Thesis

At many points, the reader is transported to a place of wonder, where non-human persons signaled their presence at a masked dance with a thunderous response from under the found echoing the stamping of the people in the ceremonial house above them. One can feel the terror of a child, now an elder, who, watched bare-chested, wolf-masked dancers fighting with each other viciously, covered with blood, and then vivaciously emerging unscathed.1

In my studies, the challenge is attempting to uncover the spoken story to Nayamin’s mask, because the meaning behind the mask is not known or is faultily cataloged.  We understand the concept of disguising ourselves when we wear masks at masked balls or Halloween.  There is no counterpart to the Yup’ik mask as an artistic product in contemporary Western Culture.  What I propose is to explain the formal elements in hopes of analyzing my findings: line, color, and composition.  I have also included the practice or vehicle to spiritual transformation2, and stylistic tradition to uncover the mystery of the Daa’re mask. 

Yup’ik Territory

The Yup’ik groups stationed near the coastal regions of Alaska do not have immediate access to lumber as a resource for use in artwork or common everyday use.  The Yup’ik lived in permanent villages along the coast of the Bering Sea and lower courses lining the deltas of the Yukon.  Other prominent locations include the Kuskokwim Rivers.  Mostly composed of Tundra wetlands, this region provided the Yup’ik with birds, fish, and many mammals for food, clothes, and tools.  The Yup’ik believed if the ceremonies were completed successfully that the food and game would be plentiful. 

Yupi’ik Traditions

Himmelheber observed on his expedition to Alaska in 1936 that paints were never mixed, and were applied using tufts of plant fiber bound in a brush.3

In modern day mask making, Yup’ik artists work with timber wolf or red fox fur, ground squirrel tail tips, which are applied by hand.  Masks from this region are typically painted in red, white, black, blue, and green.  Commercial paints introduced in the late 20th century were not popular and even today most mask-makers prefer painting with natural pigments and binders such as Nayamin.  The pigments described would have been natural byproducts such as red oxide of iron found in soil.  Other pigments that were used in the production of Nayamin’s mask would have been red chalk, clay, hematite, or goethite.

According to Katharina Geier’s, Technical Study of Arctic Pigments and Paints…4 the binders that would have been used to produce red paint would have included blood or seal oil to make the paint darker and more durable. 4 The black color would have been colored by using charcoal.  Other elements to produce black would have been coal, graphite, gunpowder mixed with blood.  

Stylistic Characteristics

Yup’ik Masks are often more complex than those of the Inupiaq. They are usually highly decorated with paint and feathers.  Carvers sculpted a wide range of animal representation.  One characteristic feature of these masks is that appendages, such as arms and legs might be separate from the body and held together by feathers so that they gently bounce and seem to float as the dancer moves.   

• Ovoid in shape
• Appendeges resembling human and animal limbs or sea boat oar
• A ring signifing the seperation of the Spirit world from the Physical world

Daa're ceremonial mask

Ben Nayamin is a contemporary artist who creates masks in the tradition of the cultural art of the Yup’ik.  His work titled Daa’re Mask is a dance mask that symbolizesthe Cupik Spirit Seal catching fish.  It was made in Chevak, Alaska in 1984, out of a combination of materials including: wood, feathers, paint, and sinew.  Masks are important in ceremonies of the arctic people.  The Yup’ik ceremonies contain active roles that the mask bearer must perform. These include elaborating and validating the existence of the spirit helper.

• Ovoid in shape of Cupik Spirit and Seal
• Ring representing relation from spirit to physical world
• Four hands extend from the mask, two on each side
• Four paddles or fins consisting with either two or three prong
• Seal sculpture at the bottom

Conclusion

The Cup’ik spirit is depicted at the top of the mask, while the face of the seal is placed on the lower half of the base, which would make it impossible to make the assertion that it is of a man and woman because the main stylistic characteristics Nayamin depicts in his mask are of more truer to animal traits than of the interpretation of a human couple.  Leopard seals naturally have black fur covering the mammal’s forehead.  This trait is apparent among male leopard seals of the arctic region.  The key description that was not altered that stays accurate are that the Daa’re Mask symbolizes the Cupik Spirit and the Seal.  This mask is worn to honor the Cupik Spirit and traditionally tribal inhabitants would believe that the Cupik spirit determined the fate of the hunt for seals.  
The face depicting a seal has an anthropomorphic quality that makes it hard to discern it as a seal or person because of its incorporation of stylistic modes that creates this sense of duality between man and animal. 
5Fitzhugh and Kaplan. 13