Bolas
Type of weighted throwing weapon used in South America
Bolas or bolases (sing.: bola; from Spanish and Portuguese bola, "ball", also known as a boleadora or boleadeira) is a type of throwing weapon made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, used to capture animals by entangling their legs. Bolas were most famously used by the gauchos, but have been found in excavations of Pre-Columbian settlements, especially in Patagonia, where indigenous peoples (particularly the Tehuelche) used them to catch 200-pound guanacos and rheas. The Mapuche and the Inca army used them in battle. Mapuche warriors used bolas in their confrontations with the Chilean Army during the Occupation of Araucanía (1861-1883).
01Use
Gauchos used boleadoras to capture running cattle or game. Depending on the exact design, the thrower grasps the boleadora by one of the weights or by the nexus of the cords. The thrower gives the balls momentum by swinging them and then releases the boleadora. The weapon is usually used to entangle the animal's legs, but when thrown with enough force can even inflict injury (e.g., by breaking a bone).
Traditionally, Inuit have used bolas to hunt birds, fowling the birds in air with the lines of the bola. People of a Feather showed Belcher Island Inuit using bolas to hunt eider ducks on the wing.
02Design
There is no uniform design; most bolas have two or three balls, but there are versions of up to eight or nine. Some, but not all, bolas have balls of equal weight; some vary the knot and cord. Gauchos use bolas made of braided leather cords with wooden balls or small leather sacks full of stones at the ends of the cords.
Bolas can be named depending on the number of weights used:
- Perdida (one weight)
- Avestrucera or ñanducera (two weights, for rheas)
- Somai (two weights)
- Achico (three weights)
- Boleadora (three weights)
- Kiipooyaq (Inuit name for bolas with three or more weights)
Bolas of three weights are usually designed with two shorter cords with heavier weights, and one longer cord with a light weight. The heavier weights fly at the front parallel to each other, hit either side of the legs, and the lighter weight goes around, wrapping up the legs.
Other unrelated versions include qilumitautit, the bolas of the Inuit, made of sinew and bone weights and used to capture water birds.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Bolas”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Bola (PSF).jpg by Pearson Scott Foresman, Public domain
- Toortse Rio de la Plata.png by Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain
- Le Tour du monde-04-p248.jpg by Horace Castelli, Public domain
- Boleando nandues la pampa 1905.jpg by Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain
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