Editing Mask (section)

==History==
[[File:Museo Nacional de Antropología - Wiki takes Antropología 079.jpg|thumb|right|[[Funeral mask]] of [[K'inich Janaab' Pakal]] at the [[National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico)]]]]

The use of masks in [[ritual]]s or [[ceremonies]] is a very ancient human practice across the world,<ref>{{cite book |last=Pernet |first=Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/ritualmasksdecep0000pern |title=Ritual Masks: Deceptions and Revelations |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |year=1992 |isbn=9780872497931 |location=Columbia |lccn=91045396}}</ref> although masks can also be worn for protection, in hunting, in sports, in feasts, or in wars – or simply used as ornamentation.<ref>{{citation | first = William Healey | last = Dall | contribution = On masks, labrets, and certain aboriginal customs, with an inquiry into the bearing of their geographical distribution | title = Bureau of American Ethnology, Annual Report | volume = 3 | pages = 73–151 | location = Washington D.C. | publisher = U.S. Government Printing Office | orig-year = 1884 | year = 2010}}</ref> Some ceremonial or decorative masks were not designed to be worn. Although the religious use of masks has waned, masks are used sometimes in drama therapy or psychotherapy.<ref>{{cite book | first1 = Harald | last1 = Klemm | first2 = Reinhard | last2 = Winkler | title = Masken. Gesichter hinter dem Gesicht: Persönlichkeitsentfaltung und Therapie in der Arbeit mit Masken | trans-title = Masks. Faces Behind the Face: Personality Development and Therapy in Working with Masks | language = de | location = Oberhofen | publisher = Zytglogge-Verlag | year = 1996 | isbn = 978-3729605121}}</ref>

One of the challenges in [[anthropology]] is finding the precise derivation of human culture and early activities, the invention and use of the mask is only one area of unsolved inquiry. The use of masks dates back several millennia. It is conjectured that the first masks may have been used by primitive people to associate the wearer with some kind of unimpeachable authority, such as a deity, or to otherwise lend credence to the person's claim on a given social role.

The earliest known [[anthropomorphic]] artwork is circa 30,000–40,000 years old.<ref group=note>The oldest known example of the [[Venus figurines]] is the [[Venus of Hohle Fels]], carbon-dated as 35,000 to 40,000 years old.</ref> The use of masks is demonstrated graphically at some of these sites. Insofar as masks involved the use of war-paint, leather, vegetative material, or wooden material, such masks failed to be preserved, however, they are visible in [[Paleolithic]] cave drawings, of which dozens have been preserved.<ref group=note>A famous example is the images of the [[Trois-Frères]] cave (circa 15,000 years old). According to John W. Nunley, "The earliest evidence of masking comes from the Mousterian site of Hortus in the south of France. There the archaeologist Henry de Lumley found remnants of a leopard skin that was probably worn as a costume more than 40,000 years ago" (Nunley, 1999, p. 22).</ref> At the [[Neanderthal]] Roche-Cotard site in France, a flintstone likeness of a face was found that is approximately 35,000 years old, but it is not clear whether it was intended as a mask.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.donsmaps.com/mousterianothers.html | title = Other Mousterian (Neanderthal) Sites | date = 6 October 2019  | first = Don | last = Hitchcock | work = Don's Maps}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | first = Jonathan | last = Amos | title = Neanderthal 'face' found in Loire | work = [[BBC News]] | date = 2 December 2003 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3256228.stm | publisher = [[British Broadcasting Corporation]]}}</ref>

In the Greek [[bacchanalia]] and the [[Dionysus]] cult, which involved the use of masks, the ordinary controls on behaviour were temporarily suspended, and people cavorted in merry revelry outside their ordinary rank or status. [[René Guénon]] claims that in the Roman [[saturnalia]] festivals, the ordinary roles were often inverted. Sometimes a slave or a criminal was temporarily granted the insignia and status of royalty, only to be killed after the festival ended.<ref>{{cite book | first = René | last = Guénon | author-link = René Guénon | title = Symbols of Sacred Science | location = Hillsdale, New York | publisher = Sophia Perennis | year = 2004 | page = 141}}</ref> The [[Carnival of Venice]], in which all are equal behind their masks, dates back to 1268 AD.<ref>{{cite magazine | first = Jamie Ellin | last = Forbes | title = The resurrection of the beauty of Spring: Jeanette Korab at Carnevale de Venezia | magazine = Fine Art Magazine | date = Spring 2010 | page = 21}}</ref> The use of carnivalesque masks in the Jewish [[Purim]] festivities probably originated in the late 15th century, although some Jewish authors claim it has always been part of Judaic tradition.<ref>{{cite magazine | quote = ...in many parts of the world and throughout Jewish history it was the time for adults to engage in masquerade. | first = Julie Hilton | last = Danan | title = Purim wears many masks | magazine = Jewish News of Greater Phoenix | volume = 49 | number = 27 | date = 21 March 1997 | url=http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/970321/purim.html |access-date=26 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610053431/http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/970321/purim.html |archive-date=10 June 2012}}</ref>

The North American [[Iroquois]] tribes used masks for healing purposes (see [[False Face Society]]). In the [[Himalayas]], masks functioned above all as mediators of supernatural forces.<ref>{{cite book | first1 = François | last1 = Pannier | first2 = Stéphane | last2 = Mangin | title = Masques de l'Himalaya, du primitif au classique | location = Paris | publisher = Editions Raymond Chabaud | year = 1989 | page = 44}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | first1 =  Lisa | last1 = Bradley | first2 = Eric | last2 = Chazot | title = Masks of the Himalayas | location = New York | publisher = Pace Primitive Gallery | year = 1990}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | first1 = Dominique | last1 = Blanc | first2 = Arnaud | last2 = d'Hauterives | first3 = Bérénice | last3 = Geoffroy-Schneiter | first4 = François | last4 = Pannier | title = Masks of the Himalayas | location = Milan | publisher = 5 Continents Editions | year = 2009}}</ref> [[Yup'ik masks]] could be small {{convert|3|in|cm|adj=on}} finger masks, but also {{convert|10|kg|lb|adj=on}} masks hung from the ceiling or carried by several people.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.phillipcharette.com/yupik/yupik_masks.html | title = About Yup'ik Masks | work = Phillip Charette, Contemporary Art in the Yupik Tradition | first = Phillip John | last = Charette | date = n.d. | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101226162107/http://www.phillipcharette.com/yupik/yupik_masks.html | archive-date = 26 December 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Fienup-Riordan |first=Ann |url=https://archive.org/details/livingtraditiono0000fien |title=The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks: Agayuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer) |publisher=University of Washington Press |year=1996 |isbn=0295975237 |lccn=95023296}}</ref> Masks have been created with plastic surgery for mutilated soldiers.<ref>{{cite journal | first = David M. | last = Lubin | title = Masks, Mutilation, and Modernity: Anna Coleman Ladd and the First World War | journal = Archives of American Art Journal | volume = 47 | number = 3/4 | date = Fall 2008 | pages = 4–15 | publisher = Archives of American Art, [[Smithsonian Institution]] | doi = 10.1086/aaa.47.3_4.25435155| s2cid = 192771456 }}</ref>

Masks in various forms – sacred, practical, or playful – have played a crucial historical role in the development of understandings about "what it means to be human", because they permit the imaginative experience of "what it is like" to be transformed into a different identity (or to affirm an existing social or spiritual identity).<ref>{{cite book |last=Edson |first=Gary |title=Masks and Masking: Faces of Tradition and Belief Worldwide |publisher=McFarland & Co. |year=2005 |isbn=9780786421183 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina}}</ref> Not all cultures have known the use of masks, but most of them have.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gregor |first=Joseph |url=https://archive.org/details/masksofworldhist0000jose/mode/2up |title=Masks of the World |publisher=Dover Publications |year=2002 |lccn=68-18150}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Herold |first=Erich |url=https://archive.org/details/worldofmasks0000unse |title=The World of Masks |publisher=Hamlyn |year=1992 |isbn=9780600574422}}</ref><ref group=note>Pernet emphasizes that masks are not a wholly universal cultural phenomenon, raising the question why some cultures do not have a masking tradition.</ref>