What does the Dan mask symbolize?

What does the Dan mask symbolize?

Dan masks are sacred objects. Dan masks are used for protection and as a channel for communication with the spirit world. The Dan also carry small ‘passport masks’ for personal protection when they are living away from home.

What was the function of the masks of the Dan ngere people?

Among some Dan and Gere (Ngere, Guere) peoples of Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire, ancestor masks with generic features act as intermediaries for the transmission of petitions or offerings of respect to the gods. These traditional ancestral emissaries exert by their spirit power a social control for the community.

What tribe uses the Dan mask?

Masks are the most important art form of the Dan people of Liberia. The Dan people refer to these masks as gle or ge, terms that refers both to the physical mask and the individual spirits the mask is believed to embody during masquerade performances.

What is the Dan mask made from?

Carved from a single piece of soft wood, this oval face mask by a Dan carver of Côte d’Ivoire or Liberia features a wide forehead, large circular eye holes, and nose and mouth in high relief.

What is the Baule mask made out of?

Thishighly decorative Baule dance mask from Ivory Coast is hand-carved from wood with a rich glossy patina. A Hornbill bird; known as “Calao”, is perched on top the the mask. The Baule are part of the Akan people of Côte D’ivoire, also famous for the Goli mask.

What were Dan masks made of?

For the Dan a mask is more than just a face covering. The complete mask costume is comprised of a headdress, wide skirt made of palm fiber, and a cloth cape, which completely cover the wearer, hiding his body and validating the myth that the mask is a spirit of the forest, not a human being.

Where does the Dan tribe live?

Dan, also called Gio or Yakuba, an ethnolinguistic grouping of people inhabiting the mountainous west-central Côte d’Ivoire and adjacent areas of Liberia.

What are Kota masks used for?

The Kota helmet masks known as emboli or mbuto measure between 40 and 80 cm. In Kota villages the masks are worn during dances in celebration of the initiation of adolescent boys.

What does a Baule mask look like?

The Baule assimilated a number of their neighbors’ masquerade forms: a naturalistic face mask, a horned helmet mask, and a flat circular mask called kple kple. The flat, disk-shaped face with ringed eyes and rectangular mouth is surmounted by ears and large curving horns.

What does the Baule mask symbolize?

Designed as part of a Baule theatrical tradition, known as “Mblo,” that combines dramatic skits and solo dances, this mask is an idealized representation of the prominent member of the community for which it was sculpted.

Where are African Dan masks from?

Liberia
The Dan people live in the western part of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and eastern Liberia and are widely known for the wide variety of masks that are central to their cultural life and social organization.