The Bullroarer Atlas

SA-Z1953-026 - ethnographic attestation

Guarayu

Eastern Bolivia - South America

Play / practical

Guarayu bull-roarer, Bolivia — a slender pale lath, its cord wrapped and knotted around both ends so it hangs in a long loop, collected by...
Guarayu bull-roarer, Bolivia — a slender pale lath, its cord wrapped and knotted around both ends so it hangs in a long loop, collected by Erland Nordenskiöld, the accession number inked along the shaft. The documented culture; not the specific object cited here. Etnografiska museet, Stockholm (1913.15.0024) CC BY 4.0 Image source

Source term: Schwirrgerät / Schwirrholz / bullroarer

Among the Guarayu of eastern Bolivia the bullroarer was a children's toy, with no recorded ritual use. Otto Zerries, surveying the instrument across South America, grouped it with the Chacobo and Yuracaré of northeastern Bolivia as peoples who whirled it only in play, citing Nordenskiöld's 1922 observation. In his diffusion argument Zerries supposed the Guarayu, a Tupí people, had taken up the bullroarer from the scattered, linguistically isolated tribes of eastern Bolivia rather than carrying it from any older Tupí stratum.

In Northeastern Bolivia the bull-roarer is used as a children's toy by the Chacobo (Nordenskiöld 1922, p. 110), Yuracaré (l.c. p. 68) and Guarayu (l.c. p. 168).

Zerries 1953:288
Function
Bullroarer used as children's toy; Zerries suggests possible borrowing from isolated eastern Bolivia strata
Map confidence
medium - regional_anchor: No live ritual function extracted
Source location
Nordenskiöld 1922:168 (via Zerries 1953:288)

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