IROQUOIS — FENTON 401 



the so-called False-faces only serves to emphasize the need of an ade- 

 quate monograph. Such a study would require a description and 

 classification of masks in terms of the mytlis in which they figure 

 and in terms of the rituals in which they participate. It would be 

 interesting to know whether this classification agrees with a typo- 

 logical classification based on the masks themselves. It is important 

 to know how individuals join the Society of Faces. How is the So- 

 ciety organized internally, and how is it related to other Iroquois 

 medicine societies? This requires a detailed account of the rituals 

 and a study of its ceremonial equipment and procedure. Finally an 

 estimate is needed of the importance of masked shamanism in Iro- 

 quois life, and of its position in the etlinographic pei-spective of the 

 Northeast. 



Some years ago while engaged in field work among the Seneca I 

 approached these problems in a general paper.^^ Its publication 

 elicited rather unexpected responses representing a wide range of 

 reading interests outside of ethnology, and it soon went out of print. 

 Masks evidently hold an especial fascination for dramatists, sculptors, 

 and decorators, and a great variety of hobbyists ; while shamanism has 

 implications for medicine and all those professions that hem in the 

 periphery of the human psyche.^* 



Purpose. — The present paper attempts several things. First, it 

 revises the original statement in an effort to clarify the unsolved 

 problems that hung over from the first paper. Second, it includes 

 new information from further field work among other Iroquoian 

 groups and from the study of museum collections that were not 

 available to me in 1935. Finally, it republishes the original mate- 

 rials together with the results of recent studies and makes them 

 available to a wider public. 



Problems. — The problems that confront us in the present study 

 are essentially those of the relationship of mental stereotypes and 

 overt behavior. First, what are the formal types of masks and how 

 do the Iroquois classify them? To what extent do the mask types 

 reflect cultural stereotypes given in mythology; and, conversely, to 

 what extent are the formal character of spirits in the myths, and the 

 shapes they assume in dreams and visions, projections into the spirit- 



« Fenton, Wm. N., The Seneca Society of Faces. Sci. Monthly, vol. 44, pp. 215-238, 

 March 1937. 



" A number of general papers on masks and shamanistic societies have appeared. The 

 relation of "Masks and moieties as a culture complex" has been considered by A. L. Kroeber 

 and C. Holt (Journ. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. Great Britain and Ireland, n. s., vol. 50, pp. 

 452-460, 1920). Clark Wissler has made good use of the Iroquois material in a general 

 paper on masks (The lore of the Demon Mask. Nat. Hist., vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 339-352, 

 1928), aud Kenneth Macgowan and Herman Rosse (Masks and demons. Ilarcourt, Brace 

 & Co., 1923) have discussed the relations of masks to the theater, reflecting the rather 

 wide interest in the subject outside of anthropology. 



