ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how a masked performance is subjected to a variety of regimes of value that impose contradictory conditions on its performance, and explore show the recontextualisation of ritual as 'heritage' affects its performance. One of the aims of the UNESCO policy is to identify, classify, and authorise 'intangible heritage' and make a contribution toward its conservation. Nothing is said about the aspects of masquerading that are incompatible with the modern state. Inverting argument about the loss of aura in the age of mechanical reproduction, it shows that recontextualisation through new regimes of value opens up possibilities for re-enchanted performance. The attempts at regulation of the Kankurang performance are to be understood as attempts at conservation of the masked performance. The UNESCO application for Masterpiece status for the Kankurang and Manding initiatory rite clearly negotiates between conservation and commodification, sacralisation and visualisation.
