Mask
Artist Unidentified
20th century
Object PlaceMali
Medium/Techniquewood, paint, encrustation, rope
DimensionsOverall: 89 x 21.5 x 19 cm (35 1/16 x 8 7/16 x 7 1/2 in.)
Credit LineGift of Geneviève McMillan in memory of Reba Stewart
Accession number2009.2603
On View
Not on viewClassificationsMasks
Collections
The meaning of Dogon masquerades and masks has been open to much speculation. There are more than seventy-eight different Dogon mask types, ranging from animals and humans to abstract configurations that performed during complex funerary rituals organized by Ava (or Awa), a men's society. They facilitated the transition of the deceased into the realm of ancestorhood. This mask may be an amma ta, a mask that refers to Dogon cosmology. Along with the sirige and the kanaga, the amma ta represents different events relating to Dogon creation mythology.
Provenance1965, sold by Galerie Carrefour, Paris, to Geneviève McMillan (b. 1922 - d. 2008), Cambridge, MA; 2008, to the Geneviève McMillan and Reba Stewart Foundation, Cambridge; 2009, gift of the Geneviève McMillan and Reba Stewart Foundation to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 17, 2009)
