The Bullroarer Atlas

NA-S1952-009 - secondary catalog

Mono assembly and curing bullroarer

United States - California - Great Basin - North America

Sacred / spirit

Chukchansi wimias collected by Kroeber at Picayune Rancheria in 1904.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Chukchansi wimias collected by Kroeber at Picayune Rancheria in 1904. Image source

Source term: bullroarer

In his 1952 survey of North American instruments, Theodore A. Seder recorded the bull-roarer as a curing tool among the shamans of the Mono, listing them with the Yokuts, Pomo, Diegueno, Navaho, Tonto Apache, and Papago. The entry names the practice but not the rite, and points to no single Mono village.

In North America, the bull-roarer has curative properties among the shamans of the Diegueño, Mono, Navaho, Tonto Apache, Yokuts, Pomo, and Papago; formerly this was also true of the Tanaina.

Theodore A. Seder, 'Old World Overtones in the New World', Museum Bulletin (University of Pennsylvania) XVI(4) (1952), Bull-Roarer section
Function
Instrument used as assembly signal; listed with shamanic curative properties
Map confidence
medium - regional_anchor: Representative Mono/Sierra-Great Basin anchor; no exact site in Seder summary
Source location
51-54

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