The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-344 - museum specimen

Nivaclé pale Chaco blade

Paraguay - Guachalla, Pilcomayo region - South America

Function not recorded

The pale blade itself, inked 'B.305' (SMVK 1913.01.0300a).
The pale blade itself, inked 'B.305' (SMVK 1913.01.0300a). · CC BY 4.0 Image source

Source term: Vinare

Living in the Gran Chaco around 1910, Erland Nordenskiöld watched for the bullroarer and hardly found it: among the Ashluslay — the Nivaclé — and their Choroti neighbours he saw it whirled only rarely, and only by children. In the Chaco it was chiefly a plaything. Fifteen and a half centimetres of pale, worn wood is what one of those blades looks like: the cord is gone, but the hole it ran through is not.

Object
A 15.8 cm pale wooden blade with a surviving terminal perforation; the cord is lost.
Function
Not recorded.
Source
Världskulturmuseerna 1913.01.0300a; marked B.305; historic Ashluslay attribution
Source location
1913.01.0300a
Source confidence
low Broad Pilcomayo/Guachalla anchor from the historical record.

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