STEWART1942-002 - primary ethnography
Moanunts Ute
United States - Salina Canyon - upper Sevier valley, central Utah - North America - Great Basin
Weather / fertility magic
niã'painöpö English
Source term: Bull-roarer: whirrer of wood
niã'painöpö: the Moanunts term for the bull-roarer in Stewart's comparative vocabulary; no literal gloss is given.
Whoever swung the Moanunts whirrer had to be born in summer: only such hands could drive the niã'painöpö to raise a wind or wipe the clouds from the sky. The band took its name from Moavi, 'pass in the mountain' — the gap at the head of Salina Canyon — and lived on both slopes of the mountain, sagebrush valleys below, pine and aspen forest above. Their bull-roarer, a wooden blade swung on a handled string, was no toy in their telling; it was weather work.
- Object
- Whirrer of wood swung on a string with a wooden handle.
- Function
- Whirled to make wind blow and to clear away clouds; effective only for people born in summer.
- Map confidence
- medium - Salina, Utah anchor at the mouth of Salina Canyon; the band held the pass at the canyon's head ('Moavi', pass in the mountain, Stewart p. 236) and lived on both slopes, and informant Mianna Provo was Moanunts from near Salina.
- Source location
- printed p. 291 (els. 2792, 2795, 2799, 2800, 2802 +; 2797 toy -); vocabulary p. 352; band p. 236; informants p. 238
- Weather / fertility magic