The Bullroarer Atlas

No. PNG143

Titans (incl. M'bunai, Rambutyo Island & Mouk)

Papua New Guinea · Manus · Oceania · Sahul

Function not recorded

A plain, unengraved New Guinea bull-roarer blade with two holes near its rounded end.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. A plain, unengraved New Guinea bull-roarer blade with two small holes. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Image source

Among the sea-dwelling Manus of M'bunai, Rambutyo, and Mouk, the bullroarer took its place beside sacred flutes and slit-gongs, its purpose unspoken. What Reo Fortune set down instead, living among these Titan villagers, was the power that truly ruled them: Sir Ghost, the skull of the household's last dead man, kept above the doorway, watching his kin for every theft, lie, and sexual lapse and striking them sick when he found one. The whirled wood keeps its silence; the dead father kept none.

Particulars

Function
Not recorded.

Source

K. A. Gourlay, Sound-Producing Instruments in Traditional Society: A Study of Esoteric Instruments and Their Role in Male-Female Relations (New Guinea Research Bulletin 60; Canberra and Port Moresby, 1975), Table 1, entry 143

View the source

  • Baluan IslandPapua New Guinea · Manus · Function not recorded
  • KurtiPapua New Guinea · Manus · Function not recorded
  • HubePapua New Guinea · Morobe · Function not recorded
  • MaisinPapua New Guinea · Northern · Function not recorded
  • NalikPapua New Guinea · New Ireland · Function not recorded
  • New Hanover (incl. Tungak, Lavongai)Papua New Guinea · New Ireland · Function not recorded

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.