The Bullroarer Atlas

VELOSO2019-001 - ethnographic attestation

Sociedade Renasceriana of Itapecerica / GRERTACUF

Brazil - Itapecerica, Minas Gerais - South America

Sacred / spirit

Representative—not this record’s object: a Brazilian zumbador with a carved blade and red cord.
Representative—not this record’s object: a Brazilian zumbador with a carved blade and red cord. Soinuenea Folk Music Corner, Oiartzun (SHMT 30369) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

berra-boi Portuguese

berra-boi = local name; direct cord-and-triangular-PVC construction resolves the free-air form rather than the regional friction-box homonym

At midnight during Itapecerica’s Week of Sorrows, the Sociedade Renasceriana carried a triangular piece of PVC on a one-metre cord through seven prayer stations to the cemetery. Whirled through the air, the berra-boi produced a ‘frightening hum.’

fio de um metro com um pedaço triangular de PVC preso em uma extremidade que, girado vigorosamente no ar, faz zunido assustador.

a one-metre cord with a triangular piece of PVC attached at one end that, when vigorously whirled in the air, makes a frightening hum.

Guy Veloso, Penitentes: Fotografias de Guy Veloso (2019), caption 27, PDF p. 108
Object
A one-metre cord with a triangular PVC piece at one end, vigorously whirled in air to make a frightening hum.
Function
Week of Sorrows soul-commendation procession: midnight route, seven prayer stations, and cemetery.
Map confidence
high - Itapecerica municipal center; source documents a moving town procession.
Source location
caption 27, PDF p. 108

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