The Bullroarer Atlas

SA-Z1953-020 - ethnographic attestation

Panobo

Northeastern Peru - South America

Play / practical

A dark leaf-shaped bull-roarer, its middle left as bare pale wood, a heavy skein of twisted cord knotted through the head, from the...
Representative image. A dark leaf-shaped bull-roarer, its middle left as bare pale wood, a heavy skein of twisted cord knotted through the head, from the Ethnological Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; not the specific Panobo object or culture documented here. Ethnological Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (acc. DE-MUS-019118/151923/2020-04-07_13-52-09) Image source

rę̄òrę̄ò Panobo (Panoan)

Source term: rę̄òrę̄ò (Zerries: "reo reo")

Among the Panobo, a Panoan people of northeastern Peru, the bullroarer was a children's toy called rę̄òrę̄ò — a wooden blade tapering to a point, on a cord. Günter Tessmann recorded it on his Amazon fieldwork (Die Indianer Nordost-Perus, 1930, p. 115), and Otto Zerries later catalogued it alongside the toy bullroarers of neighboring groups. For some of those neighbors the instrument did double duty: the Kampa whirled their "mero mero" not only as a plaything but to frighten naughty children, telling them the jaguar would come and carry them off. For the Panobo, Tessmann records only the toy.

Schwirrholz = rę̄òrę̄ò, spitz auslaufende Holzplatte mit Schnur. Ein zweiter B. kannte dies Gerät nicht.

Bullroarer = rę̄òrę̄ò, a wooden blade running out to a point, with a cord. A second informant did not know this device.

Tessmann 1930:115 (Panobo, rubric 47)
Object
Pointed, tapering wooden blade on a cord ("spitz auslaufende Holzplatte mit Schnur").
Function
Bullroarer known as children's toy
Map confidence
medium - regional_anchor: No live ritual function extracted
Source location
Tessmann 1930:115 (primary); Zerries 1953:287, distribution list item 20 (survey)

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