Masks in South America

Author(s): A. Monod-Becquelin, Yves Cantraine, Mireille Guyot, Pierre-Y. Jacopin, David

Harris, Bernard Schmidt
Source: The Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 26, No. 4, Masks (Winter, 1982), pp. 9-12
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1145510 .
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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 linkedto headdresses, or-
nament, decorative motifs on the body, and when they exist, scarifications.Like these
elements, masks include the mask-wearerin a symbolicconfigurationwhich signifies the
nature of the currentcelebration,the socio-religiousroles of the partners,and the iden-
tificationof the represented spirits.
Masks are made of various materials:cut wood, beaten bark,plaitedfibers, leaves,
fresh or dried palms, calabashes, animal skins or furs, and in Andean countrieswith a
miningtradition,metal.The shapes of the superiorpartsare also varied:flator 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 humandisposition.These faces representspirits
who are conceived as persons, mythicalancestors of the world in its naturalforms-
animaland vegetal-and in its ritualparaphernalia.The spiritsof this naturaland cultural
worldare celebrated duringcollective ritualswithinthe community,or intertribally (in the
Upper-Xingu,for instance).
Certainritualswithmasks-propitiary rites-are meantto favorablydispose the spirits
who watch over the earth's fertility,huntingor fishing. One addresses the spirits who
master the best species, as among the Tapirapeduringthe songs and dances of the paku
fish masks. Inother rituals,one tries to coax out evil spiritswho stole souls to the detriment
of a man's health. The shaman makes a tripto find the lost soul and to recover it from
the responsible spirit.As compensation, he stipulatesthat the ill man should promotea
celebration-an ensemble of costumes, songs, and dances-to appease the identified

THEDRAMAREVIEW,Volume26, Number4, Winter1982 (T96)

0012-5962/82/040009-04 $4.00/0
c 1982 by the MassachusettsInstituteof Technology

Reprintedby permissionof CherifKhaznadarfromLes Masques et leurs Fonctions,edited by CherifKhaznadar,

publishedby Maisonde la Culturede Rennes, France.
 Finally,the spiritsmust 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 (whichare particularlyappreciated),and of the returnof the constellationsmarking
naturalor social cycles. Initiationrites are also an opportunityfor using certain masks,
to honor the importantspirits for the differentstages in life. For rites of female puberty,
the Lengua of the Gran Chaco make masks representingthe supernaturaldangers that
might threaten young girls. In the Tukunaculture,duringthe same feasts, the painted
mask-costumes in beaten bark represent cannibalisticdemons which were formerlyex-
terminatedby their ancestors.

Selk'nam initiation rites in Tierradel Fuego. Keternen is a benevolent male or

female spirit of the festivals called Klok'ten. These festivals are strictly reserved
for men. Entirelyconcealed 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.
dance its aquaticdances. The wildpig's masks execute in a similarway everythingrelated
to the animal's life and the associated beliefs.
Masks can also represent those who initiatedthe Indiansto the ritualpractices 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 initiatoryrole is attributedto various birds.
Accordingto the cultures,the precise functionof masks vary.There are several types
of masks in almost every case, and sacred masks (whichwomen are not allowed to see
and which are kept in the men's houses), coexist withentertainmentmasks (forinstance,
among the Kayapo).Generallyspeaking,to perceivethe mask'sfunctionin South America,
one has to rememberthat there is a continuitybetween Man, Spirits and the sensible
world-its animal,vegetal, cosmic or ritualmanifestations-which bringscloser Manand
Spirit, the mythicalancestors and the living, masks and appearances. Previously, the
ancestors of the sensible worldappeared in humanshape, and after several adventures,
became tapirs,stags, otters, eagles, vultures,piranhas,and stingrays.Today, in the forest
or on the river,Indiansstill meet animalswhich are in realitydisguised spirits.They differ
from real animals by a particularsmell. These spiritsmay also appear in a humanshape.
In masks, the mythicalancestors and the naturalkingdomare present simultaneously.
The costumes' symbols, songs, and dances speak of the pecari'sspirit,for instance, and
at the same time, about the pecari animal;about the piranha'sspiritand also about the
edible fish; about the sacred flutes' spiritsand the flutes themselves. Masks manifestthat
uniqueworldwhere the actors underthe costumes are men, who enter intocommunication
with a spiritin the process of costuming, and where the spirititself is the double of the
familiarworld.When the feast has ended, the mask has lost its value. It is thrownaway
or burnt,as the spirithas withdrawnfrom it, satisfied withthe performancesin its honor.
It is also importantto stress the growthof a mask traditionwhose developments are
relatedto the "conquestdances" evoking at the same time historicalcharactersand local
divinities.Today, these syncretic representationsare eminentlycharacteristicof the car-
navalesque ritualsof the Bolivianaltiplano.Even in the more specificallyAfro-American
variantsof Carnival(Haiti,Trinidad,Brazil),the plastic representationsand symboliccon-
figurationsof the masks belong to a culturaldomain distinct from those of the Indian
societies which I have been dealing with.

The Chontaduro Ball of the YakunaIndians

from the Colombian Amazon
The chontaduropalm tree is also called cachipay in Colombia,and pijuayo in Peru.
Very importantto the diet of the Amazon Indians,its fruitis eitherconsumed as a variety
of potato or as chicha, a slightlyfermenteddrink.When the chontadurofruitripen, the
Indiansfindoccasion for ritualfeasts, of whichvariationscan be found among the Witoto,
Bora, Muinani,and Marana,as well as among the Yakuna.Liketheirsouthernneighbors,
the Yakunasay that the traditionof the chontaduroball-festival of masks-came from
the TanimukaIndians,their eastern neighbors.
Among the Yakuna, the chontaduro ball refers to the myth of the culturalhero,
Kawarimi.Allthe world'sanimalswho, like men, consume the fruitof the chontaduro,and
 The guests-Indians from an exogamic group differentfrom the familyof the host
maloca-arrive masked, symbolizing animals or the wind. They wear a cowl, with or
withouta sculpted crest, and long fiber skirts which cover their bodies. The animal or
naturalelement embodied is recognizableby 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 underworldby crossing the depth of rivers;therefore,the firstvisitors to
arriveare those masked as fish.

MireilleGuyot and Pierre-Y.Jacopin