MASKS

Masks originated as an important role in most religions. They are at both points a religious artifact as well as a piece of art itself. Depending on the culture, masks can be used for many different roles:

• Religious Rituals
• Channeling gods and demons
• Channeling earth and animal spirits
• Funeral Rituals
• Death masks
• Practical Purposes
• Battle Gear
• Medicine
• Entertainment

MASKS

Battle Gear

Ancestor Worship:

Besides religious purposes, masks have long been used for defensive purposes in war. In many cultures face masks were designed to be frightening, demonic, summoning the supernatural forces to help the wearer in battle.

Many cultures use masks to channel their ancestors. By wearing the masks they take on the qualities of the ancestor they desire, or channel whatever knowledge they wish to seek. This is part of ancestor worship and can be found around the world in different forms.

Iranian Battle Masks

West African Ancestor Masks

Aztec Warrior

Japanese Samurai Armor

(Please note: Masks do not have to cover the entire face)

Malaysian Ancestor Masks

Germanic Knight Armor

Medicine

Animism:

The belief that animals, trees, water and other objects in nature have spirits. Masks are often used to imbue the wearer with the strength of the animal or natural element that the mask represents. They are used to connect humans to the larger natural and supernatural world.

West African Animism

Masks in medicine are fairly recent, the idea of small microbes unknown in the medieval world. The plague doctor mask was the first of its kind. During the Bubonic Plague, doctors wore the masks to protect them from what they thought was the cause of the plague, "bad air." The beaks held flowers and incense to brighten the smell of rotting bodies.

Nepalese Demon Masks

Death Masks

Theater:

Masks showing the faces of the dead have been around for a long time, being used as remembrances, as part of funeral arrangements, or in rituals honoring the ancestors. The common form for wax death masks occurred in Europe during the late Middle Ages and became popular for royalty.

Death Mask and Hands of Martin Luther

Noh Theater

The earliest masks in theater were ancestor masks, where young men and women wore the masks and channeled their ancestors. As theater became more developed, masks became integral, showing humans, animals, demons, and more. Some theater, such as Noh theater in Japan was woven into the local religions, as religious stories were played out on the stage.

Korean Play Masks

Aztec Funerary Mask

Roman Death Masks

Burial mask: Emperor Pakal, Inca

Venetian Carnival Masks