tapering to a knobbed end where the twine is knotted; the other end is more rounded.

Function

Sounded in the bush and when a man died.