The Bullroarer Atlas

PNG69 - ethnographic attestation

Maisin

Papua New Guinea - Northern - Oceania - Sahul

Function not recorded

A long tapering bull-roarer with rows of triangular and chevron incising running its length and a small figure carved near the tip, cord still...
Representative image. A long tapering bull-roarer with rows of triangular and chevron incising running its length and a small figure carved near the tip, cord still knotted at the top; shown for the general New Guinea type, not the Maisin object or culture documented here. Science Museum Group (acc. A1451) Image source

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

The Maisin live in villages along the southwestern shores of Collingwood Bay in Oro Province, on the eastern coast of mainland Papua New Guinea, and are known above all for their painted tapa bark cloth and the facial tattoos given to girls at puberty. The bullroarer here is a single line in K. A. Gourlay's 1975 comparative survey of esoteric sound-producing instruments, which records it among the Maisin without describing how it was used; the ethnographic record of the people, centered on firstborn feasts, days-long initiation dances, and mortuary rites, preserves no account of the rite in which it was sounded.

Object
bullroarer occurrence
Function
Gourlay source-catalog row with bullroarer occurrence; function not stated.
Map confidence
medium - alias_area
Source location
Table 1, row 69

View source Open this point on the interactive map

  • BinanderePapua New Guinea - Northern - Restricted
  • OrokaivaPapua New Guinea - Northern - Restricted
  • AwalamaPapua New Guinea - Milne Bay - Function not recorded
  • Baluan IslandPapua New Guinea - Manus - Function not recorded
  • BarriaiPapua New Guinea - West New Britain - Function not recorded
  • BensbachPapua New Guinea - Western Province (Morehead) - Function not recorded