Paper Short Abstract:

This paper aims to explore, through three different cases of masking performances solicited by the presence of the anthropologist, the processes of revelation/unveiling that are produced through what is said and unsaid in the dialogue between subject, mask device and anthropologist in the field.

Paper Abstract:

This paper aims to explore the ways in which the relationship between agency of the mask and agency of the subject wearing it is expressed (Gell 1998). Mask is an ‘object-person’, which mirrors, like a crystal, multiple traits from different identities and whose agency depends on the relational context in which it is located (Severi 2018). At the centre of analysis is the liminal moment of masking, which marks the transition from one body to another revealing states of possession, levels of apparition/revelation (Padiglione 2016). Through three different cases of masking performances solicited by the presence of the anthropologist, we intend to focus on the revelation/unveiling that is produced through what is said and unsaid in the dialogue between subject, mask device and anthropologist in the field. The first two cases refer to carnival contexts in Southern Italy and concern two female masks/disguises performed by two men, an adolescent and an elderly man, respectively in Carnival of Serino (Avellino) and Bellizzi (Avellino). In the third case, we move to Peru (Mito, Mantaro Valley), to observe how Gary relates to his other self, represented by the facial mask of the Huacón, a ritual figure of the Huaconada.

These three cases let us explore three different ways of relating to the other self of the mask. What does the subject consider necessary to reveal during the experience of masking? What, instead, does the mask say? How are the negotiations of power and meaning articulated between actors in the field, including the anthropologist?