Object class: Masks (costume) / Donor: University Appropriation / Function: 2.0 Use not specified (Secular Dress and Accoutrements, and Adornment) - Hearst Museum Portal Search Results

Start Over Object class Masks (costume) Donor University Appropriation Function 2.0 Use not specified (Secular Dress and Accoutrements, and Adornment)

Hearst Museum object titled Costume, accession number 5-2626a-c, described as A) Dance costume (Likishi) made of looped fiber; root of musamba; shirt (chivuvu) with gloved hands; red and black. B) Leggings (mikono); same material and technique as (A). Mask similar to 2625 worn. This costume is used by male dancers in the circumcision ceremonies to frighten the young initiates, and can be used with various masks such as the kapongo. A special man knits the costume (a boy who has learned the secrets after his initiation) but has no special tribal name. The costume is made by the Luvale, Chokwe, Mbunda, Luchase and Kanpala tribes, of the roots of the musamba which is made into fiber by rolling it on the theigh and then it is knitted.

Hearst Museum object titled Shirt, accession number 5-1628, described as Grass shirt -- Hemba; width: 37.5" 95.23cm, length: 21" 53.3 cm Collected from N.W. fuku This skirt is used by dancers wearing the Humba mask. Humba masked dancers perform, traditionally, at circumcision ceremonies. They are professionals in that they are trained, undergoing an apprenticeship with an established Humba dancer and paying her for this training. An established dancer, usually accompanied by a trainee and (approx. April to Aug.) when circumcision ceremonies take place, performs his dances, furnishes medicines to prevent excessive bleeding during the operation, and insures, by dancing, the success of the ceremony. He is paid a fee by the village chief, and receives small gifts during dancing from spectators, especially the parents of the boys being circumcised.