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Masks
built 185 days ago
Harder - Masks are worn to protect or disguise the face. Most masks worn to disguise are in the form of an animal or another person. Protective masks serve a specific purpose. For example, a welder wears a steel mask with a special lens to shield their eyes from the intense light produced by welding. Disguise masks include ceremonial masks, theatrical masks, burial and death masks, and festival masks.
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Masks are made out of feathers, sequins, glitter, and even plaster. Sometimes people wear a stickmask, or a zorro type mask. The idea on Fat Tuesday in New Orleans is to wear a mask, any kind of mask or costume. It is part of the fun and festivities that make Mardi Gras such an unusual holiday.
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Masks, as well as puppets, were often incorporated into the theatre work of European avant-garde artists from the turn of the nineteenth century. Alfred Jarry, Pablo Picasso, Oskar Schlemmer and other artists of the Bauhaus School, as well as surrealists and Dadaists, experimented with theatre forms and masks in their work.
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Masks are often believed to contain great power, being potentially dangerous unless handled with the proper rites. The manufacture of a mask may ... be subject to prescribed observances. Iroquois false-face masks, for instance, must be carved from a living tree, which must be ritually asked to grant permission for the carving and must be offered tobacco.
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Masks are used almost universally and maintain their power and mystery both for their wearers and their audience, retaining an important place in the religious and social life of the community. The continued popularity of wearing masks at carnival, and for children at parties and for festivals such as Halloween are reminders of the enduring power of pretence and play.
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Depiction of animals through masks has been a practice that has survived from prehistoric times. The power and fury of the faces of animals have always enchanted man. Mythological and real animals remain a powerful component of folk-religion and occupy a sacred space in the minds of the natives of any nation. The lion mask of Purulia and the Jackal mask from Gambhira (both in West Bengal in eastern India) with their dull color temperatures, the animal masks of northeastern India and those of Madhya Pradesh in central India are prominent examples of mask depictions of animals. The wooden masks from tribal Madhya Pradesh have carvings of images from the animal world, of snakes, insects and even the cosmos.
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