No. STEWART1941-010
Achomawi mountain-sheep-horn bullroarer
United States · Upper Pit River drainage and the western slopes of the Warner Range, northeastern California · North America
Weather / fertility magic
Source term: bull-roarer (wimo'to is Stewart's element heading, not an Achomawi word)
The Achomawi of the upper Pit River — Californian neighbours of the Surprise Valley Paiute — held more bullroarer than any of the Paiute bands around them: a wooden whirrer, a toy use, a wind use, and one thing nobody else nearby had, a bullroarer made of mountain sheep horn. The horn roarer stops with them: across Idaho and Utah the horn whirrer was denied by every Shoshoni band — which is how a boundary gets drawn, from both sides.
Particulars
- Object
- Recorded in two forms, wood and mountain-sheep horn.
- Function
- Swung as a children's toy and to make the wind blow; recorded in both wood and mountain-sheep horn.
Source
Omer C. Stewart, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIV, Northern Paiute,' Anthropological Records 4:3 (1941), pp. 365, 401 and 403; Julian H. Steward, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIII, Nevada Shoshoni,' Anthropological Records 4:2 (1941), p. 250; Steward 1943, p. 357