Things of Gladness
Elema · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Spirit-class of festive/totemic beings within the hevehe complex; rendered deity (spirit-class), collective and sex-unspecified. The eharo masks are the attested cult-object. Distinguished from the awe-laden ma-hevehe by their playful character. Williams (1940) is the source.
Domains
- festival and play
- totemic spirits
Powers
- DANCE as the lighthearted spirit-beings of the cycle
Relations
- companion: Sea-Spirits of the MasksThe comic 'things of gladness' dance attendance on the great sea-spirit masks during the Orokolo hevehe cycle.F. E. Williams, Drama of Orokolo (Oxford 1940) (secondary)
Sources
- The eharo (maea morava eharu, 'things of gladness') are lighthearted, often totemic spirit-beings of the Elema, embodied in decorative barkcloth dance-masks worn in festive interludes of the hevehe cycle as a prelude to its more serious sacred stages.: Williams, F.E. (1940). Drama of Orokolo: The Social and Ceremonial Life of the Elema. Oxford University Press, Clarendon. (ethnography)