Description

The Salampasu live mostly from hunting, but the women do some farming. The masks, regardless of their material composition, are worn in the initiation rites of men’s associations, on occasion of bereavement or enthronement, as well as to pay homage to headhunters. The costume accompanying this type of mask consists of a fiber net adapted to the body, and a skirt of fiber or animal fur. The wearer holds antelope horns or a two-edged sword. Salampasu masquerades were held in wooden enclosures decorated with anthropomorphic figures carved in wood.