Magazines - Tribal Art Summer 2011

By Marianne Pourtal Sourrieu, head of the Musée d’Arts Africains, Océaniens, Amérindiens in Marseille.

Introduction
A lineup of skulls from the world over, displayed in semi-obscurity, smiles at visitors entering the Musée d’Arts Africains, Océaniens et Amérindiens (MAAOA) in Marseille. These ancestor and trophy skulls, some overmodeled, painted, or engraved, were formerly part of the notable Gastaut Collection. Professor Henri Gastaut (1915– 1995) was an eminent neurologist and impassioned collector who assembled the world’s most important private collection of human skulls between 1955 and 1978, and eventually gifted it to the city of Marseille in 1989. There is a piece in this collection that is particularly exceptional, as much for its aesthetic qualities as for its history. This is a skull from Mexico, the face of which is entirely covered with turquoise mosaic. Black bands, made up of small mosaic pieces of black stone, adorn the forehead and chin, and the eyes are emphasized with circular pieces of shell. The skull’s shape is distended at the top in a manner consistent with the cranial distortion practiced by certain Mesoamerican civilizations.