The Mask

While at the Native American Museum, I also noticed the plethora of masks displayed. Some masks depicted animals, others depicted men with various expressions: happy, suspicious, angry, sorrowful, surprised, emotionless. Unaware of just how integral they are to primal religions, I was not expecting to see so many. I reviewed van der Leeuw’s passages on masks in “Religion in Essence and Manifestation” in order to better understand the role of the mask in ritual. When  man puts on the mask, he is no longer himself nor acting of his own will. Rather, the man becomes the very entity that the mask depicts. When man wears a mask depicting an animal, he becomes identical to it and is able to utilize it’s power. Behind the mask, van der Leeuw states, lies an ecstatic experience as the animal is the “other” to that man runs to for freedom when he tires of his humanity. Often the divine, too, was sought in the animal. Animal masks were used in sacred games and dances to infuse the characters with those of the divine animals (81).

Demons and gods, too, are personified and come to life through the mask as the wearer activates their power and becomes what he personifies. While the mask is worn, the entity it represents is responsible for the actions of the wearer, not the wearer himself (217). The mask converts its wearer into the representative as the wearer dances, literally representing divine acts of the tribes demons or gods as the divine event actually occurs all over again (374). The museum outlined that Native dances often involved masked dramatic performances that reenacted ancient oral traditions that described events such as the creation of the world and significant historical events. I found myself curious about the entities the masks in the museum represented, their part in the divine story, and the ritual dances that reenacted the myths. I suppose we’ll never know the story of many masks, but it’s interesting to wonder about.