For a long time, art and culture of the peoples of Africa remained a mystery to the rest of the world. The study of culture and art of the peoples of the African continent has discovered their unique traditions and way of life. Masks and weapons make the basis of their culture. These so-called artifacts are present in every village and every African city. It is impossible to imagine Africa without masks; they reflect the uniqueness and originality of the local customs and beliefs. Unfortunately, African wooden sculpture is poorly preserved in the hot and humid climate. That is why only few specimens of ancient sculptures made before the end of the 19th have survived until today. Nevertheless, the varieties of advanced studies that have been devoted to the study of African life have shown that the masks and weaponry are the foundation of the social structure and ideology of Africans. This is a completely unknown world of mystery and magic. The creation and use of these artifacts continues to influence the world culture to this day.
According to Shakarov and Senatorova, traditional African cultures have their own characteristics, which consists in their "orientation to the past" (114). This means that the traditional African way of thinking places emphasis on the present and the past, i.e. something recognizable, however, it differs from that in modern European culture. This orientation towards the past is reflected in the various fields of traditional culture in tropical Africa: in the sphere of religious beliefs and rituals, in the field of oral literature, in the arts, etc. A myth is the main element that organizes knowledge of the past in the framework of the African mentality. Their myth are predominantly associated with the artifacts such as masks. African masks are routinely used in the traditional religions. For example, a mask with calm faces, which eyes are usually closed, depicts deceased relatives and is used in funeral ceremonies or during festivals. Sometimes "raised scarifications compliment the physical beauty typical of the mask" (Shakarov and Senatorova 69). The members of secret societies wear scary masks, which human facial features are often connected with the characteristics of the beasts, during the traditional festivals or hunting for the evil spirits. Thus, a masked man gives a "temporary shelter to the spirit", which is depicted on the mask (Shakarov and Senatorova 28). Besides, the masks are also used during the hunting rituals; the members of the tribe who wearing masks and animal skins imitate the animals' behavior. This type of hunting is very popular all over the world, though its basis considerably varies depending on the area and the culture. Basically, wearing a mask in the case of hunting helps the African peoples to camouflage, but it is not the main purpose and benefits of the masks. They try to become a part of the spirits, a part of nature. An uninitiated person is able to see only the mask, its general features, such as color, size and so on. However, a member of the tribe reads it as a message; each pattern and color combination has its own unique value, which carries a certain message. For instance, the Landuman mask can use the patterns of the head of a buffalo, but it also replicates a turtle, "symbolizing both the duality and unity of the earth and the water" (Shakarov and Senatorova 28). The masks that are used in Africa for entertainment, dances and rites belong only to men and women cannot touch these ritual subjects.
Researchers now know the meaning of many masks. Thus, the mask from the Ivory Coast, which shows the combination of animalistic forms, i.e. "jaws of a hyena, wild boar's tusks, antelope's horns, and chameleon's tail", which form a whole, mean chaos in the world (Shakarov and Senatorova 47). African tribes' masks trace their origins since the Stone Age. Thus, one can speak of the existence of the effect of masks and weapons of the African peoples on the hunt in the modern world. Many of today's hunters have borrowed the basic elements of hunting of Africans in order to improve its technical and spiritual quality.
Work Cited
Shakarov, Avner, and Senatorova, Lyubov. Traditional African Art: An Illustrated Study. McFarland, 2015. ProQuest ebrary, site.ebrary.com.proxy.chamberlain.edu:8080/lib/chamberlain/reader.action?docID=11067799. Accessed 2 February 2017.
