Gogodala planting roarer, scorched with figures

Source term: bull-roarer

While yams, taro and bananas went into the ground, this bamboo roarer was whirled over the planting, and its sound made the crops fertile and made them grow. Incised and scorched with figures, it comes from the Gogodala, lagoon-dwellers of the Aramia River floodplain whose adolescent boys were once inducted into aida — a male secret society whose spectacular initiation bound neighbouring longhouses together and closed its rites to women. In 1936, local converts and Unevangelised Fields missionaries burned nearly all of that ceremonial world as heathenism.

Tijdens het planten van yams, taro en bananen wordt het snorhout rondgeslingerd.

While yams, taro and bananas are being planted, the roarer is swung around.

Wereldmuseum / NMVW TM-2670-418

Particulars

Object

Bamboo bullroarer, about 34 x 5.5 cm, incised and burned with figures; Wereldmuseum TM-2670-418.

Function

Swung while yams, taro and bananas were planted, to promote the fertility and growth of the crops.