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A mask at a funeral in the village of Kirsi in 1976. A black plastic child's doll has been added to the horns to create a karan wemba, to honor a female ancestor. In the southwest masks represent animals such as antelope, bush buffalo, and various strange creatures, are painted red, white and black.
Animals are common subjects in African masks. Animal masks typically embody the spirit of animals, so that the mask-wearer becomes a medium to speak to animals themselves (e.g. to ask wild beasts to stay away from the village); in many cases, nevertheless, an animal is also (sometimes mainly) a symbol of specific virtues.
The masks are used in dances, where the dancer may "open" the mask via a series of strings in order to reveal a second figure, usually a "human" mask concealed within an animal exterior. Transformation masks are constructed from several sections, the outer sections come together to form the animal or mythological form, which then split to the ...
The masks also appear during baga-bundo rites performed by small numbers of masqueraders before the burial of a male Dogon. Dogon masks evoke the form of animals associated with their mythology, yet their significance is only understood by the highest ranking cult members whose role is to explain the meaning of each mask to a captivated audience.
These masks evolved from small gourd bowls originally covered in seeds, bone, clay, coral and shell, but these have been replaced by commercially produced beads. It is from these masks that the modern practice of covering wooden sculptures of snakes, dolls, small animals, jaguar heads and other forms is derived. [3]
Chiwara masks are categorized in three ways: horizontal, vertical, or abstract. In addition, Chiwara can be either male or female. Female Chiwara masks are denoted by the presence of a baby antelope and straight horns. Male Chiwara masks have bent horns and a phallus. The sex of a Chiwara mask is much clearer on horizontal and vertical masks ...
Disruptive patterns can also conceal specific features. Animals such as fish, birds, frogs and snakes can readily be detected by their eyes, which are necessarily round and dark. Many species conceal the eye with a disruptive eye mask, sometimes contrasting with a stripe above the eye, making it seem just part of a dark area of background.
Gebande is the most sacred examples of Dan masks while Genome is a lower rank of masks. [4] [5] The classifications relate to the content which the Dan attribute to the mask, rather than the appearance of the mask. Gebande masks can be divided into a series of subgroups and categories: Subgroups: Singers’ masks; Dancers’ masks; Storytellers ...