The Bullroarer Atlas

SCHAEFFNER1951-001 - ethnographic attestation

Kissi

Kissidougou-Guéckédou - Forest Guinea - Africa

Restricted

Representative—not this record’s object: Tusia Do-society iron bullroarer, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own object...
Representative—not this record’s object: Tusia Do-society iron bullroarer, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own object is available yet. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren (MO.1967.17.2), via MIMO CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 BE Image source

Source term: Rhombe

No Kissi bullroarer name is recorded in the inspected passage

Through the young men's seclusion, Kissi bullroarers turned morning and evening as the voice of the ancestors. Women were kept from the initiates' route. Some villages burned the instruments when seclusion ended; elsewhere they were kept or remade in the forest.

Tout le temps de la retraite des jeunes gens l'instrument tourne matin et soir.

Throughout the young men's seclusion, the instrument is whirled morning and evening.

Schaeffner 1951:75
Object
Bullroarer identified as a rhombe that turns; no material, dimensions, cord, perforation, blade shape, handle, or object figure is supplied.
Function
Whirled morning and evening throughout young men's initiation seclusion; excluded women from the initiates' path and voiced the ancestors.
Map confidence
medium - Kissidougou city anchor for the broader Kissidougou-Gueckedou Kissi region represented by several villages in the source; not a performance site or object findspot.
Source location
pp. 74-76; exact quote p. 75

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