The Bullroarer Atlas

No. PNG149

Ramuaina / Duke of York Island

Papua New Guinea · East New Britain · Oceania · Sahul

Restricted

An Arawe Island wooden blade from the Felix Speiser collection, 46 cm long, plain and tapering toward a pierced narrow end, with a rounded opposite tip.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. An Arawe Island blade, 46 cm, from the Felix Speiser collection. Image source

On the Duke of York Islands, the low chain in St George's Channel between New Britain and New Ireland, the Ramuaina kept the bullroarer beside the slit-gong, and its roar belonged to initiation or to the rules that kept the sexes apart.

Particulars

Function
Used in initiation or subject to restrictions between the sexes.

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, 1975), p. 3 and Table 1, p. 9, entry 149

View the source

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  • Gazelle: GeneralPapua New Guinea · East New Britain · Play / practical
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Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.