Choice Review

A useful, clearly written review of ethnological materials on ritual masks. Of a psychoanalytic bent, Prenet examines the connections between the use of masks and ambivalent attitudes and emotions toward the dead, in several cultures. There are less satisfactory chapters on the relationship of the mask to the wearer/performer in terms of some theory of the self, and on gender issues in relation to the use of ritual masks. The author is both rigorous and cautious in deflating universalizing claims about ritual masks in past work, especially in the history of religion. Yet, he is also quite limited in the questions that he does ask and unambitious in the arguments he wants to make. Regrettably, this volume does not complement the very well regarded work of A. David Napier, Masks, Transformation, and Paradox (1986). In sum, it is most useful as a corrective to a number of interpretive ideas in the older literature and as a comparative reminder of how rich and potentially interesting this special topic could be. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. G. E. Marcus; Rice University