No. PNG47
Siassi Islands
Papua New Guinea · Morobe · Oceania · Sahul
Restricted
The Siassi Islanders were the middlemen of the Vitiaz Strait, sailing between New Guinea, Umboi and New Britain with pots, pigs and carved bowls, and among them the bullroarer belonged to the initiation of boys. Across the strait the Kilenge of New Britain, who traded with them, told the missionary Carl Laufer where the instrument had come from. Women of the Siassi Islands, out gathering firewood, made the first one, when a splinter went whirring through the air; later the men killed them and took the bullroarer for themselves.
so erfanden die Frauen das erste Schwirrholz...
so the women invented the first bullroarer...
Carl Laufer, 'Rigenmucha, das höchste Wesen der Baining (Neubritannien),' Anthropos 41-44 (1946/49), p. 521, fn. 39, recording the Kilenge of Cape Gloucester
Particulars
- Object
- Bullroarer recorded for the Siassi Islands and tied there to the initiation of boys; the instrument itself is not described.
- Function
- Sounded in the initiation of boys.
Source
K. A. Gourlay, Sound-Producing Instruments in Traditional Society, New Guinea Research Bulletin 60 (Canberra, 1975), Table 1, entry 47; Carl Laufer, 'Rigenmucha, das höchste Wesen der Baining (Neubritannien),' Anthropos 41-44 (1946/49), p. 521, fn. 39; T. G. Harding, Voyagers of the Vitiaz Strait (Seattle, 1967)