NA-S1952-010 - museum specimen
Papago / Tohono O'odham
United States - Southwest - North America
Weather / fertility magic
Wihoewiketeke / wewegita German; English; Dutch metadata
Source term: bullroarer / Schwirrholz
Wihoewiketeke: name Schmeltz records for the Papago and Pima museum slats; wewegita: Papago name in the 1920 rain-ceremony account.
Reddish-brown designs on a white ground run down this wooden blade — curved cross-stripes on one face, a chain of triangles on the other — and its cord still joins it to the short handle that set it humming. The old label on the Papago object said the sound drove away evil spirits. In the wider Tohono O'odham world the wewegita also gathered people and entered the saguaro-wine ceremony, when the desert's great cactus harvest was fermented and rain was called into the coming season.
Erzeugt ein summendes Geräusch und wird gebraucht, um böse Geister zu vertreiben.
It produces a humming sound and is used to drive away evil spirits.
Label for Papago RV-362-38, transcribed by Schmeltz 1896, p. 121.
- Object
- Wereldmuseum RV-362-38: a 46 cm painted wooden slat, reddish-brown designs on a white ground — curved cross-stripes on one face, a chain of triangles on the other — preserved with its cord and short whirling handle; collected by H. Ten Kate.
- Function
- A rain-ceremony and assembly instrument also credited with curative power; the label on RV-362-38 says its hum drove away evil spirits.
- Map confidence
- medium_high - regional_anchor: Representative Tohono O'odham/Papago anchor; no exact site in Seder summary
- Source location
- Schmeltz 1896:120-121, figs. 23, 23a-b; American Anthropologist 22 (1920):28; Seder 1952:51-54
- Weather / fertility magic