The Bullroarer Atlas

NGUINEA-011 - museum specimen

Koriki, Kairu (Purari Delta)

Papua New Guinea - Gulf Province - Purari Delta - Naman District - Kairu - Oceania - Sahul

Sacred / spirit

Two dark wooden blades side by side, each pierced near its point for a cord — one edged with a small carved zigzag, the other bearing a broader...
Representative image. Two dark wooden blades side by side, each pierced near its point for a cord — one edged with a small carved zigzag, the other bearing a broader scrolled and geometric design covering nearly half its length — shown for the Purari Delta form generally, not the object recorded from Kairu. © The Trustees of the British Museum, Oc1906,1013.663-664 CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

Imunu-viki English

"crying imunu" — a weeping spirit; imunu is the Purari word for the spirit category to which bullroarers belong

Etymology. Imunu-viki, 'crying imunu,' names the bullroarer as a weeping spirit: imunu is the Purari word for the spirit-beings that pervade the delta, and this specimen was one of forty-four found lying under a kopi-ravi, the Koriki men's ceremonial house. The whir of these instruments was heard as the crying of the spirits themselves. (high confidence)

This wooden bullroarer was one of forty-four found lying under a kopi-ravi, the men's ceremonial house, at Kairu, a Koriki village in the Purari Delta. Its catalogue at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology records the local name imunu-viki, glossed there as "crying imunu" — a weeping spirit, imunu being the Purari word for the spirit category to which the bullroarer belongs. The object was collected and donated by the anthropologist Alfred Cort Haddon, and entered the museum as E 1916.143.232.

One of 44 lying under a Kopi-ravi.

Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, object E 1916.143.232 (catalogue record)
Object
Cambridge MAA E 1916.143.232, bullroarer from Kairu in the Purari Delta / Naman District.
Function
Recorded as one of 44 bullroarers found lying under a kopi-ravi, the Koriki men's ceremonial house.
Map confidence
medium - Representative Kairu / Purari Delta anchor; exact object findspot not separately geocoded.
Source location
MAA E 1916.143.232

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