The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-087 - museum specimen

Kayapo

Brazil - Xingu basin, Para - Mato Gro - South America

Function not recorded

A dark leaf-shaped bull-roarer crossed by a band of unstained wood, its long twisted cord gathered in a loose skein — a South American piece...
Representative image. A dark leaf-shaped bull-roarer crossed by a band of unstained wood, its long twisted cord gathered in a loose skein — a South American piece held by Berlin's Ethnological Museum, shown for the general form; not the Kayapo instrument from the Xingu basin, held by the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, documented here. Ethnological Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (acc. DE-MUS-019118/151923/2020-04-07_13-52-09) Image source

Source term: bull-roarer

A buzzing tube of the Kayapo from the Xingu River basin, accessioned by the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka in 1983. The catalogue files it as a musical instrument, an "unari-zutsu" or buzzing tube, forty centimeters long and weighing 230 grams; no use or ritual context was recorded with it.

楽器（うなり筒）

Musical instrument (buzzing tube)

National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka (Minpaku), object record H0110540
Object
Bull-roarer of the Kayapo, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka (Minpaku).
Function
Not recorded.
Map confidence
high - approximate culture/locality centroid
Source location
object record H0110540 (Minpaku)

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  • XavanteBrazil - Mato Grosso - Function not recorded
  • BaniwaBrazil - Lower Rio Içana, Santana, São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas - Function not recorded
  • IpurinaBrazil - Amazon / Purus - Function not recorded
  • Nahukúá (upper Xingu)Brazil - Upper Xingu (Steinen expeditions of 1884 and 1887-88) - Function not recorded
  • Tembé (Tenetehara), ParáBrazil - Pará/Maranhão (Tenetehara) - Function not recorded
  • TiriyóBrazil - Paru de Oeste-Marapi basin, Tumucumaque Indigenous Park, Pará - Function not recorded