Sandé, a secret women's society.
Gourcuff Gradenigo| N° d'inventaire | 25885 |
| Format | 24.5 x 32.5 |
| Détails | 340 p., richly illustrated, bound. |
| Publication | Montreuil, 2022 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782353403677 |
In the early 1970s in Abidjan, Christiane Kauer saw for the first time a helmet mask with a female face which intrigued her and led her to discover Sandé.
The Sande is the main female secret society present in Sierra Leone and Liberia within several ethnic groups, the largest and most studied of which is the Mende ethnic group. This certainly explains why, wrongly, the emblematic helmet mask of the Sande is often systematically called a Mende mask.
Women do not usually dance wearing masks. Sandé has one essential characteristic: women, high-ranking initiates, possess and, above all, dance wearing their helmet-masks. During ritual ceremonies, particularly during initiation, the power and social weight of Sandé are manifested through the presence of these sacred masks.
While these Sandé helmet masks are admired for purely visual aesthetic pleasure, it is important to be able to decipher the messages conveyed by the sculpted elements on the face and the hairstyle. Reading the mask is thus Christiane Kauer's approach in this book.
This is the first time such a work has been written in French. It is aimed as much at connoisseurs, collectors or not, who have until now only had English-language documentation or documentation translated from German, as at a wider audience of primitive art lovers.
In the early 1970s in Abidjan, Christiane Kauer saw for the first time a helmet mask with a female face which intrigued her and led her to discover Sandé.
The Sande is the main female secret society present in Sierra Leone and Liberia within several ethnic groups, the largest and most studied of which is the Mende ethnic group. This certainly explains why, wrongly, the emblematic helmet mask of the Sande is often systematically called a Mende mask.
Women do not usually dance wearing masks. Sandé has one essential characteristic: women, high-ranking initiates, possess and, above all, dance wearing their helmet-masks. During ritual ceremonies, particularly during initiation, the power and social weight of Sandé are manifested through the presence of these sacred masks.
While these Sandé helmet masks are admired for purely visual aesthetic pleasure, it is important to be able to decipher the messages conveyed by the sculpted elements on the face and the hairstyle. Reading the mask is thus Christiane Kauer's approach in this book.
This is the first time such a work has been written in French. It is aimed as much at connoisseurs, collectors or not, who have until now only had English-language documentation or documentation translated from German, as at a wider audience of primitive art lovers.