The Bullroarer Atlas

PNG64 - ethnographic attestation

Bia-Waria

Papua New Guinea - Morobe - Oceania - Sahul

Restricted

A carved New Guinea bull-roarer with a round face and chevron body pattern, from the Hospice Saint-Roch group photograph; shown for the general...
Representative image. A carved New Guinea bull-roarer with a round face and chevron body pattern, from the Hospice Saint-Roch group photograph; shown for the general type, not the Bia-Waria object or culture documented here. Museum of the Hospice Saint-Roch (acc. #CM:0875485) Image source

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

The "Bia-Waria" of K.A. Gourlay's 1975 survey are the people of the upper Waria valley in Morobe whose language, Guhu-Samane, was also recorded under the name Bia. Gourlay's table marks the valley as a place where the bullroarer and the sacred flute were both sounded; among these people both belonged to poro, the men's cult that governed initiation, marriage, war and peace, in which the bullroarer was a hardwood paddle whirled on a long cord to raise a wail meant to frighten the women and children of the distant village.

drive fear and horror into the young women and children

Richert, 'How the Guhu-Samane Cult of Poro Affects Translation,' The Bible Translator 16 (1965), p. 81
Object
bullroarer occurrence; bullroarer use; sacred flute occurrence; sacred flute use
Function
Bia-Waria/Guhu-Samane Waria poro bull-roarer used in initiation; held in mystical custody by poro mothers, then whirled by a priest to frighten young women and children.
Map confidence
medium - alias_area
Source location
Gourlay Table 1, row 64; Richert 1965 pp. 81, 85; Official Handbook 1937 p. 391 via Gourlay

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