False Face SocietyNorth American Indian culture

Assorted References

• Native American dance ( in Native American dance: Socially determined roles in dance )

  ...comprising various public or secret societies whose members are bound together for life, often joining the society during illness or other catastrophe. These societies perform such dances as the False Face curative rites, the female mortuary dances known as ohgiwe, and the dances of the sexually integrated Bear and Buffalo medicine societies....

• North American Indian art ( in Native American art: The function of art )

  ...centres on the product rather than the process; Indian artists, however, give exacting attention to the creative process and interact with their materials at all stages of creation. The Iroquois False Face mask, for example, must be carved from the trunk of a living tree—hence the term live mask. The tree is ritually addressed before the carver begins, and the mask and the...

• Northeast Indians ( in Northeast Indian: Religion )

  ...was the Midewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society, whose elaborate annual or semiannual meetings included the performance of various magical feats. Of the various Iroquois medicine societies, the False Face Society is perhaps best known. The wooden masks worn by members of this society during their rituals were carved from living trees; the masks were believed to be powerful living entities...

• therapeutic masks ( in mask: Therapeutic uses )

  ...to prevent and to cure disease. In some cultures, the masked members of secret societies could drive disease demons from entire villages and tribes. Among the best known of these groups was the False Face Society of the North American Iroquois Indians. These professional healers performed violent pantomimes to exorcise the dreaded gahadogoka gogosa (demons who plagued the Iroquois)....