Incised Kanum slat for the sosom feast

Source term: bull-roarer

Swung fast on its cord, this incised wooden slat throws a deep, pulsing roar into the air — the bullroarer's single trick, everywhere a sound made to carry a spirit or a summons past the edge of a village. Its collector labelled it only as a piece of wood "decorated with motifs." The Kanum who made it hunt wallaby, deer and wild boar across the seasonally flooded Wasur savanna of the Merauke borderland. The roarer reached a Dutch museum before 1954, shelved among ritual gear, and Jaap Kunst, following Wirz, says which ritual it belongs to: the sosom feast, at which a fish-shaped bullroarer plays an indispensable part as the voice of the sosom giant — a feast the Marind-anim took from the Kanum, and the Kanum in turn from the Keraki to their east, whose roarer sosa is also a giant's voice.

Dit hele feest, met inbegrip van de daarbij behorende mythen, moet frappante overeenkomst tonen met de initiatieplechtigheden en sagen der Boekaoea, Jabim en Tami in Oost-Nieuw-Guinea.

This whole feast, including the myths that belong to it, is said to bear a striking resemblance to the initiation ceremonies and legends of the Bukaua, Jabim and Tami in East New Guinea.

Jaap Kunst, De inheemse muziek in westelijk Nieuw-Guinea (1950), p. 76, after Wirz

Particulars

Object

Decorated wooden bullroarer of the Kanum, Wereldmuseum / NMVW RV-3070-93.