Nivaclé pale Chaco blade

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. Nearly sixteen 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.

Particulars

Object

A 15.8 cm pale wooden blade with a surviving terminal perforation; the cord is lost.

Function

A children's plaything: Nordenskiöld, who collected this blade on the Pilcomayo in 1908-09, saw the bullroarer among the Ashluslay and Choroti only rarely and only as a toy.