Atunma Masquerade in Igboland a Social Critic

This book is a research effort on Atunma Masquerade in Eziowelle and Idemili-Igbo cultural area. Atunma has been a vehicle for entertainment, social organization, transformation as well as maintenance of law and order. Adopting Participant Observation method, this study brings to the fore the socio-cultural relevance of the Atunma, documenting the serious repudiation and thus almost total loss of the traditional African arts and culture in the face of ethnocentric forces Atunma remains a means of curbing societal problems such as rape, adultery and other miscreant behaviors. The study shows that the society has lost control of its norms and values because of the negligence and destruction of the virtues of the Atunma and other traditional socio-cultural practices. This study recommends that every effort must be put in place to resuscitate the values of the Atunma masquerade, document, maintain traditional and socio-cultural practices for better societal organization and development. The design of the research, methodology, presentation of results and interpretation and conclusion makes this book a handbook for students of Art History, Art Historians and Anthropologist.