On Placing Masquerades in Ebira

bibliographic database
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Periodical article

Title:	On Placing Masquerades in Ebira
Author:	Picton, John
Year:	1989
Periodical:	African Languages and Cultures
Volume:	2
Issue:	1
Pages:	73-92
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	Igbira masquerades Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Architecture and the Arts Women's Issues Cultural Roles arts
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/1771706
Abstract:	Masquerades among the Ebira of Nigeria represent some of the differences between men and women. Women possess energies that men do not, and men endeavour to constrain and direct those energies in practices sanctioned by ancestral tradition. This article 'places' the Ebira masquerades in their cultural context, showing how masquerading presupposes a complex of ideas and practices. These concern, amongst other things, heaven (or God) and earth, spirits or cosmic mediators, various types of ritual earth (the earth of the community, the earth of the compound, the earth of the farm, the earth of the oil palms), the village masquerading shrines (the place of mediation between the living and the dead), and gender differentiation. Special attention is paid to binary oppositions in Ebira culture, such as men/women, farm/home, masquerade performer/witch. Bibliogr., notes, ref.