RUSIN-003 - ethnographic attestation
Itelmen / Kamchadal / Kovran-Tigil
Russia - Western Kamchatka - Kovran and Tigil - Asia
Function not recorded
хэзвэз / к’эл-к’эл Russian
Source term: rotating aerophone / plate on a string
хэзвэз (khezvez) = Kovran-dialect Itelmen for the whirled plate-on-string aerophone, glossed "жужжалка" (buzzer); к'эл-к'эл = Tigil-dialect term for the same, glossed "вертушка" (spinner); the source groups it with rattles and notes it "заменяла бубен" (substituted for the drum). Distinct from the propeller-bladed vortex aerophone кыжиам (Kamchadal) / кэхэм (Kovran) / талитал (Tigil), which was whirled at the autumn "очищение грехов" festival (the Alkhalalalai), and from the reindeer-bone toy тэн-к'эл (Kovran) / гыр-гэр (Tigil).
Etymology. Source glosses `к'эл-к'эл` as Tigil Itelmen `вертушка`, spinner or whirligig. (high confidence)
Among the Itelmen of western Kamchatka, a plate hung on a cord was whirled to make sound — хэзвэз, 'buzzer,' in the village of Kovran; к'эл-к'эл, 'spinner,' at Tigil. It belonged to a whole family of Itelmen whirring instruments: a wooden propeller-bladed roarer turned at the autumn 'cleansing of sins' festival, a spinning toy of reindeer bone made for children. The plate-on-a-cord kept its own counsel; the one clue that survives is that such whirled and ratcheted noisemakers could stand in for the shaman's drum.
- Object
- Arctic Megapedia lists a rotating aerophone described as a plate on a cord or string; Kovran term хэзвэз and Tigil term к’эл-к’эл
- Function
- Sound-producing instrument; explicit ritual function not attached to this strict plate-on-string form in the checked source
- Map confidence
- medium - Kovran village anchor for the Kovran term; source also gives Tigil term so this is a western Kamchatka regional row
- Source location
- in; RSL record 01008198274 separately catalogs Itelmen kель-келе performance