The Bullroarer Atlas

NAMER-013 - museum specimen

Haida, Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands)

Canada - Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia - North America - Northwest Coast

Function not recorded

Item d from Densmore's plate of Nootka and Quileute implements: a slim, gently tapered wooden rod rounded at both ends, shown to illustrate the...
Representative image. Item d from Densmore's plate of Nootka and Quileute implements: a slim, gently tapered wooden rod rounded at both ends, shown to illustrate the general Northwest Coast whirled-blade form. The wider painted Haida slat from Haida Gwaii, collected during the 1878 expedition and catalogued in three parts, is not pictured here. Densmore, Nootka and Quileute Music (BAE Bulletin 124), 1939, Plate 11 (item d) Public domain Image source

Source term: Bull-roarer

In the Haida dog-eating rite a screeching note rose over the performers' growls and whoops: the sound of a whirled instrument the Haida called the dwelling-place of a spirit, which ethnographers identified as a bull-roarer voiced as the being inside it. It belonged to secret societies the Haida had lately taken from their southern neighbours, sister to the man-eating creed whose initiates bit mouthfuls of flesh from the outstretched arms of fellow villagers before bursting from the house with cries of "Hop-pop." George Mercer Dawson carried this painted slat off Haida Gwaii on his 1878 survey.

Object
A flat wooden slat catalogued as a bull-roarer, about 38 by 7 cm, of a length-to-width proportion typical of a whirled blade. The museum records the medium as wood, bark, fibre, paint and metal, and lists the specimen in three parts (ME892.21.1-3), consistent with a blade with cord and handle. It is dated by the museum to ca. 1800-1850 and entered the collection through the 1878 Haida Gwaii expedition of George Mercer Dawson.
Function
Function not recorded. The museum places it among ceremonial / religious objects but documents no specific use.
Map confidence
medium - Representative anchor at Skidegate, the principal southern Haida village. The museum records only "Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands)" for origin; Dawson's 1878 collecting centred on the southern villages, and he attended a potlatch at Skidegate on 24 July 1878 and photographed Skidegate and Skedans, so Skidegate stands for the archipelago.
Source location
Object Number ME892.21.1-3

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