AN: Re: Face paint??

Nick Corduan (nickc@DORITE.IQUEST.NET)
Mon, 24 Apr 1995 18:37:42 -0500

Bruce,

It is a good question you raise as to whether or not it is actually
face-paint. A few comments:

They have found Moche remains which indicated the presence of
face-paint at the time of burial. This shows that they did at least have
*some* face-painting, though it says nothing really about the patterns seen
in the art.

Another point is that I am careful to draw distinctions between what I would
consider likely to be paint and what I consider likely to be tatooing or
scarification. It's a risky business, but in general, I am considering it
paint, if say, half the face is covered.

Lastly, for the purposes of my study it really does not matter whif it is
face=paint, tatooing, scarification, masking, or artistic lisence. I am
basically just attempting to determine the patterns -- which there seem to
be. For instance, the "balanced" pattern is the most often repeated, the
"gandero" pattern is reserved primarily for supernaturally inclined
inidividuals, etc... I am attempting to catalogue these things enough to
determine any relevance to Moche sociology.

Nick---

--
Nick Corduan "...there is as much dignity in tilling
at a field as in writing a poem."
(nickc@use.com) --Booker T. Washington