The Bullroarer Atlas

No. PNG43

Tapen

Papua New Guinea · Madang · Oceania · Sahul

Restricted

A long, dark Bogadjim bullroarer from Astrolabe Bay, with a narrow tapered blade and incised geometric bands near one end.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. Bogadjim bullroarer from Astrolabe Bay, Maclay Coast. CC BY-SA · Image source

Among the Tapen of the Rai Coast in Madang Province, the bullroarer 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. 6, entry 43

View the source

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.