Nahua mask - tiger or jaguar

Nahua mask - tiger or jaguar

"This mask is made of wood carved to represent a tiger’s or jaguar’s head with an outstretched tongue, folded ears, two sets of teeth, and whiskers. The front of the mask is painted yellow, green, red, black, and white. Glass covers both eyes. The nose, carved in the shape of a pig’s snout, is typical of tigre masks from Guerrero. The tongue and ears are made of painted canvas or rubber and were nailed to the wood. The whiskers are probably wild boar bristles. The teeth are also probably from a wild boar. Tigre masks were worn in the Dance of the Tiger performed throughout Mexico to protect crops, field workers, and domestic animals from feline predators. During the dance, the tigre is chased, and eventually caught and killed." (National Museum of the American Indian) Unlike the human-looking teeth of the Jaguar Mask at the Museo national de antropologia, the teeth of this jaguar mask are ferociously curved out.

1950 (date of donation by Richard White)

National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution

Wood, pigment, glass, wild boar whiskers, animal teeth, canvas

37 x 41 x 23 cm