The Bullroarer Atlas

NAAIN-013 - secondary catalog

Davis Inlet band Naskapi

Canada - Labrador - Davis Inlet - North America - Subarctic

Play / practical

The Davis Inlet Naskapi bullroarer itself, from VanStone's 1985 monograph: a serrated bone or antler blade with a hide thong looped through a...
The Davis Inlet Naskapi bullroarer itself, from VanStone's 1985 monograph: a serrated bone or antler blade with a hide thong looped through a hole at the narrow end, photographed against a plain ground and labeled 'G' in the plate. J. W. VanStone, Material Culture of the Davis Inlet and Barren Ground Naskapi (Fieldiana: Anthropology, Field Museum, 1985), fig. 92G Image source

Source term: bull-roarer

This bull-roarer is one of four collected among the Davis Inlet and Barren Ground Naskapi of Labrador by William Duncan Strong during the Rawson-MacMillan Subarctic Expedition of 1927-28, and now held at the Field Museum. VanStone describes them as flat oval pieces of birchwood notched on all sides, with lengths of caribou skin, sinew, or twine tied to the ends; two of the four, including this one, were crudely decorated in purple and red crayon, and it was sometimes tied to a stick. Strong recorded that the instrument was a child's toy and had no other function. VanStone places it among a set of Naskapi toys that Speck had called "minor magical playing devices" — the same group as the caribou-astragalus buzzer, originally a magical device, which was spun to make the wind rise.

The collection contains four bull-roarers, flat oval pieces of birchwood notched on all sides, to the ends of which are attached lengths of caribou skin, sinew, or twine. Two specimens have been crudely decorated with purple and red crayon. Strong (1928c, vol. 1) noted that the instrument was a child's toy and had no other function. It was sometimes tied to a stick.

VanStone 1985, Material Culture of the Davis Inlet and Barren Ground Naskapi (Fieldiana Anthropology n.s. 7), p. 34
Object
Bull-roarer 176799 illustrated with games and toys in Fieldiana publication
Function
Publication places the bullroarer in Davis Inlet band material culture; appears in games/toys illustration cluster
Map confidence
medium_high - representative on-land anchor at Davis Inlet band Naskapi (regional coordinate fell just offshore of the rendered coastline); not an exact findspot
Source location
PDF text pp. 119-123 / fig. 92; index under Games and Toys

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