Malanggan (Malagan) Mask

Use your Museum Journal to enter answers for the following questions. You may work in groups of three or four.

What can we guess?

  1. Did a man or woman build the mask?
  2. What was it used for?
  3. Why are the eyes filled in - why are there no eye holes?
  4. Why are the two European figures included on the spires?
  5. What do the colors symbolize?

Here are some cultural clues that can help us make better guesses:

  1. The People of New Ireland have three distinct cultural practices, the Malagan, the Kabai, and the Tumbuan.
  2. There are still areas in New Ireland that still observe the rules of Malagannan carving in their cultural feasts.
  3. The term Malagan refers to both the various carving forms and the complex ceremonies in which they are used.
  4. All ceremonial life is somehow tied to Malagan ritual in New Ireland. A man is involved with these ceremonies starting with his birth initiation, continuing throughout life's important passages, and terminating with a Malagan feast of honor at his death.
  5. Aspects of Malagan traditions were sacred and confined to a clan or a family and were not given to anybody who was not entitled to them, nor would they be given to someone from outside the clan without a genuine reason or an agreement.
  6. When a part of the clan's Malagan heritage (such as a specific art pattern) was transferred, traditional shell money was offered in exchange

A Malagan feast which included the items above is often staged to remember and honor a death in the family. Some of the components of a Malagan feast include:

  1. Malagan carvings
  2. Malagan shell money and locally grown tobacco
  3. Pigs, garden food, and vegetables
  4. Sea foods
  5. Traditional dances

Masks used in a Malagan ceremony include:

  1. Burial or funeral masks made with bark cloth and feathers
  2. Heavy carved wood masks which are carried or worn but not danced - they remove major taboos
  3. Lighter carved wood or bark cloth masks which remove lesser taboos or represent requests for payments or donations
  4. Helmet masks, which are worn by dancers - only the strongest can wear these masks

Malagan objects of art are is specially commissioned for a particular, one-time ceremony such as a funeral feast, and then deliberately left to perish in the elements. Therefore, few examples are found in museums.

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