Tankagle
Dan · numen · Dan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Tankagle is the singing entertainer among the mask-spirits of the Dan, one of the gentle, pleasing ge. In performance it delights the village with graceful dances, skits and mimes, singing songs and telling proverbs, and it appears in the same festive cycles as the nurturing deangle and the beaked gägon. Its refined, human-featured mask marks it as a benevolent spirit, the aesthetic counterpart to the fierce ge of war and misrule.
Domains
- entertainment
- song
- proverb lore
Powers
- entertains with song, dance and mime
Relations
- companion: DeangleRanked among the gentle, entertaining ge that appear together in the same masquerade cycles.Fischer and Himmelheber, The Arts of the Dan in West Africa (1984), on the benevolent entertaining masks. (secondary)
- companion: GägonPaired among the entertaining ge that sing and recite proverbs before the village.Fischer and Himmelheber, The Arts of the Dan in West Africa (1984), on the singing, proverb-telling masks. (secondary)
Sources
- Tankagle is a singing, entertaining mask-spirit that performs dances, skits and mimes while reciting proverbs.: Fischer and Himmelheber, The Arts of the Dan in West Africa (1984). (secondary); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, collection notes on Dan entertaining masks. (secondary)