The Bullroarer Atlas

No. SCHEBESTA1921-001

Sepa communal bullroarer

Papua New Guinea · Sepa village · Bogia District · Madang Province · Oceania · Sahul

Sacred / spirit

A long, narrow brown wooden Astrolabe Bay zoemhout with pale geometric decoration and a short red cord near one end; not the Biliau blade.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. A carved blade from Astrolabe Bay. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image source
Schebesta's 1921/22 page records the bullroarer held in common by each Sepa village; no object image survives.
Plate II. Schebesta's 1921/22 page records the bullroarer held in common by each Sepa village; no object image survives. Public domain · Image source

Source term: Schwirrholz

lumbeki: umbrella Sepa cult category, including masks, flutes, bullroarers, spirits, dances and ritual tools; not the bullroarer's name

Lumbeki was larger than any one instrument: it gathered masks, flutes, spirits, dances, and ritual tools into a village-wide ceremonial complex. Each Sepa village held one bullroarer in common within that institution.

Jedes Sepadorf besitzt als Gesamtheit einen gemeinsamen Lumbeki, ein Schwirrholz.

Each Sepa village collectively possesses a communal lumbeki: a bullroarer.

Schebesta 1921/22:1054

Particulars

Object
Communal bullroarer within the lumbeki ceremonial complex; form and material unrecorded.

Source

Joseph Schebesta, 'Parak-Institution im Bogia-Distrikt unter den Sepa,' Anthropos 16/17 (1921/22), p. 1054

View the source · archived

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.