Wooden Yam Mask, Abelam people - #7016 $300.00

Wooden Yam Masks or "Babamini", are ancestral spirit images used to decorate, consecrate, and celebrate the ancestors at the yam harvest festival in the Abelam and Arapesh areas.

This wonderful old yam mask measures 13 inches tall. It has a nice dark patina with a lot of paint underneath. It was collected in Mikau Village in November of 1974 and is circa 1960. It had a hole at the top for mounting and smaller holes along the sides and bottom where decorative feathers and grasses were attached.

Ceremonial yams grow up to 12 feet long and a man's status is judged by his ability to grow big yams. During the festival, the yams are decorated with masks, flowers, fruit, and leaves until they resemble men at the last stage of initiation and are then displayed. These yam 'men' are believed to be present as living beings capable of hearing and seeing. A man does not keep his yams but exchanges them with his traditional exchange partner. The partner with the biggest yams is seen to have the most power. Men make masks of basketry or wood and paint them with clay pigments and other natural paints. The masks are carefully stored each year after the yam ceremonies the repainted and reused the next year.


#7016 Yam Mask, Abelam people, Wosera area, Papua New Guinea