Cap Mask

These headdresses combine slender, elegant forms suggestive of  antelope with abstract pattern, as seen in the curved neck and breast area of the larger, male figure. Called Ci-wara ("farming beast"), the pair represents a mythic ancestral couple-half human, half animal-who introduced agriculture to the Bamana people, expressing the connection between civilized humanity and wilderness power. Ci-wara antelope headdresses appear in male-female pairs, sometimes, as in this case, with offspring carried upon the mother's back. This pair would have been worn in performances glorifying agricultural work and the complementary relationship between men and women in farming and populating society.