Masks and the Semiotics of Identity

Pollock, Donald

doi:10.2307/3034576

Cited by 67 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The response of the participants supported the theories and thoughts of engagement from anthropology in relation to the semiotics and identity potential inherent in masks (Pollock, 1995). Participants noted increased awareness of identity, group cohesion and a shared collegiality.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 62%

“…This functionality of purpose is separate from the effect on the spectator. Anthropologically, the mask works as a metaphor or signifier for the spectator to separate the individual performer and distance that perception to allow an alienation effect that, in turn, allows a suspension of disbelief (Pollock, 1995). In simplistic terms, through forcing the spectator to accept the necessity for the suspension of disbelief, the spectator can willingly immerse him/herself in the message and meaning of the spectacle and performance, creating their own meaning.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Masks in Pedagogical Practice

Roy¹

2017

Journal for Learning through the Arts

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 62%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Masks in Pedagogical Practice

Roy¹

2017

Journal for Learning through the Arts

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“…On masks as agents in social control and cohesion, see Pernet 1992, 79. 138 Inomata andCoben 2006, 30. 139Pernet 1992,1-22; see also Pollock 1995. 140Napier 1986.…”

Section: The Performers: Masks Theriomorphs and Kingsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Masks and Ritual Performance on the Island of Cyprus

Averett

2015

American Journal of Archaeology

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“…Research has proved that there are major differences between literate societies and societies with oral literacy. These differences manifest themselves in a variety of ways, especially in terms of how the body and society remembers, creates, structures and perceives the world (Ong 1982;Classen 1993;Pollock 1995). Again, whereas literate societies place an emphasis on the visual, other societies may use other forms of bodily senses as their focal vehicles of identity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…How may the bodily senses and organs have been used to structure the world, and to remember? Was there a reliance on the oral and aural, as with the Kulina in South America (Pollock 1995), or the olfactory, as with the Ongee of the Andaman Islands (Classen 1993), or on temperature, as with the Totzil of Mexico (Classen 1993; cf. Haaland 2004)?…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Encountering Imagery: Materialities, Perceptions, Relations

Robb

2014

Norwegian Archaeological Review

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Pictorial and visual elements are special types of archaeological data that transgress boundaries; between the past and us and between the material and immaterial. Imagery communicates with the observer in elaborate and often unforeseen ways. What special powers are embedded in the pictorial that seem to hold so much promise and mystery? In what ways can we study how images affect and engage the beholder, and how are images actively entangled in past social worlds? Archaeological approaches to prehistoric images have traditionally circled around representation, symbolism and meaning. By and large this has resulted in a focus on interpretations with contextually inferred meanings set within hermeneutic, phenomenological or evolutionary frameworks. In recent years, however, other ways of exploring imagery have been discussed within cultural studies and visual theory (e.g. Mitchell 1996; Evans & Hall 1999; Rose 2001;O'Sullivan 2005). Common themes are the multi-sensuous aspects of the imagery that involve issues of materiality and aesthesis, emphasizing that in many cases images evolve into something with qualities of their own. Within anthropology and archaeology, in contrast, there are discussions of the possible agency of art and the pictorial (e,g, Gell 1998; Knappett 2002). Indeed, both objects and imagery are entangled in the social. Nonetheless, despite the power that past imagery seems to have over our minds in the present day, the study of past imagery is still theoretically and methodologically underdeveloped in archaeology (e.g. Hamilton et al. 1996:281-307;Aldhouse-Green 2004; Cochrane & Russel 2007). We need to elaborate on the different roles that the images may have in the social. That is, how can imagery work as actants and initiate or evoke thoughts and actions that are not originally intended, and how can it result in new, unintended and unforeseen consequences? There are a great number of approaches and elaborate theories on how to understand the pictorial in the social and humanist sciences. In 1 2 Encountering Imagery this introduction, we discuss a few that we believe have the greatest potential for archaeological studies. In this volume, we aim to engage with these issues and highlight the manifold, and hitherto less employed, methodological and theoretical ways in which imagery may be understood. Art and imageryIn traditional Art History images are generally assumed to have a content, something that needs to be decoded or unlocked (Cornell & Fahlander 2002:74). One typical example in this tradition is Panofsky's study of art as iconography (the identification, description and the interpretation of the content of images) and iconology (the analysis of the meaning of that content). Despite quite substantial criticism (e.g. Kubler 1962:127f; O'Sullivan 2005:15) iconological approaches in archaeology are generally concerned with questions of identifying what the imagery is supposed to represent, and in the second stage, to interpret how such an image may fit into a cultural cosmology or ideolo...

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Masks and the Semiotics of Identity

Cited by 67 publications

References 12 publications

Masks in Pedagogical Practice

Masks in Pedagogical Practice

Masks and Ritual Performance on the Island of Cyprus

Encountering Imagery: Materialities, Perceptions, Relations

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