Masque casque "tatanua"
Heinrich Hense (1888 to mid-1960s), Altengeseke / Lippstadt, Germany (coll. in situ, before 1918)
Family-owned since then
Heinrich Hense was born in Altengeseke in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1888. Trained as a locksmith, he worked as a repairman for Heinrich Nordhaus, a bicycle, sewing machine and motor vehicle dealer in Münster, from 1907 to 1909. He then joined the Imperial Navy, where he travelled for long periods in Oceania and the South Seas. This is documented for the years 1911 and 1912 by dated letters on the letterhead of the shipping company “Norddeutscher Lloyd”. According to this, he travelled on the steamer “Prinz Ludwig” in 1911 and on the Reichspostdampfer “Königin Luise” in 1912.
Description
wood (mostly lime), chalk, colour pigments, sea snails, plant fibres, fabric and cotton fibres,
The ’tatanua’ is one of the many dances and rital complexes incorporated in the large-scale mortuary celebrations called ‘malagan’, that form the centre of ceremonial life in New Ireland.
‘Tatanua’ were danced in public, either in pairs, or in groups or lines of men. In 1907 Richard Parkinson published a description of a ceremony that he witnessed on a visit to New Ireland. The masked dancers performed, accompanied by drumming, wearing garlands of leaves and a leaf garment covering the lower body.
Some six weeks before one of these large-scale mortuary celebrations took place, the dancers begin sleeping and eating within the sponsors house. During this time they practice a form of abstinence in order to develop male ‘strength’ for the performance. Not only are physical contacts with women taboo, the men may not eat peeled taro and fish. Should a dancer fail to develope this male capability through abstinence, the mask will constrict his head, causing blood to run from his temples and nostrils.
Earlier German ethnographic accounts suggest that in the New Hanover and northern New Ireland areas ’tatanua’ masks represented the spirits of particular deceased individuals and were called by their names.
The Mandak disclaim this interpretation. Here the masked dancer is said ’to look just like a true man’, but not to represent an individual or spirit.
In an early account of the ’tatanua’ Parkinson suggested that the distinguishing helmet-like crest imitated a traditional hairstyle worn by young men on mortuary occasions. At this time the sides of the head were shaved and covered with a plaster of lime dust. Others have supported Parkinson’s assertion that the ’tatanua’ presented an image of idealized masculine appearance.