The Bullroarer Atlas

No. SEA-001

Ifugao wiwiw bullroarer

Philippines · Northern Luzon · Eastern Lepanto · Northern Nueva Vizcaya · Southeast Asia

Play / practical

Banaue Ifugao wiwiw, a flat leaf-shaped wooden toy bullroarer tied to one cord.
Plate I. Banaue Ifugao wiwiw, a flat leaf-shaped wooden toy bullroarer tied to one cord. CC0 · Image source
Two Ifugao wooden bullroarer sticks lie parallel, each with a braided plant-fiber cord; the upper blade carries chevrons and dots.
Plate II. Two Ifugao bullroarer sticks from the Peabody Museum, one bearing chevron and dot pigment, both fitted with braided plant-fiber cords. Image source

wiwiw

Source term: bull roarer

At Banaue, the Ifugao wiwiw was a flat, leaf-shaped wooden blade about twenty-seven centimetres long, tied to a single cord and kept as a toy; two older decorated bamboo blades from the same highlands survive at Harvard's Peabody Museum.

Bullroarer, flat bamboo sticks, plant fiber tied at one end, pigmented designs

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, object 08-36-70/74328, inventory description

Particulars

Object
Two flat bamboo bullroarer sticks with plant fiber tied at one end and pigmented designs; the Banaue wiwiw is a flat leaf-outline wooden blade, 26.7 × 3.8 cm, with one terminal cord.
Function
The Banaue wiwiw is catalogued as a wooden toy; use of the two older Peabody bamboo blades is unrecorded.

Source

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 89009 (label 74328; Ifugao); Yale Peabody Museum, YPM ANT 229683 (Banaue)

View the source

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