Dzunuk'wa Cannibal Woman Mask
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Caption
Kwakwaka'wakw. Dzunuk'wa Cannibal Woman Mask, 19th century. Cedar wood, fur (black bear?), hide, pigment, iron nails, 19 1/2 x 14 x 7 3/4 in. (49.5 x 35.6 x 19.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Herman Stutzer, Esq., 15.513.1. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 15.513.1_SL1.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Culture
Title
Dzunuk'wa Cannibal Woman Mask
Date
19th century
Geography
Place made: Vancouver Island, Knights Inlet, British Columbia, Canada
Medium
Cedar wood, fur (black bear?), hide, pigment, iron nails
Classification
Dimensions
19 1/2 x 14 x 7 3/4 in. (49.5 x 35.6 x 19.7 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Herman Stutzer, Esq.
Accession Number
15.513.1
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
Cannibal woman mask. Worn by a cannibal woman?
Well...worn to depict a cannibal woman! We aren't sure how often, if ever, women performed this mask. The Kwakwaka'wakw tribe and many other Pacific Northwest coast tribes have stories and ancestral traditions involving the "Dzunuk'wa" variously translated as: "Wild Woman of the Woods, "Giant of the Woods," or "Cannibal Woman." The Dzunuk̕wa are a large family of giants that live in homes in the far away mountains and forests. Although they can be male or female, in most stories a female is mentioned...She is a large, terrifying, and quite hairy creature traveling through the Northwest Coast forests crying "Hoo Hoo Hoo" through her pursed lips and carrying a large woven basket with her. If she finds a child who has disobeyed by stealing or by entering the woods without an adult, she scoops them up into her basket and takes them to her den to eat them! (However, the children usually outwit her, as she is supposedly vain, stupid and clumsy.) In another aspect, however, Dzunuk̕wa is the owner of the K̕wala’sta "Water of Life", one of many gifts that she would bestow on people fortunate enough to encounter and befriend her. Amongst the Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw, her most important role is the bringer of wealth and good fortune. Some chief masks, with a different style than this one, depict her or her male counterpart and are worn by hereditary chiefs when the enact the intense "copper-breaking" ceremony.
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