MUS2026-215 - museum specimen
Wosera initiation bullroarer
Papua New Guinea - East Sepik - Wosera - Oceania - Sahul
Restricted
Source term: bullroarer
In the Wosera, the bullroarer's voice entered the successive stages of male initiation. Abelam initiates encountered instruments whose sounds embodied spirit beings; at Serangwandu in 1973, an initiator was photographed preparing a blade and sweeping it at speed around his body. This British Museum bullroarer came from the same Wosera country in 1986–87. Its village and its own ceremony are unknown, but the institution to which such a voice belonged is not.
Collection made in the field by the vendor in 1986-7.
The British Museum, acquisition note, Oc1987,05.121
- Object
- A bullroarer of wood and vegetable fibre, 32 x 9 x 3 cm, field-collected in the Wosera in 1986-7; exact British Museum photograph. The record names no paint, no decoration and no local name. An adjacent accession, Oc1987,05.122, is reportedly the paired Wosera bullroarer from the same acquisition but is unverified.
- Function
- Wosera bullroarers were sounded in male initiation, their voice embodying spirit beings for initiates; this accession's own ceremony is unrecorded.
- Map confidence
- low_medium - Wosera (southern Abelam) district anchor from the record's sole locality field, 'Wosera'; no village is recorded, so the point locates the collecting district.
- Source location
Page references
BM Oc1987,05.121; photograph 1613946351; BM Oc1987,05.122 (unverified)
- Initiation rite