NA-S1952-006 - ethnographic attestation
Cupeno assembly-signal bullroarer
United States - California - North America
Sacred / spirit
aīil English
Source term: bullroarer
aīil = the bullroarers whirled by the two paha at the Cupeño adolescence ceremony (Strong 1929:258)
The Cupeño adolescence ceremony reached its pitch with a shout. Inside the dance house one paha cried "hou-ou-ou!" and kicked the wall three times; the paha outside answered in kind, and the first rushed out to fall prone in the center of the dance enclosure. Then both pahas — painted red and black — whirled bullroarers, aīil, while a dancer in the eagle-feather skirt and a headdress of eagle down circled the enclosure, and the boys and girls danced one at a time, whirling and squatting until exhausted. The Cupeño themselves said the dance had come to them from the Luiseño.
Both pahas then whirled bullroarers, aīil, and the dancer wearing ūlut, the eagle-feather skirt, and pachīa, a headdress of eagle down with horned owl and eagle feathers erect in it, circled the dance enclosure three times.
Strong 1929, Aboriginal Society in Southern California, p. 258
- Function
- Whirled by the two red-and-black-painted paha at the adolescence ceremony while boys and girls danced in the enclosure; ceremonial use only, to assemble people.
- Map confidence
- high - regional_anchor: Cupa / Warner's Hot Springs homeland anchor; Drucker's informants gave their list at Pala reservation after the 1903 removal
- Source location
Page references
Strong 1929, printed p. 258; Drucker 1937, items 924/926, printed p. 25