Masked Ritual and Performance in South India

by Shulman, David

• ISBN13: 9780891480884
• ISBN10: 0891480889
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-08-28
• Publisher: Univ of Michigan Center for

Summary

"Throughout South India, masks are related to the presence of divine beings and, as such, induce transformation in the awareness of both performers and audience. Masked performance may also be powerfully linked to rituals of healing, which aim at freeing the self from states of blockage, isolation, and possession. Taken together, the essays offer an initial grammar of South Indian masking as the culture-specific formation of visible surfaces in which primary issues of identity, self-knowledge, and perception are brought into play. Masking thus implies meta-psychological perspectives on the notions of self, face, and maturation and on the internal economy of the mind in cultures far removed from standard Western psychological paradigms."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Deborah Thiagarajan
Introduction	1	(16)
David Shulman
Toward a New Theory of Masks	17	(42)
David Shulman
Death and the Mask	59	(13)
Don Handelman
Mask and Face in Sinhala Exorcism	72	(17)
Bruce Kapferer
Masquerading Death: Aspects of Ritual Masking in the Community Theaters of Tanjavur	89	(18)
Sundar Kaali
Donning the Vesam in Kattaikkuttu	107	(28)
Hanne M. de Bruin
The Face and the Mask: Expression and Impersonation in Kutiyattam, Krishnattam, and Noh	135	(12)
Sudha Gopalakrishnan
Shifting Forms of the Wandering Yogi: The Teyyam of Bhairavan	147	(37)
John R. Freeman
Kali and Kuli: Female Masquerades in Kerala Ritual Dance	184	(24)
Sarah Caldwell
Masks and Associated Mythical Beasts	208	(16)
Edwin Gerow
The Masques of Gods and Demons	224	(22)
Wendy Doniger
Postlude: Toward a Braiding of Frame	246	(17)
Don Handelman
Contributors	263