Antelope Mask

Antelope Mask

Malinke Culture

This mask follows a traditional theme used by the Malinke and several of its neighboring cultures in its depiction of an antelope, which represents a supernatural character who introduced agriculture to the ancestors, teaching them how to plow the fields. However, like the Zebra mask and the mask from Gambia, this is not a traditional piece, but a mask made for tourist trade; the mask is very narrow, and the eye holes are crooked and peer out to the sides, so even a very narrow-faced masker would not have been able to see.

Research by Chris Escobar, 2011, Missouri State University Student. Mentor: Dr. Billie Follensbee

20th

60 cm h. x 15 cm w. x 14 cm d.

Sculpture

Wood

Carving

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Stoneman

1985.84

1985

20150040