The Bullroarer Atlas

PNG79 - ethnographic attestation

Awalama

Papua New Guinea - Milne Bay - Oceania - Sahul

Function not recorded

A dark reddish-brown bull-roarer, plain over most of its broad blade, a white-and-red painted face panel — sunburst and ringed eyes between...
Representative image. A dark reddish-brown bull-roarer, plain over most of its broad blade, a white-and-red painted face panel — sunburst and ringed eyes between zigzag borders — filling the narrower end where a cord loops through the tip; shown for the general New Guinea type, not the Awalama object or culture documented here. Science Museum Group (acc. A655886) Image source

Source term: bullroarer flag only

walaga = the raised wooden platform or feast-house built for the great mango feast at Bartle Bay; gweri ravai = ritual practitioners who officiated at the stepping of its posts.

Among the Tawala-speaking people of Awaiama (Awalama), east of Bartle Bay near the eastern tip of mainland Papua New Guinea, the bullroarer surfaced on one occasion only. When the posts of the walaga, the raised platform built for a great feast, were being set into their holes, fasting men swung bullroarers the whole time the stepping was done. Seligmann's informants, whose account Mr Newton recorded in 1910, insisted the instrument was used at no other time, and could give no reason for sounding it at all. There is no men's secret cult here, no spirit named, no taboo declared: the roar simply accompanied the raising of the feast-house and then fell silent.

At Awaiama and Taupota, to the east of Bartle Bay, bull-roarers are said to be swung by the fasting men all the time that the posts are being stepped; they were said to be used at no other time and no reason for their use could be elicited on this particular occasion.

Seligmann 1910, The Melanesians of British New Guinea, p. 592
Object
bullroarer occurrence
Function
Gourlay source-catalog row with bullroarer occurrence; function not stated.
Map confidence
medium - alias_area
Source location
Seligmann 1910, p. 592

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  • UtuwalaPapua New Guinea - Milne Bay - Function not recorded
  • TaupotaPapua New Guinea - Milne Bay - Sacred / spirit
  • TopuraPapua New Guinea - Milne Bay - Sacred / spirit
  • 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