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African and Oceanic Art from the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva: A Legacy of Collecting
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Initiation Mask
Papua New Guinea, Witu Islands, 19th century
Rattan, bamboo, bast, wood, paint, fiber; H: 26 in. (66 cm)
Provenance: Collected by Lajos Biro, 1900; Ethnographical Museum of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary; [Everett Rassiga, New York, 1973]; Barbier-Mueller collection, since 1973
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Initiation rites to mark the transformation of adolescents into adults were—and, in some areas, remain—a central element of religious life for many Pacific peoples. During certain male initiations in the Witu Islands northeast of New Guinea one or possibly more of the adult men involved in the ceremony wore a mask of the type seen here, accompanied by a shaggy costume of leaves that covered the wearer's body and further concealed his identity.
At times, one of these distinctive masks would be displayed on a pedestal at the center of the open front of an elaborately painted initiation house. Virtually nothing is known about the precise nature and use of these remarkable masks or the identity of the beings they portray. Although the masks have some human attributes—such as nose ornaments and the cup-shaped projection at the top, which originally held a globular wig made from human hair—their prominent eyes, projecting wedge-shaped faces, and menacing teeth suggest that they almost certainly represent supernatural entities.
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