Masked ritual and performance in South India

the long version

"Throughout South India, masks are related to the presence of divine beings and, as such, induce transformation in the awareness of both performers and audience. Masked performance may also be powerfully linked to rituals of healing, which aim at freeing the self from states of blockage, isolation, and possession. Taken together, the essays offer an initial grammar of South Indian masking as the culture-specific formation of visible surfaces in which primary issues of identity, self-knowledge, and perception are brought into play. Masking thus implies meta-psychological perspectives on the notions of self, face, and maturation and on the internal economy of the mind in cultures far removed from standard Western psychological paradigms."--BOOK JACKET.