Mask

Yup'ik artist

c. 1850–1900

Wood (probably spruce), pigments, string

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A wooden mask with a green cap, white face, and red ear-like appendages. The mask has a wide, grinning mouth with visible teeth. Among the Yup’ik of the Arctic region, masks were made for ceremonial purposes, and their subjects were humans, animals, and spirits. Each mask is unique because its details are given to the carver in a dream. The masks are used for healing ceremonies or community-based dance celebrations such as the Bladder Ceremony. This mask could have elements from both a human and a bear, which may show the transformation from one being into the other. The Yup’ik, like many Native American cultures, consider bears to be part human. The ears are proportionally large because the Yup’ik believe that bears have an acute sense of hearing. In fact, t