S'Accabadora Pianalzesa
A figure suspended between myth and memory is reborn as a mask of Sardinian tradition
Where is
Who is S'Accabadora
The Accabadora or Agabbadora, according to tradition was a woman whose task was to practice euthanasia on seriously ill people. It was up to her to respond to the sick person's family's request for help: when all efforts were futile, the Accabadora would go to their home and put an end to the dying person's suffering.
S'Accabadora today: the mask
In the Planargia region, this figure was rediscovered thanks to a mask created by Tata Carboni in 2019. Specifically, S'Accabadora Pianalzesa wears a leather mask that covers her mouth, nose and forehead, leaving only the outline of her eyes free. Donatella Marras of Sagama designed it; Graziano Viale of Cabras made it instead. It can be encountered during village festivals, especially in inland Sardinia.Between myth and reality
It is said that the killing practices used by the femina agabbadora varied according to place: she would enter the dying person's room dressed in black, with her face covered, and kill by suffocation with a pillow, or by striking on the forehead with an olive stick(su mazzolu) or behind the nape of the neck with a sharp blow, or by strangling the dying person by squeezing his neck between his legs. The most commonly used instrument would be a yoke, a kind of wooden hammer.
However, as we said, there are no real historical sources on this figure; anthropologists believe that the femina agabbadora never existed, but instead there were figures who brought comfort to families where there was a dying person, accompanying them until the last moment of life.
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