Rom-kon masks from Ambrym

Rom masks are used during festivities with the ole-society, a male secret society. They are characterized by an elongated vertical diamond shape and a green pigment. They are sometimes destroyed after ritual use.

This mask is a so-called rom-kón mask, distinguished from rom masks by the feathered leafs and bird feathers on the top.

Ambrym: plant fibre paste, bamboo, pigments, leafs, feathers.

References:

Keersmaeker, Jean P.L. De. Richesse Oblige. Rang op Ambrym en Malekula (Vanuatu). Het nimangki-genootschap: bron van creativiteit, sociale vrede en statusverandering. Dissertatie, Universiteit Gent. 2003. link

Speiser, F. Ethnology of Vanuatu. An early twentieth-century study. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1996 (english edition of the original 1923 edition: Ethnographischen Materialen aus den Neuen Hebriden und den Banks Inseln, Springer Verlag, 1923 zie pl. xi – xiv).

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