NGUINEA-007 - museum specimen
Uramot Baining, Gazelle Peninsula
Papua New Guinea - East New Britain - Gazelle Peninsula - Latramat-Kainagunen - Oceania
Restricted
SALEK English
Source term: Bullroarer
Two small bullroarers of black palm wood, each a narrow splint with a truncated angled tip and a squared, pierced end, made by the Uramot Baining of Latramat-Kainagunen on the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain. Gregory Bateson collected them in 1927-28 and Cambridge accessioned them in 1930 as 1930.453 A and B: called salek, sounded in the MOMDAS initiation, swung not from the hand but on the end of a long stick held loosely in two hands. The missionary Carl Laufer later supplied what the Baining withheld from Bateson: salek is the salecha whose whirring is the voice of the supreme being Rigenmucha, and Momdas is the mandas initiation in which fathers lead their blindfolded sons between two rows of bullroarer-men. One splint has lost its cord; the other still carries a knotted loop of fine twine.
One of 2 small bull-roarers. Used in MOMDAS (initiation ceremony). Swung on a long stick which is held loosely in two hands.
Cambridge MAA, accession note for 1930.453 A-B (coll. G. Bateson)
- Object
- Pair of small black-palm bullroarers, MAA 1930.453 A-B; accession notes say they were used in MOMDAS initiation and swung on a long stick.
- Function
- Used in the MOMDAS initiation ceremony; swung on a long stick held loosely in two hands.
- Map confidence
- medium - Representative Latramat-Kainagunen / Gazelle Peninsula anchor; not a precise village coordinate.
- Source location
- MAA 1930.453 A-B
- Spirit voice
- Initiation rite