Accession No
E 1915.20.5
Description
Large, wooden bullroarer, or tjuringa (churinga), with one face inscribed with sacred designs, which represent a totemic ancestor.
Place
Oceania; Australasia; Australia; Western Australia; Kimberley; Fortescue River
Period
Source
Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred Reginald (Professor) [field collector and donor]
Department
Anth
Reference Numbers
E 1915.20.5; MAA: AR 1915.290.5
Cultural Affliation
Material
Wood
Local Term
Measurements
Events
Context (Amendments / updates)
Aboriginal women and uninitiated boys are forbidden to see them. Their meaning is only fully divulged to men who are initiated into that totem and who are of elder status. Those with a hole bored in one end (stone ones excepted), for the attachment of a cord, are called bullroarers. When whirled round, they produce a characteristic sound believed to be 'spirit talk'.
[undated CMS note, probably added in the 1990s]
Event Date
Author: Rachel Hand
Context (Field collection)
Collected by A. Radcliffe-Brown (then A.R. Brown), Fortescue River, Western Kimberley district, 1910–12.
Event Date 1910
Author: maa
Description (CMS Description)
Large, wooden bullroarer, with one face carved. Churinga are inscribed with sacred designs, which represent a totemic ancestor.
Event Date 28/4/1993
Author: maa
FM:87354
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