SAMER-001 - secondary catalog
Noanamá (Waunana / Wounaan)
Colombia - Isla de Munguidó, San Juan River, Chocó - South America - Northwest
Play / practical
sigur-wauna
Noanamá (Wounaan) name for the bull-roarer, recorded by Wassén on the Isla de Munguidó; his illustrated example (fig. 12 D) was a flat wooden slat about 30 cm long.
Among the Noanamá (Wounaan) of the Isla de Munguidó, on the San Juan River in the Chocó of Colombia, the bull-roarer was a flat slat of wood — bamboo ones occurred too — and chiefly a child's plaything; Henry Wassén noted in 1935 that toy examples were "nowadays often painted with aniline paints and roughly made." But he recorded one exception to its secular use. An Indian who for some reason had to cross the forest at night, from one place to another, might carry a bull-roarer painted red with bija — the annatto dye — to frighten away evil spirits. The example Wassén illustrated, about thirty centimetres long, he called a sigur-wauna.
The bull-roarer is of course chiefly a toy, but I was told of one occasion where its use corresponds with its magical character among other tribes. An Indian who for some reason or other one night has to pass through the forest from one location to another, may carry with him a bull-roarer, painted red with bija, in order to frighten away evil spirits.
Wassén 1935, Notes on Southern Groups of Chocó Indians, Etnologiska Studier 1, pp. 65–66 (quoted in Zerries 1953:290–291)
- Object
- A flat slat bull-roarer (wood or bamboo), one example red-painted with bija.
- Function
- Chiefly a toy, but a red-painted one is carried through the forest at night to frighten away evil spirits.
- Map confidence
- high - approximate territory centroid (mining 2026)
- Source location
- Wassén 1935 pp.65–66 (text) and p.67 fig.12D; quoted in Zerries 1953 pp.290–291
- Spirit voice
- Toy / secular survival