What is the function of the Chi Wara masquerade?
At the turn of the century, and perhaps before, the masquerade was known as a tribute to the mythical figure named chi wara, or “farming animal,” who was the son of a divine being and appeared as half human and half animal. Chi wara had extraordinary agricultural skills and taught humans how to cultivate food crops.
What is the Bambara dance?
The dance, representing both male and female genders, commemorates Chiwara with the dancers wearing beautifully carved headdresses representing antelopes. The dancers leap and turn, moving their heads and feet like the antelope, their movements grounded in hundreds of years of tradition.
What is chiwara mask?
A Chiwara is a ritual object representing an antelope, used by the Bambara ethnic group in Mali. The Chiwara initiation uses Chiwara masks, as well as dances and rituals associated primarily with agriculture, to teach young Bamana men social values as well as agricultural techniques.
What was the mythical function of these CH wara masks made by the Bamana peoples in Africa?
Humans learned how to farm from Chi Wara and soon their lands became bountiful with crops. However, the humans were wasteful with their food, and the Chi Wara was disappointed. Chi Wara buried itself in the earth and disappeared. The Bamana people decided to create a mask to honor and remember the Chi Wara.
What is Bambara mask?
N’tomo masks are used by the Bambara people of West Africa. There are six male initiation societies that young males must pass through before becoming a man. N’tomo Dyo is the first of these through which boys pass before their circumcision.
Where is the Bambara tribe located in Africa?
Mali
The Bambara (Bambara: ߓߡߊߣߊ߲, romanized: Bamana or ߓߊ߲ߡߊߣߊ߲ Banmana) are a Mandé ethnic group native to much of West Africa, primarily southern Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Senegal.
What is the chiwara made of?
Often described as an antelope, it is actually a composite animal made up of the antelope, aardvark and pangolin. Some masks emphasize the broad neck and mane of the roan antelope. The vertical horns are similar to those of both the roan and oryx antelopes.
What do the figures in the Dogon couple statue represent?
This sculpture created by the Dogon peoples of Mali, in West Africa, is not a portrait of specific individuals. Rather, it represents that culture’s concept of an ideal social unit. The male figure has a quiver on his back, showing his identity as protector and provider, while the female figure carries a tiny baby.
How can we identify the antelope depicted in this Ci Wara headdress as female?
The male, identified as a roan antelope, is distinguished by its long horns and elaborate openwork mane. The female, representing an oryx antelope, carries a fawn on her back, a reference to human mothers, who carry babies on their backs as they till the fields.
Where is my African mask from?
Also known as the African mask or Kris plant, Alocasia doesn’t come from Africa at all. It gets its name from its resemblance to the hand-carved ceremonial masks found there, but actually hails from the Philippine Islands.
What was the Bambara known for?
They have a remarkable system of metaphysics and cosmology, encompassing associated animistic cults, prayers, and myths. Their religious sculptures in wood and metal are renowned. The Bambara live in the region around Bamako, the capital of Mali.
What is on the backs of the seated couple of Dogon?
The figures’ elongated bodies are depicted as a series of parallel vertical lines traversed by horizontals that draw them together. On the reverse side a small child clinging to the female’s back is balanced by a quiver on the back of the male.
What is a Chiwara?
Two Chiwara at the Art Institute of Chicago. Female (left) and male Vertical styles. A Chiwara (also Chi wara, Ci Wara, or Tyi Wara; Bambara: ciwara; French: tchiwara) is a ritual object representing an antelope, used by the Bambara ethnic group in Mali.
What is the story of ciwara?
In the oral tradition of the Bamana culture of western Mali it was a legendary half-man, half-antelope named Ciwara that was responsible for teaching mankind agriculture. Though the original Ciwara has since disappeared into the earth, the Bamana still honor him with dances following especially rigorous periods of farming.
What animal is the ciwarakunw?
Just as the mythological antecedent for ciwarakunw was a hybrid of a man and an antelope, these wooden carvings are also hybrids of animal forms. The pangolin and especially the aardvark, who is known for digging and thus also associated with farmers, are both common to these headdresses.
What are the Chiwara masks?
The Chiwara initiation society uses Chiwara masks, as well as dances and rituals associated primarily with agriculture, to teach young Bamana men social values as well as agricultural techniques. Chiwara masks are categorized in three ways: horizontal, vertical, or abstract. In addition, Chiwara can be either male or female.