Masks in South AmericaAuthor(s): A. Monod-Becquelin, Yves Cantraine, Mireille Guyot, Pierre-Y. Jacopin, DavidHarris, Bernard SchmidtSource: The Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 26, No. 4, Masks (Winter, 1982), pp. 9-12Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1145510 .Accessed: 28/02/2011 19:36

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In South America, masks are part of an entire dress covering the body from head to foot. They cannot be considered separately, but must be linked to headdresses, or- nament, decorative motifs on the body, and when they exist, scarifications. Like these elements, masks include the mask-wearer in a symbolic configuration which signifies the nature of the current celebration, the socio-religious roles of the partners, and the iden- tification of the represented spirits.

Masks are made of various materials: cut wood, beaten bark, plaited fibers, leaves, fresh or dried palms, calabashes, animal skins or furs, and in Andean countries with a mining tradition, metal. The shapes of the superior parts are also varied: flat or voluminous, round, oval, quadrangular, conical, cylindrical, or composite. They are almost always very ornate, with shells, feathers, cotton, seeds, beans, laminas of bamboo, bees wax, and mostly painted motifs.

Very often, the represented features are anthropomorphic, with ears, eyes, a nose, and a mouth situated in a more or less human disposition. These faces represent spirits who are conceived as persons, mythical ancestors of the world in its natural forms- animal and vegetal-and in its ritual paraphernalia. The spirits of this natural and cultural world are celebrated during collective rituals within the community, or intertribally (in the Upper-Xingu, for instance).

Certain rituals with masks-propitiary rites-are meant to favorably dispose the spirits who watch over the earth's fertility, hunting or fishing. One addresses the spirits who master the best species, as among the Tapirape during the songs and dances of the paku fish masks. In other rituals, one tries to coax out evil spirits who stole souls to the detriment of a man's health. The shaman makes a trip to find the lost soul and to recover it from the responsible spirit. As compensation, he stipulates that the ill man should promote a celebration-an ensemble of costumes, songs, and dances-to appease the identified

THE DRAMA REVIEW, Volume 26, Number 4, Winter 1982 (T96) 0012-5962/82/040009-04 $4.00/0 c 1982 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Reprinted by permission of Cherif Khaznadar from Les Masques et leurs Fonctions, edited by Cherif Khaznadar, published by Maison de la Culture de Rennes, France.

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spirit. This is one of the most frequent reasons for the organization of rituals in the Upper- Xingu, as among the Mehinaku, for instance. (In the Caiari-Uaupes tribes, masked dancers use sophisticated pantomimes to oppose the demons who bring death.)

Finally, the spirits must enjoy themselves, and as a result, agreeable events are also celebrated. These are the seasonable feasts of the end of the rains, of certain plants' ripeness (which are particularly appreciated), and of the return of the constellations marking natural or social cycles. Initiation rites are also an opportunity for using certain masks, to honor the important spirits for the different stages in life. For rites of female puberty, the Lengua of the Gran Chaco make masks representing the supernatural dangers that might threaten young girls. In the Tukuna culture, during the same feasts, the painted mask-costumes in beaten bark represent cannibalistic demons which were formerly ex- terminated by their ancestors.

Selk'nam initiation rites in Tierra del Fuego. Keternen is a benevolent male or female spirit of the festivals called Klok'ten. These festivals are strictly reserved for men. Entirely concealed in a costume of bird down, Keternen is born the third week of Klok'ten. He is the newborn son of Xalpen, the spirit who eats the initiates disrespectful of the order. Keternen is cherished among the women. He is one of the only spirits they are allowed to see, and is presented by one of the masters of the festival.

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From the diversity of their uses and representations, masks appear to be complex realities. In practice, it is important to stress that they are essentially associated with music and dance figures. The piranha's masks sing the tunes and stories of the piranha, and dance its aquatic dances. The wild pig's masks execute in a similar way everything related to the animal's life and the associated beliefs.

Masks can also represent those who initiated the Indians to the ritual practices of their culture. Among the Timbira, for instance, some mask-costumes in painted, woven fibers represent aquatic monster spirits who taught man his ceremonial chants. In the Upper-Xingu, this initiatory role is attributed to various birds.

According to the cultures, the precise function of masks vary. There are several types of masks in almost every case, and sacred masks (which women are not allowed to see and which are kept in the men's houses), coexist with entertainment masks (for instance, among the Kayapo). Generally speaking, to perceive the mask's function in South America, one has to remember that there is a continuity between Man, Spirits and the sensible world-its animal, vegetal, cosmic or ritual manifestations-which brings closer Man and Spirit, the mythical ancestors and the living, masks and appearances. Previously, the ancestors of the sensible world appeared in human shape, and after several adventures, became tapirs, stags, otters, eagles, vultures, piranhas, and stingrays. Today, in the forest or on the river, Indians still meet animals which are in reality disguised spirits. They differ from real animals by a particular smell. These spirits may also appear in a human shape. In masks, the mythical ancestors and the natural kingdom are present simultaneously. The costumes' symbols, songs, and dances speak of the pecari's spirit, for instance, and at the same time, about the pecari animal; about the piranha's spirit and also about the edible fish; about the sacred flutes' spirits and the flutes themselves. Masks manifest that unique world where the actors under the costumes are men, who enter into communication with a spirit in the process of costuming, and where the spirit itself is the double of the familiar world. When the feast has ended, the mask has lost its value. It is thrown away or burnt, as the spirit has withdrawn from it, satisfied with the performances in its honor.

It is also important to stress the growth of a mask tradition whose developments are related to the "conquest dances" evoking at the same time historical characters and local divinities. Today, these syncretic representations are eminently characteristic of the car- navalesque rituals of the Bolivian altiplano. Even in the more specifically Afro-American variants of Carnival (Haiti, Trinidad, Brazil), the plastic representations and symbolic con- figurations of the masks belong to a cultural domain distinct from those of the Indian societies which I have been dealing with.

The Chontaduro Ball of the Yakuna Indians from the Colombian Amazon

The chontaduro palm tree is also called cachipay in Colombia, and pijuayo in Peru. Very important to the diet of the Amazon Indians, its fruit is either consumed as a variety of potato or as chicha, a slightly fermented drink. When the chontaduro fruit ripen, the Indians find occasion for ritual feasts, of which variations can be found among the Witoto, Bora, Muinani, and Marana, as well as among the Yakuna. Like their southern neighbors, the Yakuna say that the tradition of the chontaduro ball-festival of masks-came from the Tanimuka Indians, their eastern neighbors.

Among the Yakuna, the chontaduro ball refers to the myth of the cultural hero, Kawarimi. All the world's animals who, like men, consume the fruit of the chontaduro, and

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certain natural elements, such as the wind, are invited to the ball. The songs of the masked, invited guests are rewarded with food, offered by the master of the feast (master of the maloca, the house in which the ball takes place).

The guests-Indians from an exogamic group different from the family of the host maloca-arrive masked, symbolizing animals or the wind. They wear a cowl, with or without a sculpted crest, and long fiber skirts which cover their bodies. The animal or natural element embodied is recognizable by the dance steps and songs performed. The masks come from the "underworld," where the animals are able to speak as humans. One gets to the underworld by crossing the depth of rivers; therefore, the first visitors to arrive are those masked as fish.

Mireille Guyot and Pierre-Y. Jacopin