SA-Z1953-032 - ethnographic attestation
Mbaya-Caduveo funeral and toy bullroarer
Brazil; Paraguay - Gran Chaco - Paraguay River - South America
Sacred / spirit
Source term: Schwirrgerät / Schwirrholz / bullroarer
Among the Mbaya-Caduveo of the Paraguay River, the bullroarer carried the same characteristically involved designs the people were famous for. Alfred Metraux reported that they were said to whirl these instruments during funeral ceremonies, but that, as among the neighboring Mataco, the same objects were handed to children as playthings. Surveying South American attestations in 1953, Otto Zerries noted that of the true Chaco tribes only the Mataco and Caduveo had the bullroarer at all, and that this ritual use was confined to the Caduveo; elsewhere in the Chaco it surfaced only as a rare toy. Following Izikowitz, he suggested the Caduveo had likely received the instrument with other cultural elements out of the Amazon.
The Mbaya-Caduveo have bullroarers decorated with their characteristically involved designs. They are said to whirl them during funeral ceremonies, but like the Mataco, they give them to the children as playthings.
Metraux 1946:343, quoted in Zerries 1953:288-289
- Function
- Decorated bullroarers used in funeral ceremonies and also given to children as playthings
- Map confidence
- medium_high - regional_anchor: Representative Caduveo/Paraguay River coordinate; supports funeral plus toy-decay
- Source location
Page references
Métraux 1946:343 (in Zerries 1953:288-289)
- Spirit voice
- Initiation rite
- Death and rebirth
- Toy / secular survival