Mask, face covering that, in ritual and theater,
disguises the wearer and usually communicates an alternate identity; also a type
of portrait, and a protective screen for the face.
Since at least Paleolithic times people have used masks. Made of wood, basketry,
bark, corn husks, cloth, leather, skulls, papier-mâché, and other materials,
masks may cover the face, the entire head, or the head and shoulders, and they
are sometimes considered part of an accompanying costume. Masks vary widely in
their realism or abstraction, their use of symbols, and their ornamentation. The
kachina masks of the Pueblo peoples, for example, have only minimal facial
features, whereas masks of the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest are
often elaborately carved and painted, may have movable jaws or other parts, and
may even open to reveal a second mask beneath the first. Occasionally, a mask is
not intended to be worn on the face, for example, the enormous ritual masks of
Oceania and the tiny fingertip masks of Inuit women.
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