Mask of the Harvest Ritual

Label

The Iatmul people living in Aibom village have a distinctive harvest ceremony that differs from that in other Iatmul villages, suggesting that some of their ancestors may have had somewhat unique origins. This ceremony involves invoking clan spirits responsible for ensuring a successful harvest of yams. The decorative designs on this mask are exaggerated and fanciful, but emphasize the power of the spirit and its notably large eyes and nose, decorated with carved bailer shells (here fashioned of sago spathe—the lower part of the enormous fronds—like the rest of the mask). The colors of the painted spathe in this mask are much darker and harsher than masks from the other Iatmul villages, likely a feature of how the makers of this mask conceived of the spirit that it embodied. Iatmul carvers and artists were not trying to be abstract; instead they were carving accurate depictions of what they thought the particular features of these spirits were. This masking tradition illustrates how a ritual object literally and symbolically exaggerates the physical features of people and spirits.

From the 2019 exhibition Melanesian Art: The Sepik River and Abelam Hill Country, curated by Robert Welsch, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Franklin Pierce University

Course History

ANTH 74, The Human Spectrum, Nate Dominy, Spring 2022

Exhibition History

Faces of Culture: Masks from the Permanent Collection of the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 1, 1991-November 3, 1993.

Melanesian Art: The Sepik River and Abelam Hill Country, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26-December 8, 2019.

Provenance

Acquired by Harry A. Franklin (1903-1983), Los Angeles, California, in the 1950s; bequeathed to the Harry A. Franklin Family Collection, Los Angeles, California, 1983; lent to present collection, 1990; given to present collection, 2004.

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