Makeup

> 2) What \startstandardmakeup do then? And what is the purpose of > defining custom makeups?

From the source (and I am positive this is also mentioned in the big manual):

A makeup is a separate page, like a title page or colofon. There is one standard makeup page, but you can define more if needed.

As can be seen in

http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Reference/en/setupmakeup                        
                                                                               

it is a page type with a special layout / header & footer sections that last only temporarily. The key point is that such a page does not (have to) rely on the current page layout style, which is especially useful for title pages.

-- Taco, in http://www.ntg.nl/pipermail/ntg-context/2010/049662.html