Tamate masks from Ambrym

Originally tamate masks were made of dark wood and worn in combination with a cloak of leafs by members of tamate societies (secret male societies) to terrorize non initiates.

Tamate (literary ta : belonging to, mate : death) refers to soul, the souls of the ancestors. Tamate dancers represent the periodic manifestation of the ancestors among the living. During the dance they reincarnate into the tamate dancers, in their masks and dress. As such these objects accumulate ancestral power, mana . That is the reason why these masks are created in great secret, are only worn for a very short period of time and are often destroyed after the ceremony.

Today tamate masks are made from plant fibre paste and one only wears them at more festive occasions. They have lost their gruesome effect but will still scare off children.

Their destruction after the ceremony is still very common.

  Ambrym: plant fibre paste, pigments

Referenties:

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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