PNG33 - ethnographic attestation
Basken
Papua New Guinea - Madang - Oceania - Sahul
Sacred / spirit
Source term: bullroarer / sacred flute / slit-gong flags
On the north coast of mainland New Guinea, in the villages of the Sumkar district, the bullroarer belonged to the hidden ceremonial life of men, swung with the sacred flutes that only the initiated were meant to hear. Across the societies where such roarers were used, Gourlay found one rule holding without exception: they were "secret" instruments — the preserve of initiated men, kept from women and the uninitiated.
- Object
- bullroarer occurrence; bullroarer use; sacred flute occurrence; 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 33