Sculpture - Wood - Mumuye - Nigeria

A large Mumuye shoulder mask (also known under the name "vertical mask") Masks worn horizontally on the head are found across the Middle Benue. In their forms and meanings, they fuse references to animals and humans, the wild and domesticated. The resemblances between masks made by the Chamba, Mumuye, Jukun, Yukuben, Kuteb, and Kantana/Kulere peoples are evidence of a set of broadly shared religious ideas. These ideas and their materialization as masquerades must have spread across the region long before the nineteenth century. These hybrid masks are grouped to reveal their strong formal commonalities: each has a central helmet, or cap, where the wearer’s head is covered; backward horns; and a frontal snout. They combine shorthand references to the horns of the dwarf forest buffalo (or bushcow) and to the human skull, as well as other to other human features, for example, nose, ears, hair plaits, or scarification markings. Although not shown in this short Super 8 film by Arnold Rubin, this specific mask type gives a good insight into the masks of the Mumuye, Chamba, Jukun and their neighbors.