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Social Science Native American Studies

The Power of Symbols

Masks and Masquerade in the Americas

edited by N. Ross Crumrine & Marjorie M. Halpin

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2011
Category
Native American Studies
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774843423
    Publish Date
    Nov 2011
    List Price
    $34.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774801669
    Publish Date
    Jan 1983
    List Price
    $51.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

This collection of papers, presented at the 42nd International Congress of Americanists, considers the interplay between the mask, the mask bearer, and the audience. The studies concentrate on the idea of masking as a transformational ritual in which the human actor is transformed into a being of another order. The authors use examples from various cultures and in their analyses argue for particular sets of relationships as being crucial to the understanding of the mask.

About the authors

Contributor Notes

N. Ross Crumrine (editor) is a professor of anthropology at the University of Victoria. Marjorie M. Halpin (editor) is associate professor of anthropology at the University of British Columbia and curator of ethnology at the Museum of Anthropology.

Editorial Reviews

An important contribution which will profoundly influence our view of the complexity, significance and variety of masquerade in the Americas, and will be indispensable in formulating new and related problematics.

Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford