Masks, Ancestors, "Primitivity" – Possession vs. Representation

Read:
1. Jean Clottes and David Lewis-Williams, The Shamans of Prehistory, "Shamanism." New York: Abrams, 1996. Selection.
 

2. Chief Robert Joseph. "Behind the Mask" in Down from the Shimmering Sky: Masks of the Northwest Coast. 1998.

3. Cara McCarty, "Offense/Defense" in Masks: Faces of Culture. New York: Abrams. Read pages 275-298.

Response paper (chose from among the following):

What are some differences you might suggest between representing something and becoming something? how do the various readings help you think about this? Or, does the line between being and representing blur when thinking deeply about masked performance or altered states?

Do you think objects can have agency? Do you think conventionally inanimate things can be or come to life? Why or why not? What is at stake in answering this question?

Pick a key sentence or two from one of the readings. Why is the passage you have chosen essential to the author's argument? 

Write about a time when you were either masking (in whatever way you chose, it does not have to be a literal mask) and discuss the experience of "self." Or, discuss a time when you felt trapped by a social mask, or enabled by one. Or, write about your own experience with an "altered state," drawing on the reading(s) to help you.  







Recommended:  Read pages 11-29.  Graham Harvey, "Animism Rather than Shamanism"in Spirit Possession and Trance, edited by Bettina E. Schmidt and Lucy Huskinson, Continuum Books 2010.  Read pages 16-32.  Also recommended:  John Emigh Masked Performance: The Play of Self and Other in Ritual and Theatre. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Read pages 1-31.  On OCRA.