Mask for Malagan Ceremony, New Ireland

J. Camp Associates, New York
Abraham Rosman and Paula Rubel, New York, acquired from the above on November 12, 1983

Highly anticipated and meticulously prepared for long periods of time, often over the course of years, malagan ceremonies are intricate and extensive affairs that are held in the name of one or more deceased members of a community. Although community members utilize the time for a multiplicity of enterprises and transactions, these occasions signal the culmination of the mourning period for the departed alongside a tightly choreographed and stylized sequence of music, song, gestures, and dancing. Peltier describes how 'This ultimate exhibition is designed, according to a common expression in New Ireland, to 'finish the dead man,' to efface him from the world of the living by sending his soul into the spirit world. But it is not merely a farewell. It is a matter of controlling the "soul" or rather the "vital force" of the dead man in order to pass it on to the next generation. This vital force allows the clans to live and reproduce themselves from generation to generation. "Finishing the dead man" means picking up his energy, channeling it and sharing it out among the members of the clan. The aim is to tighten social bonds between the man or men who take the place of the dead man and the rest of the community.' (Gunn and Peltier, eds, New Ireland: Art of the South Pacific, Brussels, 2006, p. 78)

The present mask is a classic example of the celebrated tatanua type danced in malagan ceremonies. Accompanied by the tempo of drums, boards and bamboo sticks, the male dancers either paired off or lined up to dance the masks in public.

An homage to male beauty, tatanua masks depict elaborate coiffures, wide, prominent noses, pierced earlobes, and broad mouths with healthy teeth. See Gunn, New Ireland: Ritual Arts of Oceania, Milan, 1997, p. 146 for a more detailed description of the ceremony, transcribed from the German trader Robert Parkinson's first-hand account from circa 1900.