The Bullroarer Atlas

NAAIN-020 - ethnographic attestation

Koasati / Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana / Bel Abbey

United States - Louisiana - Allen Parish - Bayou Blue near Elton - North America - Southeast

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A plain grey wooden board with a corded loop, photographed with its Pitt Rivers catalog card 1903.36.42 - a Hopi piece standing in for the...
Representative image. A plain grey wooden board with a corded loop, photographed with its Pitt Rivers catalog card 1903.36.42 - a Hopi piece standing in for the bullroarer that Louisiana Folklife photographed Koasati craftsman and storyteller Bel Abbey spinning to make a pulsating vibrato sound. Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (1903.36.42) Image source

Source term: bull roarer

Bel Abbey, a Koasati craft maker and storyteller from a settlement near Elton, Louisiana, was photographed spinning a bull roarer to make what the Louisiana Folklife Program's profile of him calls a pulsating vibrato sound. Born in 1916 and dead by 1991, Abbey belonged to the last Koasati generation raised in the traditional way, brought up by his grandmother, mother, and maternal uncles, and he grew up speaking Koasati before adding Alabama, Choctaw, Mobilian, Cajun French, and English. He made blowguns, darts, bows, arrows, whistles, and Spanish moss spinners, demonstrating them while he told stories and taught his listeners the Koasati names of his creations. No Koasati name or ritual use is recorded for the bull roarer in his hands; it appears in the profile simply as one of the wooden things he made and spun.

Object
Louisiana Folklife profile photo caption shows Koasati master craft maker and storyteller Bel Abbey spinning a bull roarer to make a pulsating vibrato sound.
Function
Modern Koasati/Coushatta craft and storytelling demonstration; the surrounding profile places Abbey's wooden toys, games, stories, bows, and blowguns in Koasati cultural-conservation work, with no ritual function stated.
Map confidence
high - Representative Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana reservation / administrative-housing community anchor near Bayou Blue north of Elton. The Louisiana Folklife profile places Bel Abbey near the Koasati Tribal Center but does not give the exact photo or household coordinate; EPA public permit text places the reservation approximately 3 miles north of Elton and gives a reservation outfall coordinate at 30°31'37.29" N, 92°43'7.01" W.
Source location
Louisiana Folklife web page

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