The Bullroarer Atlas

PNG95 - ethnographic attestation

Wapo-Era

Papua New Guinea - Gulf - Oceania - Sahul

Function not recorded

Carved Papuan Gulf bull-roarer with crocodile motif and fibre cord — representative for the Wapo-Era (Gulf). Science Museum Group A1451.
Representative image. Carved Papuan Gulf bull-roarer with crocodile motif and fibre cord — representative for the Wapo-Era (Gulf). Science Museum Group A1451. Science Museum Group, A1451 (Wellcome Collection) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

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

kaiaimunu (also kaiemunu): the large cane-and-basketry monster effigy of the Purari Delta and Era River men's houses.

Its whir was the voice of the kaiaimunu, the great cane-and-basketry monster crouched in the back of the men's house. Along the Era River east of Goaribari, the bullroarers were kept inside the wicker beast itself, so that when the men swung them the sound rose as the monster's growl — the devouring spirit that swallowed boys and gave them back as men. No woman and no uninitiated boy could look upon the roarer, or on the creature whose throat it was.

Object
bullroarer occurrence
Function
Gourlay Table 1 row 95 records Wapo-Era bullroarer occurrence; Newton 1961 p. 20 remains an optional acquisition target for detail.
Map confidence
medium - alias_area
Source location
Table 1, row 95

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