Studia Instituti Anthropos 
Vol. 47 
Laurel Birch de Aguilar 
Inscribing the Mask 
Interpretation of Nyau Masks and Ritual 
Performance among the Chewa of Central Malawi 
247 p., paper-back, 32 p. Photos, Fr. 65.- 
ISBN 3-7278-1064-5 
This book presents original research of Nyau masks 
among the Chewa people in the central region of 
Malawi. Masks are created and performed by mem 
bers of the Nyau society, a secretive society extending 
throughout the central and southern regions of Malawi 
and contiguous areas of Mozambique and Zambia. 
Masks are performed for the community ritual events: 
funerals, initiations, consecration of the community 
ritual space for a new Chief, and funeral remembrances. 
The book is framed theoretically by the work of Paul Ricoeur in interpretation and meta 
phor. The case is made that masks are social phenomena subject to a text-interpretation, or 
hermeneutical method of interpretation. Combined with this framework is the 
central,recurring theme found throughout each Chapter and interpretation of masking: the 
theme of the living, the dead and the hope of rebirth in the exegesis of the masks. 
Each chapter takes a perspective on masks and masking, including performance, masks in 
social roles and community, historical experience, the making of masks, ritual and religious 
beliefs; culmination in an overall cosmological interpretation of Chewa masks and Chewa 
society. 
The book attempts to demonstrate that Chewa masks, with all the inherent conflicts, diver 
sities and differing local understandings, does present a totality, a wholeness of society. 
This wholeness is shown to be construed from the myriad details which make up masking, 
accounting for change and adaptation while asserting a continuity in the central theme. 
Universitàtsverlag Freiburg Schweiz 
Editions Universitaires Fribourg Suisse 
University Press Fribourg Switzerland