Dance crest

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Description

wood, black paint, encrusted white pigment, tubular projecting eyes with sheet metal discs, various drilled holes, collection number “AJP1061”, big rectangular cavity backside, cutout fixed by metal clamps at the same place (rep.?), cracks, abrasion of paint;
this headdress with enlarged features and big circular leather ears represents a masculine elephant-spirit and was always paired with a “maiden” mask with delicate features, considered his wife. The mask pair belongs to the “ekpe” society (men’s association) and was danced on large festivals, usually year-end harvest celebrations thanking ancestors and Earth for abundant crops and children and honouring great warriors of the past.

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Comparing literature

Cole, Herbert M., Invention and Tradition, Munich, London, New York 2012, p. 110 Cole, Herbert M. & Chike C. Aniakor, Igbo Arts, Los Angeles 1984, p. 179, ill. 297

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