Chiquitano / Churapa bullroarers

sukurush (Churapa) / upaspakiña (Chiquitano specimen)

Source term: Schwirrgerät / Schwirrholz / bullroarer

sukurush: Churapa name for the bullroarer when used as a toy (Nordenskiöld 1922:28; given as "suku-rush" in Zerries 1953:288).

The Churapa remembered the sukurush as a children's toy already slipping out of use. Two Chiquitano objects give that fading sound a physical form: one is a broad softwood blade with a braided fibre cord and the name upaspakiña; the other is a narrow slat more than half a metre long. Together they preserve both a local memory of play and the striking variety of Chiquitano roarers.

As a toy it is nowadays out of use among the Churapa; it was called suku-rush.

Zerries 1953, "The Bull-roarer among South American Indians," Revista do Museu Paulista N.S. VII:288

Particulars

Object

Churapa toy attestation plus two Chiquitano museum boards: a 19 cm softwood upaspakiña with braided fibre cord and a 51.3 cm narrow wooden slat with cord.

Function

The Churapa sukurush was formerly a children's toy; use of the broader Chiquitano museum specimens is not recorded.