Masks, Transformation, and Paradox

by Napier, A. David; Needham, Rodney

• ISBN13: 9780520045330
• ISBN10: 0520045335
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1987-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr on Demand

Summary

Masks are found world-wide in connection with seasonal festivals, rites of passage, and curative ceremonies. They provide a means of investigating the paradoxical problems that appearances pose in the experience of transitional states. In this far-reaching work, A. David Napier studies mask iconography and the role played by masks in the realization of change. The masks of preclassical Greece -- in particular those of the Satyr and the Gorgon -- provide his starting point. A comparison of Greek to Eastern and especially Indian models follows, and the book concludes with an examination of the interpretation of Hindu ideas in Bali that demonstrates the importance of ambivalence in mask iconography. Book jacket.

Author Biography

A. David Napier is Dana Faculty Fellow in Art and Anthropology, Middlebury College

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Foreword	p. xv
Preface	p. xxiii
Masks, Transformation, and Paradox	p. 1
Paradox	p. 1
Christianity and Polytheism: The Problem of Prima Facie Evidence	p. 4
Interpreting Transformations	p. 10
Ambiguity and Saltation	p. 15
Revivification and Reincarnation: Supernatural and Social Order	p. 20
Numen Inest: Pantheons and Presuppositions	p. 23
Masks and the Beginnings of Greek Drama	p. 30
Ritual as Entertainment; Entertainment as Ritual	p. 30
Tragedy and the Evolution of Drama	p. 32
Aristotle's Testimony	p. 36
Ritual Drama and Tragic Sentiment	p. 40
Satyr, Centaur, Theriomorphic Healer	p. 45
Types of Preclassical Greek Masks	p. 45
The Satyr: Its Character and Iconography	p. 53
Indo-European Elements in the Satyrs and Centaurs of Ancient Greece	p. 63
Centaurs and Heracles	p. 71
Centaurs, Ambivalence, and Curing	p. 79
Perseus and the Gorgon Head	p. 83
The Medusa's Story	p. 83
Iconographical Considerations	p. 91
The Gorgon as a Leonine Creature	p. 108
The Gorgon Reconsidered	p. 125
The Third Eye	p. 135
Iconological Considerations	p. 135
Leonine Manifestations of the Eye	p. 139
Foreheads	p. 145
Soma and Madhu: Aphrodisiacs and Apotropaism	p. 155
Signs of the Mistress	p. 167
Balinese Faces and Indian Prototypes	p. 188
Hinduism and Bali: Problems in Interpretation	p. 188
Indonesia and the Sources of Monstrous Icons	p. 193
The Senses Manifested as an Apotropaic System	p. 199
Rangda and Barong: Displaying Archetypes	p. 206
Epilogue	p. 221
Notes	p. 225
Bibliography	p. 243
Index	p. 269
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.