During initiations, the elder who wears the mai mask becomes a spirit teacher who may say the important totemic names without evoking personal risk. If a village or clan has a lot of bad luck, the whole group may change their names and buy the rights to use masks from another clan in different village in an attempt to fool the bad spirits or sorcerers. The resulting masks usually display characteristics of both groups. Sevi masks represent beings who are at a lower level than the savis. A tumbuna mask represents an actual ancestor.
Some masks represent hunting spirits.
New masks appear when a man dreams a spirit and carves a mask to represent it. The Sepik- Ramu listed in our New Guinea Booklist . All rights reserved. I take the photographs, do the html, text and maps. Who We Are .