The Bullroarer Atlas

No. MUS2026-030

Karbi toy spun for its whirr

Karbi Anglong, Assam · South Asia · Northeast India

Play / practical

The Karbi blade itself on its twisted cord (UEM46949); the museum catalogues it simply as a toy.
Plate I. The Karbi blade itself on its twisted cord (UEM46949); the museum catalogues it simply as a toy. Image source

Source term: bull-roarer

"Brummer" is the Norwegian museum cataloguing term for a bullroarer/spun aerophone (cf. the Norwegian "hurre" for the same instrument).

Spun on its cord at great speed, this Karbi blade whirred for nothing but the sound of it — a toy. It comes from Karbi Anglong, the hill country of central Assam, and was used at Hamren, among a people whose unmarried young men once lived together in a village bachelors' house, the terang, tilling the fields side by side as a sworn work-club before marriage.

brummer

hummer

DigitaltMuseum record 0210213508051 / KHM Oslo UEM46949

Particulars

Object
Karbi bull-roarer / brummer in Kulturhistorisk museum, Universitetet i Oslo (KHM Oslo UEM46949).
Function
A toy, whirled on its cord for the sound.

Source

Kulturhistorisk museum, Universitetet i Oslo, UEM46949 (DigitaltMuseum 0210213508051)

View the source · archived

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.