The Bullroarer Atlas

STEWART1941-008 - ethnographic attestation

Sawawaktodo-tuviwarai wind-making wimo'to

United States - Middle Humboldt River around Winnemucca, north-central Nevada - North America - Great Basin

Weather / fertility magic

Painted Hopi snake-lightning bullroarer from Mishongnovi, British Museum.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Painted Hopi snake-lightning bullroarer from Mishongnovi, British Museum. · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

wimo'to

Source term: bull-roarer (wimo'to)

Wimo'to: Stewart's survey-wide Northern Paiute element heading for the bullroarer.

Along the middle Humboldt the roarer was for wind and not for children — the eastern Northern Paiute pattern. The testimony behind it is the shakiest in the region, but what it says matches what three neighbouring bands said separately, and it is the agreement with the neighbours, not the testimony alone, that carries the weight.

Object
A wooden whirrer; not described further.
Function
Swung to make the wind blow; toy use denied.
Source
Omer C. Stewart, Culture Element Distributions: XIV, Northern Paiute, Anthropological Records 4:3 (1941). Sa column, table p. 401: 1870 bull-roarer +, 1871 whirrer of wood +, 1872 of sheep horn -, 1873 used as toy -, 1874 to make wind blow +. Band and informants, p. 364: the Sawawaktodo-tuviwarai 'lived along the middle Humboldt'; informants Sam Louie…
Source location
Stewart 1941, pp. 364, 401, 403
Source confidence
low to medium Middle Humboldt River near Winnemucca, where both. Territory anchor for the named people; not a use site.

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