Yupʼik masks

Yup'ik masks (Yup'ik kegginaquq sg kegginaquk dual kegginaqut pl and nepcetaq sg nepcetat pl; in the Lower Yukon dialects avangcaq sg avangcak dual avangcat pl ; in Nunivak Cup'ig dialect agayu) are expressive shamanic ritual masks made by the Yup'ik people of southwestern Alaska.

Also known as Cup'ik masks for the Chevak Cup'ik dialect speaking people of Chevak and Cup'ig masks for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect speaking people of Nunivak Island.

After Christian contact in the late nineteenth century, masked dancing was suppressed, and today it is not practiced as it was before in the Yup'ik villages.

[1][2][3] While the Iñupiaq and Yup'ik are culturally and ethnically related, separated only by language differences and, often, hundreds of miles of territory, they have developed distinct versions of similar traditional mask forms.

In the case of the Iñupiaq, masks are typically less elaborate than those made by their Yup'ik neighbors to the south-east, and usually smaller, covering only the face.

A Yup'ik/Cup'ik dance mask ( kegginaquq ) with the head of walrus yua . Toggle harpoon points are appended to the lower face, over which two walrus figures arch, topped by hunters in kayaks . Mask collected from old village of Qissunaq (or Kushunak, the location is near the modern village of Chevak, Alaska ) in 1905 by Tununak trader I. A. Lee. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology , Harvard University .
Yup'ik shaman exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy, Nushagak, Alaska, 1890s.