The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-177 - museum specimen

Palimbei monumental Iatmul bullroarer

Papua New Guinea - Middle Sepik - Palimbei (Parambei; Bragge: Parembei; historic catalog: Palimbai II) - Oceania - Sahul

Restricted

Palimbei monumental bullroarer, Berlin VI 48045, before 1912. Painted carving across the full 1.29-metre blade.
Palimbei monumental bullroarer, Berlin VI 48045, before 1912. Painted carving across the full 1.29-metre blade. · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source
The complete carved face of Palimbei bullroarer VI 48045, from one staring terminal head to the other.
The complete carved face of Palimbei bullroarer VI 48045, from one staring terminal head to the other. · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source
Archival full-length view of the Palimbei blade and its carved animal procession.
Archival full-length view of the Palimbei blade and its carved animal procession. · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source
Palimbei bullroarer VI 48045 with scale and colour reference, photographed by Dietrich Graf.
Palimbei bullroarer VI 48045 with scale and colour reference, photographed by Dietrich Graf. · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

Source term: Schwirrholz

At 1.29 metres and nearly two kilograms, this painted blade is monumental. Its carving runs from a round-eyed face through concentric circles and a procession of animal forms to another staring head. Palimbei is also a name of identity: Central Iatmul people take their name from their mother village, tracing shared ancestry with the other Iatmul communities to the mythical place Mävɨmbɨt. Among the Iatmul the bullroarer belonged to the men's cult — shown to novices secluded in the 'belly' of a spirit house barred to women, and remembered in myth as the instrument whose roar frightened the first women into giving up the flutes.

Object
Carved and painted wooden bullroarer, 129 × 15 × 3 cm and approximately 1.8 kg; Berlin VI 48045, made before 1912 at Palimbai II.
Function
Men's cult instrument of the Iatmul: bullroarers were among the objects revealed to novices secluded in the 'belly' of a cult house barred to women, and in myth it was the men's whirling of the bullroarer that frightened the primeval women into surrendering the flutes.
Map confidence
high - GeoNames/OSM village Parambei (also Palimbei), matching the DDB provenance Palimbai II. Bragge alternates Parembei and Parambei in the same Malingai account, adding a documented historical spelling route without changing the plotted locality.
Source location
Page references

DDB VI 48045; Falck 2016, printed p. 18 / PDF p. 39; Bragge Part I, pp. 232-233

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