The Bullroarer Atlas

PNG31 - ethnographic attestation

Karkar Island (incl. Karkar-Takia, Karkar Waskia & Gubardau Takia)

Papua New Guinea - Madang - Oceania - Sahul

Sacred / spirit

A Madang-coast bull-roarer from Kapitän Rohde's nineteenth-century collection — a slender dark blade whose short pointed head is set off by an...
Representative image. A Madang-coast bull-roarer from Kapitän Rohde's nineteenth-century collection — a slender dark blade whose short pointed head is set off by an ochre diamond enclosing a white-rimmed eye, above a band of close chip-carving; a piece from the facing mainland coast, standing in for Karkar Island, whose own bullroarer is unphotographed. Übersee-Museum Bremen (D09870), coll. Kapitän Rohde CC BY-SA Image source

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

Swung in the dark, the bullroarer was one of the secret voices of Karkar's men — sound that Kulbob, the island's creator-hero, was said to have carried along the coast when he handed down his people, their dances, and their men's cult, Barag. Barag's sacred objects were kept from every woman's eyes. Then, in 1921, the Takia villages of the volcanic island's south coast turned Christian all at once: they staged one last Barag, carried the hidden things into the open, and burned them along with the cult house.

Object
bullroarer occurrence; bullroarer use; slit-gong occurrence; slit-gong use
Function
Gourlay source-catalog row with bullroarer use in PNG/Melanesia.
Map confidence
high - geocoded
Source location
Table 1, row 31

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