The Bullroarer Atlas

NAAIN-013 - secondary catalog

Naskapi bullroarer, Davis Inlet (Field Museum 176799)

Canada - Labrador - Davis Inlet - North America - Subarctic

Play / practical

Davis Inlet Naskapi serrated bone or antler bullroarer on a hide thong.
Davis Inlet Naskapi serrated bone or antler bullroarer on a hide thong. Image source
Joe Rich's blade-and-handle rig, Davis Inlet, 1961.
Joe Rich's blade-and-handle rig, Davis Inlet, 1961. Image source
The birch roarer with red-painted margins, Davis Inlet, 1961.
The birch roarer with red-painted margins, Davis Inlet, 1961. 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. 35
Object
Wooden bullroarer, Field Museum 176799.
Function
Grouped with games and toys; no further use recorded.
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
Page references

printed p. 35 (the toys/"minor magical playing devices" passage); fig. 92G (specimen 176799); Appendix 1 "Naskapi Material Culture Elements", printed p. 47, under Games and Toys; catalogue of specimens, printed pp. 53-54

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