The Bullroarer Atlas

No. MUS2026-390Oceania

Walembale, roarer of its own rite

Papua New Guinea · Kwanimbandu, Wosera, south of Maprik, East Sepik Province · Oceania

Sacred / spirit

Black-and-white photograph of a narrow pointed wooden blade painted in light and dark bands, with a collared head ending in two short prongs at the left and a cord looped from the collar.
Plate I. The walembale from Kwanimbandu, painted in bands, its two-pronged head tied to its cord. CC BY 4.0 · Image source

walembale

Source term: Walembale Schwirrholz; "walembale bullroarer"

walembale - the bullroarer and the ceremony in which it was used (Forge).

Walembale was the name of the bullroarer and of the ceremony it sounded in. Anthony Forge bought it during his first fieldwork among the Abelam, in 1958 and 1959, at Kwanimbandu in the Wosera, the country of the southern Abelam south of Maprik. The blade is painted in bands of red, yellow and white, and its head is cut into a collar and two short prongs, like ears, with the cord tied through below them.

Walembale bullroarer, used in ceremonies of the same name.

Anthony Forge, field note on the Museum der Kulturen Basel inventory card for Vb 16535

Particulars

Object
A 41 cm wooden blade painted in bands of red, yellow and white, with a waisted, pierced head ending in two short prongs (MKB Vb 16535).
Function
Sounded in the ceremonies called walembale, after the instrument.

Sources

  1. Museum der Kulturen Basel, Vb 16535, Schwirrholz "walembale", Kwanimbandu (Wosera), coll. Anthony Forge View · archived
  2. Museum der Kulturen Basel, Bestandesliste Vb Melanesien (2022), Vb 16535 View · archived

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.