marți, 27 decembrie 2016

Ancient african masks

Ancient african masks



Dogon ceremonial masks in use

Ritual and ceremonial masks are a vital characteristic of the normal tradition of the peoples of part of Sub-Saharan Africa, e.g. roughly between the Sahara and the Kalahari Desert. Whereas the particular implications related to ritual masks extensively differ in several cultures, some traits are widespread to most African cultures. As an example, masks often have a non secular and non secular that means and they're utilized in ritual dances and social and non secular occasions, and a particular standing is attributed to the artists that create masks to those who put on them in ceremonies. Generally, mask-making is an artwork that's handed on from father to son, together with the information of the symbolic meanings conveyed by such masks. African masks are available all totally different colours, equivalent to pink, black, orange, and brown.

African international locations the place masks are used historically

Masks are one of many components of nice African artwork which have most evidently influenced Europe and Western art on the whole; within the 20th century, creative actions equivalent to cubism, fauvism and expressionism have typically taken inspiration from the huge and numerous heritage of African masks. Influences of this heritage can be present in different traditions equivalent to South- and Central American masked Carnival parades.


A masks utilized in ngil magic ceremonies of the Fang people of Gabon. Ethnological Museum of Berlin

In most conventional African cultures, the one who wears a ritual masks conceptually loses his or her human id and turns into the spirit represented by the masks itself. This transformation of the masks wearer right into a spirit often depends on different practices, equivalent to particular forms of music and dance, or ritual costumes that contribute to hide the mask-wearer's human id. The masks wearer thus turns into a form of medium that permits for a dialogue between the neighborhood and the spirits (often those of the dead or nature-related spirits). Masked dances are part of most conventional African ceremonies associated to weddings, funerals, initiation rites, and so forth. A few of the most advanced rituals which were studied by students are present in Nigerian cultures equivalent to these of the Yoruba and Edo peoples, that bear some resemblances to the Western notion of theatre.


Since each masks has a selected non secular that means, most traditions comprise a number of totally different conventional masks. The standard faith of the Dogon people of Mali, for instance, contains three primary cults (the Awa or cult of the lifeless, the Bini or cult of the communication with the spirits, and the Lebe or cult of nature); every of those has its pantheon of spirits, akin to 78 various kinds of masks general. It's typically the case that the creative high quality and complexity of a masks displays the relative significance of the portrayed spirit within the methods of beliefs of a specific individuals; for instance, less complicated masks such because the kple kple of the Baoulé individuals of Côte d'Ivoire (primarily a circle with minimal eyes, mouth and horns) are related to minor spirits.

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