LUCY CHEUNG

Costume of Fingo girl (Africa)

Tembu witch doctors costume (Africa)

Peabody museum

Waiwai man wearing traditional dance costume.

Dance costume with mask from Liberia, Africa

Peabody museum

Pomo bear disguise (N. America)

Blackfoot dance bustle (N. America)

Tupi costume (Bolivia)

Yuki dance outfit (N. America)

Miwok dance costume (N. America)

Peabody museum

All from Harquus: North African Women’s Traditional Body Art Volume 2: Paint (pdf) by Catherine Cartwright-Jones.

“A person with thick, black eyebrows can see better in very bright light, and will be less likely to squint. Eyebrow paint may have had the same function as sunglasses, while accenting expressive eyebrow movement.”

I think I prefer the explanation from Catherine’s Introduction to Harquus Part 2: Kohl and Surma (pdf):

“Some women believed that blackening their eyelids and eyebrows would protect them from the glance of the Evil Eye, and also prevent them from transmitting the Evil Eye to another person.”

Postcard from a Tibetan art exhibition in Tokyo from Leo / Megaforce.

“There is no other way but to shake sin off one’s shoulders.  During the three days Qorbân holiday, all people regardless of their age or sex, ride on swings towards the heavens to purify themselves of sin.  Doydokh village, Jargalân.”