Well fundamentally a mask is used to hide something, yes?
Hide or BE something you aren't
In ritualism, I think that is the most important thing, you "take on" elements outside you, that are in the mask, like fierceness or intimidation - or in this mask's case - sadness?
In the comic I'm working on, masks are gonna be used ritually, as a "throw back" to these ancient civilizations and their rituals
There will be a lot of focus on "everything was better in the old days", where "the old days" is seriously old, like, stone-age, as well as opposing sentiments of course - nothing was "better" in the past, especially since the past inevitably becomes the present.
Like Anton Chigurh says - "if the rule you followed brought you to this, what good was the rule?"
I know he meant it in some insane psychotic way, but I like it, as it shows that dreaming of "the past" is futile, because the conditions of that past brought us right to this very present :V