Module 10 Video Reviews

Olmec Masks

• Found buried in the Temple Precinct
• Created more than 1500 years before the Aztecs
• Olmecs were located along the Gulf Coast of Mexico
• Mask is small, made of greenstone, show a baby-faced type look
• Aztecs collected masks like this for ritualistic burying
• Mostly buried in the city of Teotihuacan

The film allowed me to understand that masks may have different meanings for each culture, these Olmec masks were mostly ritualistic for the people they impacted.

Feathered Headdress

• This headdress was sent to Europe by Hernan Cortes, it originally belonged to Moctezuma II, who was an Aztec Emperor
• Cortes led an expedition, with thousands of indigenous allies, and this caused the fall of the Aztec empire in 1521.
• Quetzal feathers lined the outside of the headdress, Quetzal feathers in the replica were taken from the male Quetzal who only has a few so it took many to make this.
• Tenochtitlan - the capital of the Aztec empire
• Aztec art features not only headdresses but paper ornaments, cotton tassels, beaded necklaces, and ear spools.
• Aztec + Catholic Europe made a hybrid in future art

This film taught me that Cortes took items from the Aztec people whilst destroying their empire, I didn’t know this, it’s interesting that Vienna has the original headdress and Mexico City has the replica, that seems wrong.



Bundu

• Several different ethnic groups participated in a masquerade tradition.
• Masks like the Helmet Mask for the Sande society would be worn on top of the head rather than on the face.
• Women could wear the masks in this masquerade tradition
• Girls’ bodies during their initiation process would be covered in white clay to make them look dry, pasty and unattractive. 
• The masks were opposite as they were black, shiny, and representative of inner quality. 
• The downcast eyes show the girl is meant to be reserved, with a small mouth, and petite ears
• Rolls of fat under the chin of the mask show that she is meant to be full-figured, she has enough body fat to bear children.
• The Sowei mask is said to be a spirit, she comes from the bottoms of rivers and lakes. 

From this video, I learned that one mask can have a large variety of meanings. Women are the main reason the masks exist due to their initiation process of becoming women. The juxtaposition between the white clay and the black shiny mask is an interesting part of their culture.


Female (pwo) Mask (Chokwe peoples)

• The mask is made by the Chokwe people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the mask would have been danced by a male dancer.
• The man carving the mask would have made this to honor women. In particular, women who were young, fertile, and had successfully given birth.
• The Chokwe culture is matrilineal
• One of the reasons to dance this mask was to honor women and to honor the founding female ancestors of the Chokwe lineage
• Made of thin wood
• The eyes and mouth being shut represent the amount of respect the woman has earned, so much respect that she doesn’t need to even talk anymore
• The mask is a deep, dark red that was possibly created through red earth and oil, there is white powder around her eyes.

This video taught me that some African cultures really think highly of the women in their lives, any matrilineal society really will honor women and thank them for their ability to give birth and raise children. The art behind the mask is simple, yet meaningful in the way it honors the women it is meant to.


Mask (Buk), Torres Strait, Mabuiag Island

• The Torres Strait is a body of water between New Guinea and Australia that has hundreds of islands
• The mask shown in particular is a turtle shell mask, three registers are in this one mask, the bottom is a human face, above the human face a body of a bird, above the bird there are feathers.
• The bird depicted in the mask shown is a Frigate bird, the face has raffia attached to it 
• The pieces have been stitched together, the mask has a lot of pieces
• The materials include turtle shell, feathers, shell for the eyes, and raffia, the mask would have been one part of an elaborate costume in a masquerade typesetting
• This mask likely connected the wearer to the supernatural culture

I wonder with this mask if the lack of consistency throughout it was on purpose, the different textures and the messy way it’s all stitched together raise questions. The material of a turtle shell being used is interesting to me, I’ve never heard of anything being made out of turtle shell before this video.