Sosom, the giant's voice

Sosom

Source term: Rhombe

sosom: the name in the museum record; along this coast it is also the name of a giant déma whose voice is the bullroarer.

Two fish-tailed blades came into the Paris collections together in 1931, catalogued to the Fly River with no people named, and with two statements attached: that the roarer sounds as an ancestor's voice, and that women were warned away when it sounded. The name written into the record is heavy on this coast. To the Marind-anim, westward along the shore, sosom is a giant ancestral déma whose voice is the bullroarer — and their own telling has the giant arrive ‘from the Fly river.’ The name, the fish-tail form and the river connect these blades to him.

Particulars

Object

Two fish-shaped wooden Sosom blades from one 1931 acquisition: a 52 cm blade engraved with a mask, circles and sawtooth designs filled with white lime (71.1931.49.22), and a 46.3 cm palette engraved with a two-headed animal, also lime-filled (71.1931.49.21).