Traditional Use of Masks
The Cherokee used masks in numerous dances. One such dance, known as "The Booger Dance", was usually performed in the late fall or winter. The Booger masks were made to represent the faces of Indian tribes who were the enemies of the Cherokee. After the arrival of Europeans, Booger Masks were made featuring large eyebrows, mustaches, beards, and bald heads, similar to the appearance of Europeans.
The Booger Masks were made from large gourds, hornets nests, buckeye, or poplar wood. Booger Masks have been mass produced and sold to tourists in Cherokee, North Carolina.
The Bear Dance, Beaver Dance, and Forest Buffalo Dances also employed masks. Buffalo masks were typically fashioned from Buckeye wood. Both Bear and Beaver masks were made from the fur hides of each animal and were worn loosely or sewn.
Read more about this topic: Cherokee Society
Famous quotes containing the words traditional and/or masks:
“The developments in the North were those loosely embraced in the term modernization and included urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization. While those changes went forward apace, the antebellum South changed comparatively little, clinging to its rural, agricultural, labor-intensive economy and its traditional folk culture.”
—C. Vann Woodward (b. 1908)
“I can love both fair and brown;
Her whom abundance melts, and her whom want betrays;
Her who loves loneness best, and her who masks and plays;
Her whom the country formed, and whom the town;
Her who believes, and her who tries;
Her who still weeps with spongy eyes;
And her who is dry cork, and never cries.
I can love her, and her, and you and you,
I can love any, so she be not true.”
—John Donne (1572–1631)