The Bullroarer Atlas

STEWART1942-003 - primary ethnography

Timpanogots Ute (Tömpanöwotsnunts)

United States - Utah Lake shores and Wasatch canyons, Utah - North America - Great Basin

Sacred / spirit

Hopi snake-lightning bullroarer from Mishongnovi, Arizona.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Hopi snake-lightning bullroarer from Mishongnovi, Arizona. · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source
Wick-Ah-Te-Wah in Hopi Snake Dance costume, holding a lightning-snake bullroarer in his right hand, Keams Canyon, 1898.
Wick-Ah-Te-Wah in Hopi Snake Dance costume, holding a lightning-snake bullroarer in his right hand, Keams Canyon, 1898. · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Image source
Antelope priests entering Walpi’s plaza on August 21, 1897.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Antelope priests entering Walpi’s plaza on August 21, 1897. · Public domain Image source
Snake priests gathered around the kisi at Walpi in 1905.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Snake priests gathered around the kisi at Walpi in 1905. · Public domain Image source
A 1921 newspaper montage of Walpi Snake Dance photographs and a chief’s bust.
Representative — not this record’s object. · A 1921 newspaper montage of Walpi Snake Dance photographs and a chief’s bust. · Public domain Image source

nia'monöpö English

Source term: Bull-roarer: of mt. sheep horn; of rawhide

nia'monöpö: the Timpanogots term for the bull-roarer in Stewart's comparative vocabulary (shared with the Taviwatsiu); no literal gloss is given.

The fish-eaters of Utah Lake — the Lagunas whom Escalante met in 1776 — cut their bull-roarer blades not from wood but from mountain-sheep horn or rawhide. Children swung the nia'monöpö for fun; the summer-born swung it in earnest, to raise wind and sweep clouds from the sky, for it obeyed no one born in any other season. It also lay among a shaman's paraphernalia, beside the doctor's stick, tobacco, and pollen.

Object
Whirrer cut from mountain-sheep horn or rawhide, swung on a string with a wooden handle; a wooden blade was denied.
Function
A toy; also whirled to make wind blow and clear away clouds, effective only for people born in summer, and kept among a shaman's paraphernalia.
Map confidence
medium - Eastern Utah Lake shore anchor near Provo; the band occupied the lakeshore and the canyons and mountains to the east (Stewart p. 236).
Source location
printed p. 291 (els. 2793, 2794, 2795, 2797, 2799, 2800, 2802 +; 2792 wood -); p. 315 (el. 4087 +); vocabulary p. 352; band p. 236; informants p. 238

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