No. NAMER-011
Northern Paiute toy-and-charm bullroarer
United States · Utah · North America · Great Basin
Sacred / spirit
Source term: Toy and charm to drive away evil spirits; bullroarer
A Northern Paiute bullroarer from Utah that is two things at once: a child's toy and a charm to drive away evil spirits. A worked wooden handle carries a red-pigmented, serrated paddle on a twisted cord, about seventeen centimetres overall, and it may belong to the Bear Dance. The botanist Edward Palmer collected it around 1875; it is now at Harvard's Peabody Museum, which keeps the object's image restricted.
Particulars
- Object
- Bullroarer: a worked wood handle with a red-pigmented, serrated paddle attached by a twisted cord; overall 16.6 x 3.5 x 0.7 cm. Wood, vegetable fibre, and pigment.
- Function
- Both a child's toy and a charm to drive away evil spirits; possibly connected with the Bear Dance.
Source
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard, object 76-20-10/9421; Northern Paiute, Utah; collected by Edward Palmer, Peabody Museum Expedition, 1875