Abelam Yam Mask

  • Title
    Abelam Yam Mask
  • Location
    Maprik district, East Sepik Province
  • Date
    1940s
  • Size
    54cm (L) x 17cm (W)
  • Price
    $3,800.00

Like in many cultures, myths and rituals are created to explain and remind society on how to behave.   For example examine the Christian teachings of Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. After God perfectly sets the above stage for Adam and Eve and gives them everything under the sun, He tells them that there is now one thing they cannot do. He specifically tells them they can eat of every single tree that is in this garden – except for one little tree. This one tree was called the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

God makes this test they both had to pass for the future implication of all mankind, as easy as he possibly could. He tells them that all they have to do is stay off this one tree. He tells them that they can eat from every other tree that is in this garden.  All they had to do was to obey God’s one, simple, little command to stay off this one tree – and they would have eventually passed the test – and all of us could have been born into this perfect environment. But they blew it big time – not only for themselves – but also for the rest of mankind that was to follow after them.

The Abelam people believe their staple source of food, the yam was given to them by their creation spirits along with the rules of living, like the ten commandments.  All they had to do was obey these rules and the crops would be plentiful.  Over time however the people strayed from these and the creation spirit fell into a great depression and killed himself.  As a result like in Adam and Eve the Abelam also blew it big time, – not only for themselves – but also for the rest of mankind that was to follow after them.  After that the yams only grew after great toil in the fields.

To try and ensure the success of the yam harvest, year-long rituals are performed.  Masks are made to be attached to the yams to empower the yams as representatives of the ancestral spirits associated with the Abelam’s creation.

This example collected in the late 1940s shows the mask with all the traditional face decorations.  Painted in natural pigments and presented on a custom metal stand

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Like in many cultures, myths and rituals are created to explain and remind society on how to behave.   For example examine the Christian teachings of Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. After God perfectly sets the above stage for Adam and Eve and gives them everything under the sun, He tells them that there is now one thing they cannot do. He specifically tells them they can eat of every single tree that is in this garden – except for one little tree. This one tree was called the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

God makes this test they both had to pass for the future implication of all mankind, as easy as he possibly could. He tells them that all they have to do is stay off this one tree. He tells them that they can eat from every other tree that is in this garden.  All they had to do was to obey God’s one, simple, little command to stay off this one tree – and they would have eventually passed the test – and all of us could have been born into this perfect environment. But they blew it big time – not only for themselves – but also for the rest of mankind that was to follow after them.

The Abelam people believe their staple source of food, the yam was given to them by their creation spirits along with the rules of living, like the ten commandments.  All they had to do was obey these rules and the crops would be plentiful.  Over time however the people strayed from these and the creation spirit fell into a great depression and killed himself.  As a result like in Adam and Eve the Abelam also blew it big time, – not only for themselves – but also for the rest of mankind that was to follow after them.  After that the yams only grew after great toil in the fields.

To try and ensure the success of the yam harvest, year-long rituals are performed.  Masks are made to be attached to the yams to empower the yams as representatives of the ancestral spirits associated with the Abelam’s creation.

This example collected in the late 1940s shows the mask with all the traditional face decorations.  Painted in natural pigments and presented on a custom metal stand