NA-S1952-016 - ethnographic attestation
Tanaina weather-magic bullroarer
United States - Alaska - Mackenzie-Yukon edge - North America
Weather / fertility magic
Source term: bullroarer
On the beaches of Cook Inlet, a Tanaina (Dena'ina) bull-roarer was swung when the waves came rolling in, to quiet the water and bring fine weather. Cornelius Osgood, who recorded the practice in the 1930s, also noted what the instrument was made from: when a mountain sheep was butchered, the sinew of its back was saved for bull-roarer strings, though the hide itself was never worn, for fear it would cripple the wearer. Theodore Seder's 1952 survey listed the Tanaina roarer among curing instruments, but Osgood's own account ties it to weather alone -- the curative gear of the Tanaina shamans was other equipment altogether.
[The bull-roarer] is swung on the beach when the waves are rolling in in order to make fine weather.
Osgood 1937, The Ethnography of the Tanaina
- Object
- Bull-roarer swung on the beach as the waves roll in, to still rough water and bring fine weather; its cord was made from mountain-sheep back sinew
- Function
- Weather magic: swung on the beach when the waves are rolling in 'in order to make fine weather' (Osgood 1937). Seder 1952's 'curative' label judged a conflation of adjacent Osgood passages and corrected.
- Map confidence
- low_medium - regional_anchor: Former-use statement; broad Cook Inlet/Dena'ina regional anchor only
- Source location
- 51-54
- Weather magic