The Bullroarer Atlas

PNG172 - ethnographic attestation

Hakus

Papua New Guinea - Bougainville - Oceania - Sahul

Sacred / spirit

A complete bull-roarer rig from Nggela (Florida Islands) in the central Solomons — pale lance-shaped blade, twisted cord, and dark...
Representative image. A complete bull-roarer rig from Nggela (Florida Islands) in the central Solomons — pale lance-shaped blade, twisted cord, and dark swinging-staff all preserved together; accessioned 1916. The nearest photographed piece in the Solomons chain to the Hakus of Buka, whose own bullroarer is unphotographed. Världskulturmuseerna / SMVK (1916.01.2327), CC BY 4.0 CC BY 4.0 Image source

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

On Buka a boy taken for the upe disappears into a forest school for up to three years, his head bound in a woven cone; no woman may see him, or even cross ground he has walked. Among these northern islanders Gourlay's 1975 survey marks two sounding things — the slit-gong and the swung bullroarer, the wooden voice that men across Buka Passage lent to the ancestral dead. What the roarer said in Haku hands he does not set down.

Object
bullroarer occurrence; bullroarer use; slit-gong occurrence; slit-gong use
Function
Gourlay Table 1 row 172 records Hakus/Haku bullroarer occurrence/use and slit-gong occurrence/use; no row-local Buka/Haku bullroarer gender passage is recovered.
Map confidence
medium - alias_area
Source location
Table 1, row 172

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  • Buin (incl.Telei, Uisai)Papua New Guinea - Bougainville - Sacred / spirit
  • Pororan IslandPapua New Guinea - Bougainville - Sacred / spirit
  • BukaPapua New Guinea - Bougainville - Restricted
  • NasioiPapua New Guinea - Bougainville - Function not recorded
  • SiwaiPapua New Guinea - Bougainville - Function not recorded
  • Astrolabe BayPapua New Guinea - Madang - Sacred / spirit