Bedik people, not numerous in East Senegal, are showing during some festivals leaved masks which are very close to those of neighburing populations. The secret of the masks closely kept by men and transmitted during the initiation, is not completely unknown by the women : during a festival dedicated to the fertility they see them all coming and dance with abandon with some of them, but during their own ritual no masks appear. The author tries to understand the significance of the relation masks/women in that culture.
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Marie-Paule Ferry (2003) studied this question.
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