Q: Is a mask an object normally worn on the face? ¶
A: Yes, and typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment.
Q: Are masks also familiar as pieces of kit associated with practical functions? ¶
A: Yes, and usually protective.
Q: Are masks also common in BDSM practices? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks often made out of driftwood? ¶
A: Yes, and animal skins, bones, and feathers.
Q: Are masks used almost universally and maintain their power and mystery both for their wearers and their audience? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks preserved and can be seen in museums and other collections? ¶
A: Yes, and much research has been undertaken into the historical origins of masks.
Q: Is a mask used for people to create a more animal-like image in fetish role play? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks also popular? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is a mask the supreme achievement of Japanese mask-making? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Were masks used in shamanic rituals to thank the gods? ¶
A: Yes, while nuo dance masks protected from bad spirits.
Q: Are masks used along with puppets? ¶
A: Yes, and film and other visual forms, with an emphasis on the narrative structure.
Q: Is a mask normally a part of a costume that adorns the whole body and embodies a tradition important to the religious and/or social life of the community as whole or a particular group within the community? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks often replaced with face paint for more comfort? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Were masks sometimes used? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks arguably the most striking artifacts produced in this region? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks use by penitents in ceremonies to disguise their identity in order to make the act of penitence more selfless? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks replaced by painted faces? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks an important part of many theatre forms throughout world cultures? ¶
A: Yes, and their usage in theatre has often developed from, or continues to be part of old, highly sophisticated, stylized theatrical traditions.
Q: Were masks used in mystery and miracle plays to portray allegorical creatures? ¶
A: Yes, and the performer representing God frequently wore a gold or gilt mask.
Q: Are masks an important feature of wood craft? ¶
A: Yes, and along with many other features that often combined the utilitarian with the symbolic, such as shields, canoes, poles, and houses.
Q: Are masks widely used to represent the Performing Arts? ¶
A: Yes, and specifically Drama.
Q: Are masks usually carved with an extraordinary skill and variety by artists who will usually have received their training as an apprentice to a master carver - frequently it is a tradition that has been passed down within a family through many generations? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Were masks used to pray for good luck and a lasting marriage? ¶
A: Yes, and "Swallowing Animal" masks were associated with protecting the home and symbolised the "swallowing" of disaster.
Q: Are masks related to the cult of the ancestors? ¶
A: Yes, and which considered dancers the interpreters of the gods.
Q: Were masks often master-pieces of carving? ¶
A: Yes, and sometimes with movable jaws, or a mask within a mask, and parts moved by pulling cords.
Q: Are masks usually highly exaggerated and formalised? ¶
A: Yes, and share an aesthetic with the carved images of monstrous heads that dominate the facades of Hindu and Buddhist temples.
Q: Are masks used most widely in Mexican and Japanese wrestling? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks taken on by his students including Etienne Decroux and later? ¶
A: Yes, and via Jean Daste, Jacques Lecoq.
Q: Are masks used for their expressive power as a feature of masked performance - both ritually and in various theatre traditions? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks worn throughout very long performances and are consequently very light? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks part of a very old and highly sophisticated and stylized theatrical tradition? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Were masks used to alienate and silence prisoners in Australian jails in the late 19th century? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks also used in the Mas or Masquerade of the Caribbean Carnival? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is a mask considered "sacred" to some degree? ¶
A: Yes, and placing its role closer to the ritual and performance function.
Q: Is a mask usually related to a wrestler's persona? ¶
A: Yes, Often, wrestlers will put their masks on the line against other wrestlers' masks, titles or an opponent's hair.
Q: Were masks also used as part of court entertainments? ¶
A: Yes, and possibly combining political with religious significance.
Q: Are masks colourfully designed to evoke the images of animals? ¶
A: Yes, and gods, ancient heroes, and other archetypes.
Q: Is a mask regarded as an instrument of revelation? ¶
A: Yes, and giving form to the sacred.
Q: Are masks often made out of driftwood? ¶
A: Yes, and animal skins, bones, and feathers.
Q: Were masks not uncommon? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks thought to have originated in ancient religious ceremonies? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks sometimes used to avoid recognition? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks the gigaku? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks animal masks? ¶
A: Yes, such as the cave paintings of Lascaux in the Dordogne in southern France.
Q: Is a mask often used alongside puppetry to create a theatre which is essentially visual rather than verbal? ¶
A: Yes, and many of its practitioners have been visual artists.
Q: Are masks now being produced for the tourist trade? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks a sign of tradition? ¶
A: Yes, and they are looked down upon in the United States and Canada.
Q: Is a mask a mask either cast from or applied to the face of a recently deceased person? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is a mask suspended for the day? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Were masks used in war, on both soldiers and their horses? ¶
A: Yes, ceremonially, for burial rites in jade and bronze and for shamanistic ceremonies to drive away evil spirits; to remember the faces of great historical figures in death masks; and in the arts, particularly in ritual dances, courtly, and theatrical plays.
Q: Are masks used sometimes in drama therapy or psychotherapy? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks used throughout Europe? ¶
A: Yes, and are frequently integrated into regional folk celebrations and customs.
Q: Are masks a familiar and vivid element in many folk and traditional pageants? ¶
A: Yes, and ceremonies, rituals, and festivals, and are often of an ancient origin.
Q: Are masks rough rectangular boxes with several horns coming out of the top? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Were masks used in a basic 'Common' form of opera performed without a stage or backdrops? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks used in masquerades that form part of religious ceremonies enacted to communicate with spirits and ancestors? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks not always clear-cut? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Were masks used to dress the faces of the dead? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are masks placed to protect the living from spirits? ¶
A: Yes, whereas the duk-duk and tubuan masks of New Guinea are used to enforce social codes by intimidation.
Q: Were masks sometimes made of beaten copper or gold? ¶
A: Yes, and occasionally of clay.
Q: Were masks not designed to be worn? ¶
A: Yes.