70 ABOVE: Plank mask, yacouba bonde. Bwa, Boni village, Burkina Faso. Late 20th century. Wood, pigment. Birmingham Museum of Art. LEFT: Ceremonial pahko’ola mask. Yaqui, Potam, Sonora, Mexico. 20th century. Wood, goat hair, oil paint, copper wire. Fowler Museum, UCLA. MUSEUM news NEW AFRICAN GALLERY Birmin gham—After two yea rs of re novations, the Birmingham Museum of Art reopened its permanent African galleries on Ap ril 26. The museu m has been buildi ng its dive rse African colle ction of mo re than 1,600 objects over the course of several decades and the new space greatly improves its presentation, which is now arranged geographically. T he instal lation fea - tures masks, sculptures, textiles, jewelry, and utilitarian objects from across the continent. These new galleries comple ment las t year’s unveilin g of the mu seum’s gallery for African ceramics, which is one of the finest display collections of its type anywhere in the world. MASKS OF CASTANEDA Los Angeles—With long beards cascading from their chins and hair falling over their eyes, the painted and engraved wood masks of the Yaqui of northern Mexico are haunting, humorous, playful, and arresting. The Yaqui Masks of Carlos Castaneda showcases the collection collected of Yaqui pahko’ola masks and rattles field in the 1960s by famed author and UCLA-trained anthropologist Carlos Castaneda. Part of the ongoing Fowler in Focus series and on view until Aug ust 17, the exhibition includes video and photographs that provide an opportunity to see the masks in context and in performance. Pahko’ola m asks offer a glimpse into some of th e most ancient and respected aspect s of t heir makers’ worldview.resemble The masks are most oft en carved to a human face or the head of a goat, and the name, pahko’ ola, may be translated as “old man of the fiesta,” suggesting the wisdo m and comprehensive knowledge associated with age. They usually employ red and white design elements and features on a black background. The masks are present at every major celebration: birthdays, weddings, death ceremonies, and religious holidays s uch as Sema na Santa (Easter). Whi le pahko’ola dancers onc e communicate d wit h the animals to ensure safe and successful deer hunts, they continue today to enter ABOVE: Ceremonial shirt and hat. Grasslands, possibly Bamileke, Cameroon. 20th century. Porcupine quills, grass fiber. Birmingham Museum of Art. BELOW: Emily Hanna, Village of Boni, Burkina Faso, 2004. Birmingham Museum of Art. tain festival crowds as clowns and narrators. Casteneda (1925–1998) received his BA and PhD degrees from UCLA, mostly awarded due to his work with a Yaqui Indian named Don Juan Matus. His bestselling book, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968), and subsequent books he authored describe his apprenticeship with Don Juan, though many raised doubts that he had in fact done field research among the Yaqui communities in Mexico. His contribution of these old, fine, and rare Yaqui masks is doubly interesting in that they demonstrate that he was in the Yaqui pueblos during the time of his dissertation fieldwork.
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