Introduction
Many masks are mostly related to ceremonies and rituals that have social and religious importance or are concerned with fertility rites, funerary customs, or the healing of illnesses. The Kanaga mask is the most famous mask in the Sanga area (Nugteren 21). Kanaga masks are mostly worn by Mali Dogon dancers and are traditionally related to funerary rites meant to honor deceased relatives and guide their spirits to the ancestors’ world. Kanaga mask’s physical appearance supports its symbolic meaning because it appears to have more power than people would allocate to it. The mask evokes feelings of sadness for the deceased family members as they mourning their recently died relative. Death in itself is a change marked by funerary rituals, which is vital. The mask depicts a bird externally and its interior symbolizes a more esoteric level implying a symbol of the creator force, God, Amma, and the earth arrangement. The essay analyzes the mask from another culture, Kanaga mask from Malian traditions.
The History, Origin, and Function of Kanaga Mask
Kanaga is a Dogon mask worn mainly at dama, a funerary rite for Dogon men. The masks were made during the Coptic period from the 3rd to 7th century C.E. Marcel Griaule, a French anthropologist, witnessed a dama ritual where 29 out of the 74 masks were of the Kanaga form (Nugteren 1). Lester Wunderman collected the Kanaga mask in Mali with complete costume components in 1987 (Nugteren 2). Kanaga’s mask origin stems from the first humans and is typically made by Awa society’s carvers. These masks are worn at the time of the Dama dancing festivals (Van Beek 69). The Dogon believe that the dances establish a link to the supernatural world.
Kanaga masks were used in the Dogon dance masks during the Dama ceremony. In both the mask production and the masked dance staging, there are identities, personhood, and agency, even though there is role-play, imitation, and a masquerade. The dance is matter in activity while masks are matter in action and symbols in the context (Nugteren 5). The Dama can be held many years upon the deceased and burial of a person. Performances happen for more than six days, culminating with the mask dancers’ procession which escorts the spirits of the deceased from the community, where they could cause destruction, to their final world in the supernatural world (Van Beek 72). This festival recalls the Dogon people’s origins, while also it marks the end of the mourning time for the recently deceased person.
Furthermore, the masks are aimed at honoring the deceased and offering them a way of becoming ancestors. The main reason the dead are known as the departed is means they are resting somewhere and are no more with us in any way (Nugteren 22). Nonetheless, they are still unsettled, and for their betterment and that of the community, they should be established away as ancestors. Further, the deeper literal interpretation of the Kanaga mask pertains to god, and the arrangement of the earth (Van Beek 78). The difference between the two interpretations demonstrates the gaps in comprehension of Dogon art.
Use of the Theory of Uncanny
The theory of uncanny entails what unconsciously reminds people of their Id, their forbidden; hence, repressed impulses. If placed in an ambiguous context, for example, after death, which may remind one of the infantile beliefs in the omnipotence of consideration (Freud 60). Hence, the Dogon dancers using Kanaga masks are preternaturally strange as if supernatural (Freud 64). It portrays that they are transporting the spirits of dead family members away from the community to improve the honor of the deceased and his/her descendants. The masks performances are used to access the repressed experiences and feelings of the mind to heal from the grief of losing their family members (Freud 71). In psychoanalytic terms, it may symbolize the relationship between the bird-like appearance of the Kanaga mask object and the response of the feeling it reminds.
How Masks are Universal
Kanaga mask is universal because it conveys similar function as other masks around the world does, for example, used in rituals as funerary rites. The mask plays a critical role in the traditional rites as other masks across the world (Nugteren 29). Today, kanaga masks continues to be worn during dama performances, although are also danced on other more secular events, for example, national holidays and demonstrations arranged for tourists’ benefits (Clarke). Hence, the earliest uses of masks were primarily for ceremonies and ritual purposes and might be found in many parts of the world, but today they are also used for other purposes.
How Kanaga Mask Fit into a Cultural Context
Kanaga masks are worn by Malian Dogon dancers and are related to funerary rites to honor the dead family members and transport their souls to the ancestral realm. The masks denote potentially harmful spirits that were often applied to maintain the needed balance of power or the conventional association of inherited positions in the culture (Hitler 261). The masks are invariably prescribed by tradition based on their uses. The mask is often related to secret societies, mostly in Africa, where the highest range of functions and types may be found (Nugteren 15). Kanaga masks have acted a significant role as a way of discipline and have been applied to reprove.
Conclusion
Generally, masks’ significance is they offer a disguise for the person wearing them and permit the wearer to presume the identity. Further, masks symbolize unseen, supernatural powers, which are beneficial to societies. It might be anything from rituals, ceremonies, fertility, and initiation rites, to weather conditions. The wearer surrenders his body when wearing these masks together with the costume and changes into a supernatural being, ancestor, and imagined or fanciful figure. Similarly, Kanaga mask is mostly worn by Malian Dogon dancers and are traditionally related to funerary rites meant to honor deceased family members and guide their spirits to the ancestral world.
Works Cited
Clarke, Christa. “Mask (Kanaga) (Dogon Peoples).” 2018, Web.
Freud, Sigmund. “The Uncanny.” The Monster Theory Reader, vol. 3, no. 4, 2020, pp. 59-88.
Hitler, Adolf. “Nation and Race.” Ideals and Ideologies, 2019, pp. 261-265.
Nugteren, Albertina. Religion, Ritual and Ritualistic Objects. 3rd ed., MDPI, 2019.
Van Beek, Walter E. “Boys and Masks among the Dogon.” Playful Performers, vol. 9, no. 1, 2017, pp. 67-88.