The Bullroarer Atlas

PNG157 - ethnographic attestation

New Hanover (incl. Tungak, Lavongai)

Papua New Guinea - New Ireland - Oceania - Sahul

Function not recorded

A long dark New Guinea bull-roarer, rows of incised triangles running down the first third of the blade to a red-banded zigzag, the rest left...
Representative image. A long dark New Guinea bull-roarer, rows of incised triangles running down the first third of the blade to a red-banded zigzag, the rest left plain striated wood, a small drilled tang at the decorated tip; a general specimen, not the New Hanover object documented here. Kulturhistorisk museum, Universitetet i Oslo (Etnografisk) (UEM32392) CC BY-SA Image source

Source term: bullroarer / sacred flute / slit-gong flags

On New Hanover, the large volcanic island off the northwest end of New Ireland whose inhabitants know it as Lavongai, the bullroarer is recorded as one of the island's sounding instruments, alongside the slit-gong. The entry comes from K. A. Gourlay's 1975 survey of esoteric instruments in New Guinea, which logs its presence here without describing the rite it served.

Object
bullroarer occurrence; slit-gong occurrence
Function
Gourlay source-catalog row with bullroarer occurrence; function not stated.
Map confidence
high - geocoded
Source location
Table 1, row 157

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  • NalikPapua New Guinea - New Ireland - Function not recorded
  • King / KalilPapua New Guinea - New Ireland - Restricted
  • LaksPapua New Guinea - New Ireland - Restricted
  • AwalamaPapua New Guinea - Milne Bay - Function not recorded
  • Baluan IslandPapua New Guinea - Manus - Function not recorded
  • BarriaiPapua New Guinea - West New Britain - Function not recorded