Dan (Gio, Gioh, Gyo,Yacouba, Yakuba), Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia

Face mask deangle or tankagle. The Dan possess numerous masks that embody bush spirits and either fulfill social tasks or appear for the entertainment. Based on formal criteria, eleven masks types can be distinguished. The mask with its oval face, narrow eye silts, and full lips reflects the Dan’s ideal of female beauty. Female masks with narrow eye slits can appear, on the one hand, as the dance mask tankagle for the audience’s amusement, or as singer-mask gle so, which accompanies the “great mask” go ge to demonstrate the power of the influential go society. On the other hand, formally identical masks can be identified  as deangle, or guard masks, which serve as intermediaries between the circumcision camps for adolescent boys and the village.

Material:  wood

Size:  H. 8½”, W. 5”, D. 2½”

Price:  $160+$16 (S&H)            [#N7D6M144]