Yup'ik masks (

Yup'ik The Yup'ik or Yupiaq (sg & pl) and Yupiit or Yupiat (pl), also Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Central Yup'ik, Alaskan Yup'ik ( own name ''Yup'ik'' sg ''Yupiik'' dual ''Yupiit'' pl; russian: Юпики центральной Аляски), are an I ...

''kegginaquq'' sg ''kegginaquk'' dual ''kegginaqut'' pl and ''nepcetaq'' sg ''nepcetat'' pl; in the Lower Yukon dialects ''avangcaq'' sg ''avangcak'' dual ''avangcat'' pl ; in Nunivak Cup'ig dialect ''agayu'') are expressive

shamanic Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...

ritual

masks A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practi ...

made by the

people of southwestern

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U. ...

. Also known as Cup'ik masks for the Chevak Cup'ik dialect speaking people of Chevak and Cup'ig masks for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect speaking people of

Nunivak Island Nunivak Island ( Central Alaskan Yup'ik: ; Nunivak Cup'ig: ''Nuniwar''; russian: Нунивак, Nunivak) is a permafrost-covered volcanic island lying about offshore from the delta of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers in the US state of Alaska, ...

. They are typically made of wood, and painted with few colors. The Yup'ik masks were carved by men or women, but mainly were carved by the men. The shamans (''angalkuq'') were the ones that told the carvers how to make the masks. Yup'ik masks could be small three-inch finger masks or maskettes (or ''dance fans'', in the Lower Yukon Yup'ik dialects ''tegumiaq'' sg ''tegumiak'' dual ''tegumiat'' pl), but also ten-kilo masks hung from the ceiling or carried by several people. These masks are used to bring the person wearing it luck and good fortune in hunts. Over the long winter darkness

dances Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...

and storytelling took place in the

qasgiq Qargi (), Qasgi or Qasgiq (by the Yup'iks), Qaygiq (by the Cup'iks), Kashim (by the Russians), Kariyit, a traditional large semi-subterranean men's community house' (or "communal men's house, men's house, ceremonial house, council house, dance ...

using these masks. They most often create masks for ceremonies but the masks are traditionally destroyed after being used. After Christian contact in the late nineteenth century, masked dancing was suppressed, and today it is not practiced as it was before in the Yup'ik villages.Lynn Ager Wallen (1999)
The Milotte Mask Collection
Alaska State Museums Conceps, Second Reprint of Technical Paper Number 2, July 1999 While the Iñupiaq and Yup'ik are culturally and ethnically related, separated only by language differences and, often, hundreds of miles of territory, they have developed distinct versions of similar traditional mask forms. In the case of the Iñupiaq, masks are typically less elaborate than those made by their Yup'ik neighbors to the south-east, and usually smaller, covering only the face.Sean Mooney
The Art of the Spirit World: Volume III The ARCTIC
The Steven Michaan Collection of North American Tribal Arts Yup'ik masks are often compared to the European

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

tradition. A 2018 show in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

explored this comparison. The Surrealists’ Dance with the Yup’ik Mask
by Gini Alhadeff , New York Review of Books. Posted June 3, 2018

References

{{Commons category, Yupik masks

Mask A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practi ...

Masks in the Americas

See also

References