The Murrinh-Patha conducted a
bullroarer ceremony, known secretly as
Karwadi, and publicly as the
Punj. This was analysed by
W. E. H. Stanner in terms of a pattern he discerned underlying the more general
rite of sacrifice in other cultures, consisting of (a) something of value consecrated to a spiritual being, and whose aim lies beyond the common ends of life; (b) the object of sacrifice undergoes transformation; (c) The object of sacrifice, whose nature has thereby been transformed, is restored to those who made the offering; and (d) and then shared by the community, allowing their loss of the earlier state to be offset by a gain. In the general context of aboriginal religion, such initiations instill the idea that in the
Dreamtime, extraordinary events once took place which set the fundamental pattern of man's life in his given environment, and the living must commemorate and keep actively in touch with the symbolic truths and paths outlined
illo tempore. Broadly speaking he writes that: The Karwadi ceremony may be described as a liturgical transaction, within a totemic idiom of symbolism, between men and a spiritual being on whom they conceive themselves to be dependent. It took from one to two months to complete, and was participated in by members from both
patrimoiety groups in neighbouring clans. The young men who are the subject of the Karwadi rite of initiation are candidates who have already been circumcised, but require this last stage of initiation because they are still regarded as refractory to the discipline of full maturity.
Karwadi is a secret name for the
Mother of All, alternatively known as
The Old Woman and the core of the ceremony consists in revealing to them her emblem, the
ŋawuru (bullroarer). After consultation the young men, without compulsion, are taken to a
ŋudanu (ceremonial ground) where the fully initiated men (
kadu punj) circle them and chant a long refrain which concludes at sundown with the exclamatory of the Mother of All's hidden name, invoked with the cry
Karwadi yoi!. All then return to the main camp, with the youths forbidden to speak to both patri- and matrikin, and required to eat alone, as their needs are attended to by adult men. With the first sighting of the
Morning star the initiands are taken back to the
ŋudanu, and from that moment they are neither addressed, nor even seen, by anyone who does not belong to the group of adult men overseeing the performance to the end. As they take up the singing once more, men indulge in the comic antics of
tjirmumuk, a jostling horseplay between moiety members, including attempts to grab each other's genitals, interleaved with obscene remarks that would normally never be tolerated. ==Alternative names==