The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-195 - museum specimen

Hopi, Shipaulovi (Second Mesa), Arizona

United States - Second Mesa, Arizona - North America - Southwest

Sacred / spirit

The Shipaulovi tovolpi — decorated slat, cord and toggle.
The Shipaulovi tovolpi — decorated slat, cord and toggle. · CC BY-SA Image source

tovolpi Norwegian

tovolpi — the Shipaulovi form; compare tovokinpi at neighbouring Shongopovi.

Shipaulovi, smallest of the Second Mesa villages, kept its own form of the Hopi bullroarer's name: tovolpi. The decorated slat that carried the word to Norway crossed, by the catalogue's own account, between two worlds at home — swung by men in the dances, and by children as a toy — the same humming wood serving the plaza ceremony and the game beside it.

Object
Decorated wooden slat with one terminal hole, single fibre cord and toggle — Kulturhistorisk museum Oslo UEM13727, acquired via Ole M. Solberg.
Function
The Oslo catalogue records dual use: 'used partly by men in dances, partly by children as a toy.'
Map confidence
high - Shipaulovi village, Second Mesa — offset slightly from the adjacent Mishongnovi (NAMER-008) and Shongopovi (NAMER-007) points, all within a few km.
Source location
KHM Oslo catalogue record UEM13727

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