The Anthropology of the Face Mask: Rethinking the History of Face Covering Controversies, Bans and COVID-19 Context

Masks and their multiple forms have figured, and continued to figure at the heart of anthropological and semiotic studies which offer a context to fathom and decipher the meaning, symbolism and the social functions of masks. Specifically, the face coverings and their manifestations in public spheres have always been on the forefront of most of the debates particularly in the Western context. Now, and due the COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes almost mandatory in most of the European countries and other parts of the world to use the face mask as a precautionary measure notably in the public spaces. The laws that forbade the face coverings in public places in the name of the secular values and security reasons can no longer hold in the face of the dire current circumstance caused by COVID-19. The aim of this paper —which intends to present an anthropological and theoretical analysis—is to show that throughout human history the face covering has been used, misused or even abused depending on the context and how it is
perceived in a particular geography, time and space.