The Bullroarer Atlas

PASSARELLI2007-001 - ethnographic attestation

Encomendadores do Rio das Mortes

Brazil - Rio das Mortes district, São João del-Rei, Minas Gerais - South America

Sacred / spirit

Representative—not this record’s object: a painted Tembé bullroarer from Brazil.
Representative—not this record’s object: a painted Tembé bullroarer from Brazil. Världskulturmuseerna / Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg (1922.08.0052); collected by Curt Nimuendajú CC BY 4.0 Image source

berra-boi Portuguese

berra-boi = local cord-whirled free aerophone

Beginning at the cemetery gate beside Santo Antônio de Pádua, Rio das Mortes’ Lenten Encomendação das Almas paused seven times along its route. Matracas sounded alongside two or more berra-bois, whose forceful turning produced what Passarelli called a ‘tenebrous hum.’

berra-boi (lasca de taquara atada a um cordao, que ao ser girada com vigor provoca um zumbido tenebroso)

berra-boi (a taquara sliver tied to a cord which, when forcefully whirled, produces a tenebrous hum)

Ulisses Passarelli, Encomendação das almas (2007), Yumpu p. 8, section II - Rio das Mortes (São João del-Rei)
Object
Taquara sliver tied to a cord, forcefully whirled to produce a tenebrous hum.
Function
Lenten Encomendação das Almas procession beginning at the cemetery gate by Santo Antônio de Pádua and making seven stops.
Map confidence
high - Rio das Mortes district-center proxy; IBGE confirms the district, while the source follows a moving route from its cemetery gate.
Source location
Yumpu p. 8 (viewer page 8; page pair 8-9)

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