The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-122 - museum specimen

Nahukúá (upper Xingu)

Brazil - Upper Xingu (Steinen expeditions of 1884 and 1887-88) - South America

Function not recorded

A dark wooden blade with a pale diagonal band painted across its middle, a coil of plant-fibre cord bound at the pierced end — the Nahukuá...
A dark wooden blade with a pale diagonal band painted across its middle, a coil of plant-fibre cord bound at the pierced end — the Nahukuá schwirrholz nicknamed 'Kleiner Blitz' ('little lightning'), collected on Karl von den Steinen's Xingu expeditions. Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (V B 2505); photo: Lars Malareck CC BY-NC-SA Image source

"Kleiner Blitz" (main-catalog gloss, German: "little lightning") German

Source term: Schwirrholz

Etymology. The Berlin main catalog's gloss for the Nahukúá bullroarer, "Kleiner Blitz" (little lightning), ties the instrument to the storm — the recurring lightning/thunder association of the bullroarer in lowland South America. (medium confidence)

“Little Lightning” is the name attached to this Nahukúá bullroarer from the upper Xingu. Its broad 38.5-centimetre blade flashes with black and red paint—a storm-name for an instrument built to split the air with sound.

Schwirrholz, schwarz und rot bemalt... [main catalog:] Kleiner Blitz.

Bull-roarer, painted black and red... [main catalog:] Little Lightning.

Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, historic card and main catalog for V B 2505
Object
Broad wooden bullroarer, 38.5 × 9 cm, painted black and red and catalogued as “Kleiner Blitz” (“Little Lightning”). Ethnologisches Museum Berlin V B 2505.
Function
Use not recorded; the museum catalogue preserves the name or gloss “Little Lightning.”
Map confidence
medium - Upper Xingu expedition-region anchor; specific people not stated on the record
Source location
EM Berlin Ident-Nr. V B 2505

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