^"^nJ.^i'^^^^' IROQUOIS MASKS AT ONONDAGA — ^HENDRY 401 



nor made their selections because of them. However, whether they 

 chose plate 100, a, or plate 100, b, the carvers seemed to be more con- 

 cerned with technical characteristics ("lots of work," "used good 

 tools"), whereas the noncarvers tended to emphasize the referential 

 characteristics, the ideas and emotions associated with the masks. 

 The women in particular described the masks as gruesome, awful, 

 horrible; usually with the implication that this was the effect which 

 ought to be produced. "The more hideous, the better." Yet some 

 noncarvers seemed to make their judgments on the basis of technique, 

 while many carvers mentioned antiquity, fierceness, etc. 



The foreign pictures which I used included eight Northwest Coast 

 masks that represented a wide range of types, four Chinese masks, 

 two Hopi, and one Eskimo. Although I did not ask my informants to 

 compare these pictures with those of Iroquois carvings, many did so. 

 "There's a lot of difference." "You notice the difference between 

 east and west." Frequently comparisons were evaluative. "Ours 

 are more interestingly carved"; "There's nothing to these"; "They're 

 so plain." One person, referring to the Northwest Coast masks, re- 

 marked, "All these look alike. Ours have more variety." Clearly, 

 judgments about the variability within a given style depend upon the 

 perspective of the observer. To an individual within the culture, 

 differences loom large; to an outsider they are minimal. Another 

 informant, with unusual insight, recognized one of the principal 

 reasons why the familiar forms exert a greater appeal than the un- 

 familiar. "I like ours better even if they are hideous. I guess it's 

 because I'm used to seeing them." 



Some people rejected the foreign masks completely. "I don't 

 like any of them"; "They don't look like masks." Others found 

 them interesting, comical, or odd, and a few were frankly bewildered. 

 "I suppose they mean something to the people who use them, but 

 they're way beyond us." On the whole the carvers were more recep- 

 tive than the other Onondagas, inquiring about the materials and the 

 tools, and commenting favorably on the technique. "Nice carving"; 

 "They do pretty good." One man was quite taken with the Eskimo 

 mask, saying that although he considered it unfinished, he would try 

 to keep it in his mind and make one like it. 



There was little agreement as to which were the best of the foreign 

 carvings. Seven different pictures were selected and no one of them 

 was preferred by more than four people, in contrast to the agreement 

 about the Iroquois pictures. The Onondaga react in a similar manner 

 to their own carvings because the culture has prescribed the standards 

 for an Iroquois mask. They have not, however, learned any positive 

 responses to foreign arts so that, in a sense, each person is left free 

 to choose as he pleases. Although, as might be expected, there was 



