27 - Masque Waura du rio Xingu, Amazonie

Masque Waura du rio Xingu, Amazonie Wood, natural pigments, plant fibers H. 105 cm; W. 29 cm The Waura (or Wauja) people live in the Upper Xingu region, in central Brazil in the state of Mato Grosso, around the headwaters of the Xingu River. As a figure from the invisible world, the Waura mask is more than just an ornament: it becomes the very body of a spiritual entity. In Wauja cosmology, masks embody the apapaatai. These generally invisible spirits are often regarded as predatory beings believed to be the cause of illness. The dancer who wears the mask during major rituals is said to embody the entity. The arrangement of geometric patterns on the surface and the alternation of black and orange-yellow give rhythm to the composition. The raffia remains intact. A fine example. Provenance - French private collection Littérature Further Reading Aristoteles Barcelos Neto, “The Ritual Masks of the Upper Xingu: A Century After Karl von den Steinen,” Bulletin of the Swiss Society for American Studies, 68, 2004, pp. 51–71 Apapaatai: Mask Rituals in the Upper Xingu, São Paulo, EDUSP, 2008 “The Awakening of the Great Masks of the Upper Xingu—Iconography and Transformation,” in J.-P. Goulard and D. Karadimas (eds.), Masks of Men, Faces of Gods, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2011, pp. 27–52