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The use of masks and disguises is known and common in Nature, and its purposes are many and diverse. The zebra's stripes, the lion's magnificent mane, the "eyes" on the wings of a butterfly or the rings on a non-poisonous snake—all are used to change, mask or enhance their wearer's appearance in order to deceive or impress predators, prey or rivals. This ruse is also used by plants, which sometimes look like insects to attract the male to "couple" with them and thus fertilize their flowers, sometimes emit the smell of rotting flesh in order to attract other insects and then devour them, and so on.
Human purposes in using masks are more subtle, because they do not depend on genetic makeup but on a purposeful, thought out, deceiving; their uses are many times psychological, their purposes are not only to hide but also to reveal a person's true nature. Such a revealing of hidden feelings can be seen, for instance (as hiding is its own explanation), in a carnival's dressing up as a princesses or a supermen, particular by children. (see The Art of the African Mask)
Usually, the mask covers the face as this is the part of the human body which presents most prominently a person's entity; it can hide the whole face or only part of it, as does, for instance, a Muslim woman's veil (Turkish "yashmak"); the purpose of this veil is to keep the woman from enticing men who are not her legal husband. The mask is able to change a person's age and gender, his or her social standing and his or her daily appearance, to present its figure as more, or less, prettier than usual. This is the power of the mask—to change and replace the appearance that usually expresses a certain personality. Dream-solvers see dreams about wearing masks as a general expression of hiding from reality.
While the mask covers the face, dressing up covers part of or the whole body, but their goal of disguise is the same; such body covers include, for instance, uniform of every kind, which changes the person from an individual into a part of a greater body of humans.
Some disguising is done not with a device separate from the person using it, but by painting the face or the whole body (see Bodypainting). The most prominent usage of face painting is that done by cosmetics, usually to beautify the person wearing them; however, both face and body beautifying is done today not only by painting but also by plastic surgery. One type of face and body painting is the tattoo; in the site by that name Frank Allen presents various kinds of ritualistic tattoos practiced in New Zealand by the Maoris. But the use of tattoo has become very popular all over the world in our day, and like dressing up, it may express its wearer's inner feelings, ideas or ambitions.
