Anthropomorphic mask · Papua New Guinea - Ramu River · ID: 3044979
sold
EUR 1,500
Provenance
Museum Collection, USAFily Keita, Los Angeles, USA
Size
H: 44 cm
H: 17.3 inch
Description
wood, red pigment/ encrusted, base
According to attached old label the mask was collected on Manam Island, Waya Village from a “tambaran” ritual house.
Masks and slit-gong drums from the Lower Ramu are traded along the coast as far as the Murik Lakes and out to Manam Island and the Schouten Islands in the Bismarck Sea.
This is, so to speak, an “empty mask” that can not be assigned to a specific spirit, but animated ad hoc for the mask dances with the spirit that you want to perform.
Comparing literature
Peltier, Philippe et.al., Tanz der Ahnen, Zürich 2015, p. 252, Kat.121