4 from ritual to theater and back: the efficacy ... - AAAARG.ORG

actuals 43
Williams tells of many times when concealment is treated casually. The
doors of the eravo are often left open and the women see “quite
enough to dispel their curiosity” (Williams 1940: 365). If a woman
dances with the hevehe of a son rather than a husband, the offended
man may get very angry. During the “cutting off” combat the women
are strong enough to keep the eight masks trapped indefinitely. But
Williams heard one young man brag how he told his sister, “Isn’t it
time you let me go?” and at the next charge he was free (p. 367).
The Hevehe cycle mixes the ceremonial and the personal without
diluting or blending either. A mask dances because it is alive. A man
dances because he is animated by the mask. A mask dies when its face is
shot through by an arrow. Parts of its hulk can be used again. The spirits
may suffer as they are killed. Yet they do not die but go to the bush and
wait to be recalled. After the audience of weeping women leave the
village, the masks are killed simply by being thrown down. Both the
dancing and the dying are performances – and all performances are visà-vis
someone. There is an absolute separation between the performance
and the performer. A separation that encourages exchange and
transformation. Bravado, joking, rehearsing, and special backstage
behavior are possible because the Elema know when they are on stage
and when they are off. Their performances are not impersonations, but
possessions and exchanges; the spirit and the man interpenetrate each
other without either losing his identity. The dancing of the hevehe lifts
the whole community to a month of exaltation. When the hevehe are
killed and the spirits gone, the eravo falls to shambles.
What is the relationship between the mask and the masker? At every
moment during each ceremony during the long Hevehe cycle the
people know two independent but reciprocating realities.
1) The reality of the hevehe masks and the autonomously unfolding
cycle. These spirits are not abstract or generalized. They move in space,
can be touched and seen, and are known personally by the men building
them. Slowly they are built in the eravo, and each phase of building is
marked by celebration. The masks are never half-alive, but like embryos
they are not ready for independent dancing life outside the eravo until
they are complete and whole. When they emerge they dance among all
the people for a month. The spirits can be heard in the roar of the bullroarers
and the clamor of the gongs. They do not die, but they must be