No. VOEGELIN1942-003
Upper Sacramento Wintu bullroarer
United States · Upper Sacramento River canyon, Shasta County, northern California · North America
Play / practical
Source term: bull-roarer
On the upper Sacramento the bullroarer was a wooden blade that boys swung for the noise of it and that only boys and men handled — and it had not been there long: every answer given about it was marked as a recent introduction. The neighbours make the point. Over the divide at Hayfork the same instrument was old enough to be credited with raising storm and wind; on the McCloud River, the next drainage east, the Wintu said there had never been one. Three Wintu valleys, three different answers.
Particulars
- Object
- Wooden bullroarer; no dimensions, cord detail, or Wintu name recorded.
- Function
- Whirled by boys for amusement, and handled only by boys and men; recorded as a comparatively recent introduction. Storm-making, sickness-making and shamanic use all denied.
Source
Erminie W. Voegelin, Culture Element Distributions: XX, Northeast California, Anthropological Records 7:2 (1942); informant John Towndolly of Dunsmuir, interviewed 17-21 September 1936