In the heart of Barbagia, in Mamoiada in Sardegna (Sardinia), when winter still envelops the villages and the cold stiffens the land, the Mamuthones make their first appearance, known in Sardinian as sa primma issida. It happens on January 17, on the night of Saint Anthony the Abbot. Fires blaze in the town squares, bonfires light up the darkness, and the deep sound of cowbells cuts through the cold air. With their slow, measured steps, the Mamuthones announce the beginning of the Sardinian Carnival.
Even before seeing them, you hear them. That deep sound precedes the group’s arrival and travels through the village like an ancient call. It is not a simple accompaniment; it is the guide of the ritual. Every step becomes a collective gesture, every toll a memory taking shape.
Masks, Skins, and Colors: Mamuthones and Issohadores
The Mamuthones wear a black sheepskin cloak, with the fleece turned outward, a light-colored shirt, dark trousers, and heavy shoes. Their faces are covered by black wooden masks with severe, suffering features, erasing individual identity. On their backs they carry cowbells, whose weight and sound mark the rhythm of the ritual movement.
Alongside them move the Issohadores, figures of contrast and complement. They wear brighter garments: a white shirt, a red bodice, dark trousers, and a black headpiece. They carry sa soha, the braided rope that becomes a symbolic instrument of connection with the community. Their step is agile and dynamic, in sharp contrast to the gravity of the Mamuthones.
Two Roles, One Ritual Balance
The Mamuthones advance in a compact formation, following a precise pattern guided by su guidadore, the leader. Their movements are ancient and measured: alternating jumps forward and backward, performed in unison to make the row of cowbells on their backs resonate. At the leader’s signals, the sequence culminates in three consecutive jumps in place. One final signal closes the ritual: the last double step marks the end, leaving behind a suspended, solemn moment filled with symbolic power.
During the ritual, the Issohadores move through the crowd, loosen sa soha, and throw it to “capture” women and girls. It is a gesture of good fortune, involving spectators and making them active participants in the ceremony, restoring balance among the forces at play.
If the Mamuthones embody primordial, instinctive, and heavy force, the Issohadores represent order, control, and measure. Together, they create a constant tension between chaos and harmony, between weight and lightness, between silence and sound.
A Ceremony Before a Celebration
Sardinian Carnival has roots in distant times, when life was marked by the cycles of nature and the earth. Celebrations did not serve an entertaining purpose, but a ritual one: to invoke, to ward off evil, to prepare the community for a new beginning. In this context, the Mamuthones are not a folkloric performance, but the living survival of an archaic ritual that still speaks today through the body, sound, and silence.
