The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-084 - museum specimen

Matsigenka

Peru - Urubamba River, Ucayali - South America

Function not recorded

A Maxakalí bull-roarer blade with its cord bound to a handle stick — collected by Curt Nimuendajú in 1939 (Museum of World Culture, CC0) —...
Representative image. A Maxakalí bull-roarer blade with its cord bound to a handle stick — collected by Curt Nimuendajú in 1939 (Museum of World Culture, CC0) — shown for the general South American form; not the red-wood rhombe of the Matsigenka, from the Urubamba River, documented here. Världskulturmuseet, Gothenburg (1946.03.0049); collected by Curt Nimuendajú, 1939 CC0 Image source

Source term: bull-roarer

rhombe (French): bullroarer.

A rhombe of carved red wood with engraved decoration, collected among the Matsigenka of the Rio Urubamba and reaching the quai Branly by way of the Musee de l'Homme and France-Marie Casevitz's fieldwork. The catalogue logs it only as a musical instrument, and the Matsigenka ethnographic record attaches no rite, restriction, or spirit to it: the named instruments of Matsigenka life are the monkey-skin drum, flutes, and panpipes, and what ceremony there is runs to dancing, singing, and drink rather than the whirled blade.

Instrument de musique.

Musical instrument.

Quai Branly API object 185043
Object
Quai Branly object 71.1980.61.48: Rhombe of the Matsigenga, Rio Urubamba, red wood.
Function
Quai Branly API identifies a Matsigenga rhombe from the Rio Urubamba as a musical instrument; no use, women restriction, or female association is recorded.
Map confidence
high - approximate culture/locality centroid
Source location
object record 185043 (Quai Branly catalogue), inv. 71.1980.61.48

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