Another mask like wall hanging ID, please

It is 19.5x6 inches

 

Well, it looks like what I've seen called Papuan versions of African tribal masks/hangings, not too old. Or could be authentic African? That's my one cent's worth.

 

I don't have much of an opinion, other than it does appear to be a tourist-type wall-hanging in the shape of a mask. The Indonesians do often paint the back of such an item black, but I've also seen the black back on African-style tourist pieces.
And just as another thought, Australian items often have a dotted decoration. He's either smoking a pipe, or playing a digeridoo!
But I don't recognize the style of this one, aside from those general remarks.

 

There is something similar in theme and composition, but not so much in style on :
2 Hand Carved Wooden Painted Pipe Smoking Wall Hanging Tribal Mask Thailand 30" | eBay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Hand-Carv...Hanging-Tribal-Mask-Thailand-30-/252319076872

 

There certainly are similarities. Assuming the ebay attribution of Thai origin is correct, these might be from there....or perhaps more likely, Indonesian or somewhere else, "inspired by" the Thai ones.

 

It is certainly a tourist piece, but I dont believe it to be thai

 

where ever it comes from it is not culturally significant to any tribal group.

 

Oh, but it is.
Anything that brings income to a tribe from uderdeveloped area of the world is very significant to that tribe, culturally.

 

What....like the opium from Afghanistan ........seriously!

 

I am talking handicraft.
You are.... just talking.

 

you said anything.......i'm just replying to what you wrote...

Sure... income derived from carvings is important...but this work is not culturally relevant ....

 

Culture without income is non existant.
No tribe shall dedicate time and resources to making anything else if they are starving.
...and we were talking handicrafts in this thread.

 

To add my views on this discussion:
It is important to understand how the carving of souvenir items works in Indonesia, for one. Representatives of foreign corporations visit, bringing photos of items from cultures around the world. They recruit local families to carve replicas and fakes based on the photos. They pay in pennies. They export the items to the US and other countries where they are sold at a markup of perhaps 1000%
The final market is dishonest dealers who represent the items as genuine artifacts, antiquities, and in so doing violate numerous criminal statutes.
The Indonesian carvers are victims in this; this enterprise undermines their own culture, because there are genuine Indonesian masks and culture which they could be involved in, and where they could probably make more money. If nothing else, they can (and do) make items for sale in the import market without producing fakes of any sort; decorative, hand-carved items which one sees everywhere. But the enterprise helps keep them in poverty.
And the cultures being imitated are harmed also; the members of those cultures deserve to make a living, and their ability to do so is undermined, not by the Indonesian carvers, but by the greedy corporations who victimize them.
It is important to keep things straight. Nobody benefits from a business based on fraud except the corporations committing it. The victims are both the real artists around the world whose intellectual property is being stolen, and the families in Indonesia who are conned into wasting their time on fakes. The crime lies not in hiring them to make carvings, but in recruiting them to carve fakes.

 

I can only say that I hope this mask was not done under these circumstances in Indonesia.
I agree with everytihing you said in this post.