Mask

A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes, as well as in the performing arts and for entertainment. They are usually worn on the face, although they may also be positioned for effect elsewhere on the wearer's body. More generally in art history, especially sculpture, 'mask' is the term for a face without a body that is not modelled in the round (which would make it a 'head'), but for example appears in low relief. The word 'mask' appeared in English in the 1530s, from Middle French masque 'covering to hide or guard the face', derived in turn from Italian maschera, from Medieval Latin masca 'mask, specter, nightmare'. This word is of uncertain origin, perhaps from Arabic maskharah مَسْخَرَۃٌ 'buffoon', from the verb sakhira 'to ridicule'. However, it may also come from Provençal mascarar 'to black (the face)' (or the related Catalan mascarar, Old French mascurer). This in turn is of uncertain origin — perhaps from a Germanic source akin to English 'mesh', but perhaps from mask- 'black', a borrowing from a pre-Indo-European language. One German author claims the word 'mask' is originally derived from the Spanish más que la cara (literally, 'more than the face' or 'added face'), which evolved to 'máscara', while the Arabic 'maskharat' - referring to the buffoonery which is possible only by disguising the face - would be based on these Spanish roots. Other related forms are Hebrew masecha= 'mask'; Arabic maskhara مَسْخَرَ = 'he ridiculed, he mocked', masakha مَسَخَ = 'he transfomed' (transitive). The use of masks in rituals or ceremonies is a very ancient human practice across the world, although masks can also be worn for protection, in hunting, in sports, in feasts, or in wars – or simply used as ornamentation. 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. One of the challenges in anthropology is finding the precise derivation of human culture and early activities, with the invention and use of the mask only one area of unsolved inquiry. The use of masks dates back several millennia. It is conjectured that the first masks may have generally been used by primitive people to associate the wearer with some kind of unimpeachable authority, such as 'the gods' or to otherwise lend credence to the person's claim on a given social role. The oldest masks that have been discovered are 9,000 years old, being held by the Musée 'Bible et Terre Sainte' (Paris), and the Israel Museum (Jerusalem). Most probably the practice of masking is much older – the earliest known anthropomorphic artwork is circa 30,000–40,000 years old – but insofar as it involved the use of war-paint, leather, vegetative material, or wooden masks, the masks probably have not been preserved (they are visible only in paleolithic cave drawings, of which dozens have been preserved). At the neanderthal Roche-Cotard site in France, a flintstone likeness of a face was found which is about 35,000 years old, but it is not clear that it was intended as a mask. In the Book of Genesis, one can read how Adam and Eve used fig leaves to cover 'their nakedness' after eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. 'The masquerade motif appears in the Bible on two different levels: an attempt to fool people and an attempt to fool God.' What shaped Judaic ritual was an 'absolute prohibition against fashioning a statue or a mask', originating with the Second Commandment. In the cult of Shiva, found in Anatolia from circa 6,000 BC, the young, naked ithyphallic god appears wearing a horned mask. 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. The Carnival of Venice, in which all are equal behind their masks, dates back to 1268 AD. 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.