The Bullroarer Atlas

PNG91 - ethnographic attestation

Tubulamo

Papua New Guinea - Central - Oceania - Sahul

Function not recorded

A Kanum bull-roarer, its fork-tailed handle end wound with cord, a broad white diamond-lattice running down most of the blade into spiral...
Representative image. A Kanum bull-roarer, its fork-tailed handle end wound with cord, a broad white diamond-lattice running down most of the blade into spiral scrollwork near the tip; shown for the general New Guinea type, not the Tubulamo object or culture documented here. Wereldmuseum / NMVW (acc. RV-3070-93) Image source

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

Tubulamo is one of the Sinaugoro dialects of the Rigo area, inland of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea's Central Province; its speakers are among the related groups who, as the linguist T. E. Dutton recorded, call themselves "the Taboro (or Tubulamo, or Humene) people." The bullroarer survives here as a single line in K. A. Gourlay's 1975 survey of sound-producing instruments across Papua New Guinea, with no local name for the instrument and no account of how it was used.

Object
bullroarer occurrence
Function
Gourlay source-catalog row with bullroarer occurrence; function not stated.
Map confidence
medium - alias_area
Source location
Table 1, row 91 (Column A: occurrence BR = X; Column B: usage = blank)

View source Open this point on the interactive map

  • WaimaPapua New Guinea - Central - Sacred / spirit
  • 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
  • Bola (Bakovi)Papua New Guinea - Willaumez / Talasea Peninsula / West New Britain / New Pommern - Function not recorded