19.
Displaying the Other: The Masking of Identity
Convenors:
Christian
F. Feest, Museum of Ethnology, Vienna
christian.feest@ethno-museum.ac.at
Sylvia
S. Kasprycki, Museum der Weltkulturen, Frankfurt/Main
sylvia.kasprycki@stadt-frankfurt.de
As
visually impressive objects and "exotic" collector’s items
masks have always held special attraction – a fascination matched by
anthropology’s interest in these artifacts. As objectified demarcations
of the boundaries between the self and the "Other" – Gods,
supernatural beings, ancestors – masks and their associated rituals play
a vital role in the cultural management of identity and alterity. On the one
hand highly visible and intended for display, masks at the same time conceal
privileged knowledge and thus establish social control: The crossing of
boundaries only takes place in ritually defined circumstances.
Intensified
culture contact added further dimensions to the function of masks: Portrayals
of the colonizers in staged performances emphasize ethnic boundaries and serve
to reinterpret colonial history; increasing commodification of cultural icons
has turned masks into tourist art and saleable markers of ethnicity, while
today the related processes of resacralization reflect the attempt on the part
of indigenous communities to reformulate cultural distance. Moreover,
emancipated indigenous audiences have begun to question their representation in
anthropological publications and museum contexts, and the display of masks in
the latter has especially become a matter of contention. This conflict is not
only indicative of political strategies to regain control of their cultural
heritage, but also of power struggles within societies that have become
increasingly pluralistic.
The workshop
presents case studies and theoretically informed analyses of the management of
identity and alterity through the ritual use of masks and/or the cultural
politics surrounding their production, ownership, and display in a globalized
world.
Iroquois
"False Faces" and the Politics of Identity
Sylvia
S. Kasprycki, Museum der
Weltkulturen, Frankfurt/Main
sylvia.kasprycki@stadt-frankfurt.de
Sacred Goes
Secular: Tourist Art among the Piaroa of Venezuela
Claudia
Augustat, Johann
Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt/Main
From Bearded
Monsters to Beaded Masks: Indians, mestizos, and Indian mestizo-Gods
Johannes
Neurath, Museo Nacional de Antropología, México
When the Other is
Chinese: The Case of Barong Landung-Giant Puppets in Bali
Volker
Gottowik, Johann
Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt/Main
Becoming the
Other: Gender Reversals in Croatian Carnival and Wedding Customs
Nevena Skrbic
Alempijevic, University of Zagreb