Mask

For other uses, see Mask (disambiguation).

Fang mask used for the ngil ceremony, an inquisitorial search for sorcerers. Wood, Gabon, 19th century.

A mask is a piece of material or kit worn on the face. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes.

The word mask came via French masque and either Italian maschera or Spanish máscara. Possible ancestors are Latin (not classical) mascus, masca = "ghost", and Arabic maskharah = "jester", "man in masquerade".

The 5000-year-old Mask of Warka is believed to be the oldest surviving mask.

masks are typically made from wood and may use rope, animal horns or teeth, or rubber from tire inner tubes.

To prevent recognition

• Criminals often use masks to avoid recognition when committing crimes. In many jurisdictions, it is an additional criminal offense to wear a mask while committing a crime; it is also often a crime to wear a mask at public assemblies and demonstrations. For instance, in Virginia, it is illegal for anyone over sixteen years of age to wear a mask in a public place. In some states, it is only illegal to wear a mask if there is intent to commit an illegal act.
• Occasionally a witness for the prosecution appears in court in a mask to avoid being recognized by associates of the accused.
• Participants in a black bloc at protests usually wear masks, often bandannas, to avoid recognition, and to try to protect against any riot control agents used. A Mask is poop

Protective

A softball catcher wearing a mask for protection.

Protective masks have these functions:

• Providing a supply of breathable air or other oxygen-containing gas.
• Protecting the face against flying objects or dangerous environments, while allowing vision.

Many masks have both functions.
This category merges into the categories of goggles and protective helmets and visors.
Here are included:

• A cloth tied over the mouth and nose as a dust filter.
• Filter masks.
• Surgical masks.
• Gas masks.
• The familiar eyes-and-nose diving mask.
• Breathing masks connected to some industrial breathing sets. These are usually fullface.
• Breathing masks connected to some scuba sets. These are usually fullface. See this link and this link for examples.

• Oxygen masks worn by high-altitude pilots.
• Oxygen masks used as part of medical oxygen resuscitation kit.
• Anaesthetic masks used in surgery in hospitals.
• CPR masks used in Cardiopulminary Resuscitation
• Sport masks such as fencing masks, ice hockey goalkeeper's masks, baseball catcher, and American football
• Ski masks.
• Welder's masks.
• The faceplates of spacesuit helmets.
• Paintball masks.

Of masks that supply breathable air, some also cover the eyes (full-face); and some only cover the mouth and nose, and the wearer must also wear goggles.

Punitive

• A "shameful" mask (Schandmaske in German) is devised for public humiliation; a popular reduced form are donkey ears for a bad ('dumb') pupil or student
• Particularly uncomfortable types, such as an iron mask, are fit as devices for torture or corporal punishment
• Masks were used to alienate and silence prisoners in Australian gaols in the late 19th century. They were made of white cloth and covered the face, leaving only the eyes visible.

Fashion

• Attendants of a costume party may wear masks as part of their costumes.
• Many musicians, especially from the heavy metal genre, don masks or heavy makeup on stage or promotional pictures for theatrical effect. Examples include KISS, Mayhem, King Diamond, Slipknot, Lordi, GWAR, Gorgoroth, and Death in June.
• Wrestling masks are used most widely in Mexican and Japanese wrestling. A wrestler's mask is usually related to a wrestler's persona (for example, a wrestler known as 'The Panda' might wear a mask with a panda's facial markings). Often, wrestlers will put their masks on the line against other wrestlers' masks, titles or an opponent's hair. While in Mexico and Japan, masks are a sign of tradition, they are generally considered by many in the United States to be a deathblow to a wrestler's character. Very few masked wrestlers have succeeded in becoming popular and generally are considered as jobbers. The belief is that fans want to see a face to empathize with and will only get behind a wrestler that shows it.

Other types

Life mask of Abraham Lincoln.

• Bondage masks are worn by some for sexual reasons. They are usually made of leather or rubberserve, and as sexual objectification for the wearer, and often to provide with sensory deprivation Some fetishize gas masks for similar reasons. Others, (usually men) participate in female masking, a form of cross-dressing that involves the wearing of women's clothing and a latex mask that gives a false representation of a female face.
• A "life mask" is a plaster cast of a face, used as a model for making a painting or sculpture.
• A "death mask" is the same but taken from the face of a recently dead person. Death masks were very popular in the Western World during the 18th and 19th century. Both life and death masks can preserve an accurate 3D representation of a face.
• A facial (short for facial mask) is a temporary mask, not solid, used in cosmetics or therapy for skin treatment..

See also

• Balaclava
• Chicken suit
• Commedia dell'Arte (mask theatre)
• List of hats and headgear
• Persona
• Latex mask

References

• Smith, Susan Valeria Harris, "Masks in Modern Drama", Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.

External links

• Ritual, Masks, and Sacrifice
• The Secret of Masks
• The Mythic Mask: mask history and contemporary mask art
• Traditional Bolivian masks from the high- and lowlands
• The Noh Mask Effect: A Facial Expression Illusion