Traditional and Conservation Interpretations of Pre- and Post-Collection Working Methods for Alaskan Yup’ik Masks

Seven Central Yup’ik masks from Alaska owned by the Anima Mundi Museum, ethnological museum at Vatican, were examined in museum’s Conservation Laboratory over five months 2022 Ellen Pearlstein, consultation with Chuna McIntyre, a artist and culture bearer. Technical details documented these together cultural meanings explored jointly two authors. The authors history of Catholic missionary acquisition technologies available to carvers 1920s, ways which departed traditional time their manufacture altered since then within setting. Such modifications likely designed permit take on different functions than sacred or social performance, such that authenticity might be questioned. In working as co-authors, criteria for defined whether material manifestations evoked intangible understood significant achieve this goal, do contemporary introduce additional new materials techniques. It is impossible non-Yup’ik decide evoke performativity, therefore conservators other backgrounds are advised collaborate community members assessment culturally distant materials.