Mask is a form of disguise. I is an object that is frequently worn over or in front of the face to hide the identity of a person and by its own features to establish another being. This essential characteristic of hiding and revealing personalities or moods is common to all masks. As cultural objects they have been used throughout the world in all periods since the Stone Age and have been as varied in appearance as in their use and symbolism.
A mask is anything used to hide, protect, or cover part or all of the face. Masks are worn as a part of a costume or a disguise. Some masks are worn to protect such as a catcher's mask in baseball or a gas mask. Most masks worn to disguise are in the form of an animal or another person. Protective masks serve a specific purpose. For example: a welder wears a steel mask with special glass to shield their eyes from the intense light produced by welding rod. Disguise masks include ceremonial masks, theatrical masks, burial and death masks, and festival masks.
Since at least Paleolithic times people have used masks. Made of wood, basketry, bark, corn husks, cloth, leather, skulls, papier-mache, and other materials, masks may cover the face, the entire head, or the head and shoulders, and they are sometimes considered part of an accompanying costume. Masks vary widely in their realism or abstraction, their use of symbols, and their ornaments. The kachina masks of the Pueblo peoples, for example, have only minimal facial features, whereas masks of the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest are often elaborately carved and painted, may have movable jaws or other parts, and may even open to reveal a second mask beneath the first. Occasionally, a mask is not intended to be worn on the face, for example the enormous ritual masks of Oceania and the tiny fingertip masks of Inuit women.
The making of masks is a primary artistic outlet in many cultures, and masks from Africa, Oceania, and the Native American cultures of North America are highly prized by art collectors.