"Brag" spirit mask ·  Papua New Guinea, Lower Sepik, Murik · ID: 3048028

Description

wood, pigments, missing parts, rest.

According to Craig, there are seveal kinds of masks in the Lower Sepik region which can be distinguished by the formation of their nose. A. JP Meyer already wrote, that long pointed noses represent spiritual beings while short naturalistic ones portray true ancestors.

The nose of the present mask is relatively naturalistic. It is thus probably a human ancestral mask representing a dead relative “nor” (cf. Conru, 2019, p. 237, ill. 138).

Masks with longer noses resembling eagle or kookaburra beaks may be “brag” masks. They represent the “legendary quasi-human male spirits (“pot”) with prodigious erotic appetites” (Craig in: “Sepik Ramu Art”, 2019, p. 235)

Comparing literature

Craig, Barry (ed.), Living spirits with fixed abodes, Honolulu 2010, p. 210 ff.