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Mali African Mask Essay

456 Words2 Pages

Mali African Mask
The Mali African mask is a crucial piece of art, because it gives the viewers insight to better understand different aspects of African culture in this time period. In African villages embraced a togetherness and dressed up to celebrate huge transitions in a average human life. The Mali mask is unique in the sense that it has a gold covering, and horns coming out of the four-head of the mask. In perspective, the mask was a representation of an Antelope, which most likely represented a person of higher class and was used to perform in ceremonies that were commonly demonstrated in african culture. Masks were popular among african art simply because in their culture art was intended for a daily use rather than to be aesthetically pleasing in one spot which was commonly seen in what is known as europe today. Typically, in african heritage, ceremonies would represent substantial transitions in a person's life and masks were a huge part of the ceremonial attire. These ceremonies included birth, puberty, marriage and death. A mask functioned as a tool to transform a person's identity and channel different spirits. The mask is essential because …show more content…

In an African society, togetherness was valued in comparison of just one individual. With that being said, this mask was used in a ceremonies that shows the act of being together in phases of celebrating on a specific person's life. A village was composed of several extended families who were ruled by chiefs or elders. In terms of this piece that this mask was worn by or for a person of power, (perhaps a chief) because the gold is a status symbol which shows power in comparison to an ordinary mask. The use of the mask and its gold covering represents a distiction of power but also the kinship system that is commonly found in African

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