NGUINEA-011 - museum specimen
Kairu (Koriki) "imunu-viki" bullroarer, Purari Delta
Papua New Guinea - Gulf Province - Purari Delta - Naman District - Kairu - Oceania - Sahul
Sacred / spirit
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
- Spirit voice