Senufo
Mali, Berkina Faso and Ivory Coast
Kpelie
Lo society
These masks are female.
Inititaitons, Funerals, balance, top has a family crest, Tabs on side of head DX chicken legs are hornbill reference
Represents Ideal female ancestor
Hornbills are associated with fertility
Slitted eyes are typical Senufo.

Snufo
Poro Society
Waniugo
Used by Wabele subgroup of senufo in Ivory Coast.
has a double head, Janus style, one is blind.
Aggressive can cause lightning to strike.  Woeble people beleive that people are evil and can make lightning strike them.  These were outlawed in teh 50s. It is unstable and evil.  Very sculptural.
There are 3 types of Guardian Masks. This is second type.

Senufo
Kpelie
Poro Society
Initiation, Funerals, ideal f ancestor.

Korobla
3rd type of Poro guardian mask that controls perifery.
Senufo
No horns, less aggressive, guardian at ceremonies, square jaw and lots of teeth. Said to be benign.

Deguele
Senufo
Helmet mask
Monozylous, Hardwood.
M/F pairs
Poro high status.  They have ringed bodies, Male has poison arrows in quiver on back, F no arms and breasts.  heart shaped face pointed chin and cantelevered head.  At funerals for senior males. Every 4-5 years there is a ceremony to honor passing of last leader.  Either black or black with paint.  Body like a screw. Thrusting aggressive face. Dance together at night to celebrate continuity of life/death.

Senufo
Poro society
Hardwood Display sculpture

It is a display piece.  Hornbill, it arrives after initiation.
It is depiction of social contructs.  Bill stands for physical continuity.Poro men carry them in and sit them in front of junior members. Horn = male element.  Wings = Nature of society. belly- female elemant.
Instructs new initiates.

Poro society Senufo
Southern style, rounder, arms bulge, scarification on breasts and naval 4 pt scar. Carried by lower ranks and acts as pounder at Poro during day ceremonies for ancestors.  Not as high status as night ceremonies.

Sandogo society uses art. 

society is womens divination society.
Senufo. Male Female Pair.
Ivory Coast.
Societies appear at public ceremonies.
Women keep, men carve. tinged black, active aggressive form. They use figures carried on top of head and displayed at dances.  About 2 ft tall, angular jutting body parts.

Senufo

Poro society
hardwood.
Southern Ivory Coast.
seated female with 2 front legs as chair legs.
Neck on cranium.  Displayed to the village.  It is an image of society.  Society nurishes a child, at puberty society eats it, the child is reborn as an adult.  It is a ferocious mother. AFter first rank of society is recovered then this brought out and seated before them. Downward angled arms and sharp teeth.

Senufo

Head is crest of feathers.
Power figure covered with feathers and blood.  Poro society
The seniors use it like a fetish, they point arms at someone they want to get.  It detects withcraft. Used in cases of judgement.  Medicine bundle on back.

Senofu

sacred grove.   It is a high status item.
Center star DX, all women have 4 ray star scar on navel which represents continuity.  The door has wealth emblems on it.
One piece of wood, subdevided, sliding locks.  4 ray scar indicates continuity and social order and stability.  Horses and riders across top.
Crocodile=we will overcome.

Used as divination . 
Sandogo society uses 3 figures for divination. 
Become protective amulets when worn. They are thrown out with the rest of the divination kit.  You might see a diviner because of infertilit, she may recommend you go to caster to get a pendant or figure.  Sometimes leather packet in back with islam spell.

art looks sudanic because they immagrate from sudan to coast.
Bright paint, clean linear form.  Composite form with croc jaws, hair style,
Simo - mens society in Baga.  Senior simo wears it squatted on the ground. Raffia neck and painted with geometric shapes.
Black white and red.
Forehead mask.  Crocodile jaw, human nose, behive hairdo, antelope ears, chameleon forehead.

Baga
Hardwood
Headpiece, costume is raffia and cloth
Breasts are exposed over costume.  She is consort of creator god.
Appears in fields at harvesttime, women touch it, No Paint, fusion of sudan and coastal style but a lot of decoration. Dark colors are coastal.
concerned with crop and human fertility. parades through crops.
Ears are concentric Cs.  this is Baga.
It is always female. Use of it ceased in 1950 due to local jihad.  They were destroyed but now being made again.

Baga
Monozylous big drums
Hardwood and animal hide.

Horses are status symbol from Europeans.  Women refer to fertility and continuity. In africa if there is a joint it is always bent to show dynamism.  Either antelope or goat skin.  Tehy appear at initiations of young into society and funerlas of elders. Also an image of political power.

Baga
Composite mask, monozylous, sometimes two pieces broken at base.
Kept in house at the lineage head.  consulted and displayed at important functions.  OUtlawed in the 60s thought too powerful.  Reference to hairstyle no longer used. It is a waterbird beak with a beehive hairdo. Kept in basket when not in use.  Image of lineage.  European tacks.  Protective composite spirit.  Pathway to ancestors.  Keeps social balance.  Hollow inside beehive with Duiker horn to activate it. Can detect wrongdoing. And can punish.  come out for events of lineage change.

Mende Sierre Leone
They have F society called Sande
Sowei mask is softwood, head of womens society wears it
THE ONLY CASE The women get educated at bundu and ends in excision, after that the women appear with sowei. 
The women own it but they don't carve it.  She dictates what to carve.  Represents first ancestor, full helmet mask
Lozonge diamond shaped face.  Ears at widest point. Features on lower half of face.  Wood is white and covered with mud and oil to darken.  Carver goes into bush to carve it. 

Sande society uses figures for divination.
Mende
Sierre Leone
Minsereh
used for healing and curing.  Faces look a little like the sowei mask.
The womens society takes women to Bundu school in bush and educates them on how to be proper women followed by excism. 

Mende are part of Dan complex Guinea and other 3 countries.
Nuclear Dan style.  Dan complex spread out and hard to determine tribe.
Male masks in wood.  Racer mask. Given to new initiates who wins a race to race again in full costume.
Bigger eyes equals lower status cuz can see more of person.
Soft white wood then dipped in mud and oiled.  traces of white around eyes means you are looking into spirit world.   To test initiated boys.

Nuclear Dan style
Mende
LIttle eyes, higher status.
Anti Fire mask - police mask - during dry season and reminds them to put out their fires.  If they have not, they can beat her, take something of hers and then the husband has to go pay to get it back.

Mende
Mother mask, high ranking female guardian mask or entertainment.
peacekeeper, she is kind and gentle, beautiful face. She protects children and keeps peac in the village.
nuclear style.

Mende
Dan mask
Female judgement mask
white means she sees into spirit world, hears cases, there are hairpins in hair and the wearer fiddles with them, speaks in womens voices to indicate both sexes are represented.

Mende
Dan Complex mask
Nuclear Entertainment mask, it is the clown or trouble maker
tests the structure of society.  Should be black with a half moon mouth.  Good abstraction.  It nudges and clowns.  Stock character. It's on edge of nuclear style.

Bushmonster
Poro mask
NON nuclear variation but high ranking.
Painted face, orange face, tube eyes, high ranking, wart hog elements.
Bush spirit that eats the boys at initiation, Judged on how they fair with monster, get 2 scars to indicate being eaten.

made by wealthy male, a status figure.
He gets it made of his favorite wife for example.  Polished, oiled, nuclear style, not a secret society item just high status.

At rice harvest, the most hospitable woman of the village.  She is chosen by the village, best farmer, most everything, she gets the spoon.  She wears mens clothing and distributes the rice with spoon and dishes out rice to village.  Belly of spoon with rice symbolic of pregnant belly.

Zambles consort.
Yu Society is the secret mens society they have masquerades.
Too beautiful for headloads.  Marriage is not consumated yet.
Always a red face.  Small mouth. Red is womans color. Tripartite hair line, slitted eyes, downcast eyes, modest small mouth.  Gu eggs on Zamble slow dances, but if there is a competition then she teases him etc.  She criticises him into a better performance.

society restore order after funeral, must cleanse village after a death.  Person must be sent to afterlife properly so he will be a useful ancestor.
Keeps lines of communication open. 
Restores order after death, sends dead on to afterlife.
It is a minor mask.
LIghts a fire for others to jump over.

Je society of Southern Guro people.
Guro people
Restore order after death and sends dead onto afterlife.
Dont know function.
Carvings are in relief, this is older style.
Bulging head and S curve profile, stylized elephant.

Mali Berkina Faso and Ivory Coast
Gerontocracy acephalous farmers.  Mens society in North is LO
in South is Poro. 
Poro has 3 ranks: Puberty, Adolescent, adult males.
Women have Sandogo divination society.  IT is run by old women, they use figures and carry figures on head but don't carve them.
The society in Sierra Leon is the Dan Complex also new guinea and Camaroon.  They use a complex series of handshakes.  All artistic expression is done by men.  The northern style is dry and tight and linear, the Southern is more full.

Live in Guinea
rice farmers live on coast. They immagrated from Sudan.  Came from a dry place and can see that in the art.  Acephalous, Immigrated in 1500, It is a gerontocracy,
Mens society is Cimo and focuses on crop and human fertility.
All ceremonies take place during dry season after harvest.

Sierra Leone
Share the Poro Mens society.  Mende has a womens society that initiates young women, educates them, takes them to a school in the bush called bundu and tach them how to be a proper woman.  The elder woman wears a mask the only example.  Mende is a small group.

Mende language group, Influenced by Baule to the East of them.  Guro Farmers, decentralized, raized cotton, partilineal, patriclocal, no hereditary power, councel has most power.  Yu society is male society.  Yu has the most to do with art.   They use masks for masquerades with set plots and set ways.  Ea man owns thier mask and dance.  No more then 1 guy with 1 mask.  They have 3 masks that appear in succession.  Zaule, male elder ugly and aggressive.  Zamble is second
Gu is Zamble consort/wife.
Yu keeps order provides contact with ancestors, entertainment, carry out public ceremony.