African Fang Ngontang Helmet Mask, Gabon. Carved From A Single Piece Of Wood. This The Fang people were victims of the large transatlantic and trans-Saharan slave trade between the 16th and 19th century. They were stereotyped as cannibals by slave traders and missionaries, in part because human skulls and bones were found in open or in wooden boxes near their villages, a claim used to justify violence against them and their enslavement. When their villages were raided, thousands of their wooden idols and villages were burnt by the slave raiders. Later ethnologists who actually spent time with the Fang people later discovered that the Fang people were not cannibalistic, the human bones in open and wooden boxes were of their ancestors, and were Fang people's method of routine remembrance and religious reverence for their dead loved ones. Provenance: Ethnographic Tribal Museum Collection (See Auction Catalog Description). Some Lots Have Been On Exhibition And Have A Custom Made Metal Stand Specifically Designed To Fit The Work. Estimated more than 75 yrs old. (Pangaea Auctions) Size and/or Weight: See Measurement Photo. (Photos Represent The Lot Condition.)

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