NGUINEA-006 - museum specimen
Lala (Nara), Central Province, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea - Central Province - Kairuku Hiri District - Lala (Nara) area - Oceania - Sahul
Weather / fertility magic
Biliva English
Source term: Model Bullroarer
biliva: Seligman records the Nara (Lala) bullroarer as beriwa, swung to make crops grow — among the neighbouring Roro the same word means spirits, both ghosts of the dead and never-human malicious agencies (Lala/Nara, Central Province); Seligman 1910, pp. 304, 748.
Etymology. Seligman, ethnographer of the expedition that collected this model, records the Nara district name of the bullroarer as beriwa — evidently the same word as the museum's biliva. Among the neighbouring Roro the identical word beriwa means spirits: ghosts of the dead but also malicious agencies that were never human, and Seligman suggests the Roro took the bullroarer sense from the Nara, who swing the instrument to make their crops grow. (medium confidence)
Swung over the gardens of the Nara (Lala) of Papua's south coast, this whirling board was meant to make the crops grow. Its name gives away whose voice it carried: beriwa, the same word that among their Roro neighbours means spirits, both the ghosts of the dead and malicious powers that had never been human. Charles Seligman recorded the custom on the Cooke Daniels expedition of 1904. This sword-shaped example, carved from one length of wood and incised with opposed diamonds near the grip, is a scale model of the roarer that fed the fields.
Wooden model bullroarer carved from the whole; sword shaped with two opposing concentric diamond patterns incised either side near handle. Finial rounded and handle roughly finished.
Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, object record E 1905.242 (Model Bullroarer)
- Object
- Sword- or spear-shaped model bullroarer MAA E 1905.242; PRM 1905.63.23 adds a second exact Nara example, a carved and incised 402 x 48 mm wooden blade with string tied around the shaped end.
- Function
- Swung over the gardens to make the crops grow: the Nara called the roarer beriwa — among their neighbours, the same word names the spirits of the dead (Seligman 1910).
- Map confidence
- medium - Representative Lala/Nara area anchor near the Roro-speaking Central Province coast; not an exact object findspot.
- Source location
- MAA E 1905.242; PRM 1905.63.23; Seligman 1910, p. 304 and glossary p. 748
- Weather / fertility magic