The Bullroarer Atlas

No. MUS2026-112

Mesbilja blade, bare essentials

Mexico · Mesbilja, Oxchuc, Chiapas · North America

Play / practical

Mesbilja bullroarer UEM41249/b from highland Chiapas: a flat wooden blade with scattered small punctures, a narrowed end and a cord tied at that end.
Plate I. The Mesbilja bullroarer UEM41249/b: a flat wooden blade with a single cord attached at one end. CC BY-SA · Image source
A plain wooden slat on its long cord, from Mesbilja in Chiapas, Mexico.
Plate II. The second Mesbilja whirler, UEM41249/a: a plain tapered slat on its long cotton cord. CC BY-SA · Image source

Source term: summetre / brummer

summetre / brummer: Norwegian names for the bullroarer; summetre is literally 'humming wood'.

This bullroarer is reduced to its bare essentials: a straight, hand-cut strip of wood, blunt at one end and pierced at the other, with a long twisted cord still knotted through the hole. It is a toy — a thing of play and games and of learning a skill as much as a musical instrument. Mesbilja lies in Oxchuc, Tzeltal Maya country.

summetre; leke; brummer; musikkinstrument — Lek og spill; Musikkinstrumenter; Trearbeid; Innlæring av ferdigheter

bullroarer; toy; whirring instrument; musical instrument — play and games; musical instruments; woodwork; learning of skills

Kulturhistorisk museum Oslo

Particulars

Object
Flat wooden blade with a single cord attached at one end; Kulturhistorisk museum Oslo UEM41249/b.
Function
A toy, kept for play and for the learning of a skill as much as for music.

Source

Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, UEM41249/b (Mesbilja, Chiapas)

View the source · archived

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