Mali · Wood / Hardstone Carving
Imina kanaga (Kanaga face mask); the male mask society is called Awa; the funerary rite is dama; the 60-year ceremonial cycle is Sigui
The carving of ritual wooden masks by the Dogon people of central Mali, who have identified nearly eighty distinct mask types, most worn by initiated members of the male Awa society during dama, a collective funerary rite ensuring the safe passage of deceased spirits to the world of the ancestors. The best-known type, the kanaga mask, features a rectangular face with deeply incised eye channels surmounted by a double-barred cross superstructure interpreted variously as a bird, the outstretched limbs of the creator deity Amma, or the layered realms of sky and earth; carvers select specific wood species — documented in peer-reviewed academic research through direct sampling of masks — based on properties suited to each mask's ritual and physical demands. The rarest tradition, the Great Sigui Mask, is carved from a single piece of wood, measures several meters in length, is never worn, and is created only once every 60 years for the Sigui ceremony marking the completion of a full Dogon calendrical cycle.
Risk level: Endangered · Not independently inscribed
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