Anthropologists have examined how diverse human populations modify and dress their bodies since the earliest days of the discipline. The Anthropology of Dress and Fashion: A Reader is the first authoritative anthology of the seminal writings of anthropologists studying clothing and fashion. From classic ethnographies of dress to cutting-edge contemporary research tracing the global circulation of clothing today, this comprehensive volume maps out this vibrant field of study’s shifting preoccupations, theoretical innovations, and traditional and experimental methodologies.
Comprised of over 40 curated extracts from the work of leading international scholars from Jonathan Friedman to Katherine Frank, the reader is divided into themed sections, each with an introduction and guide to further reading.
With each extract introduced and contextualised, the reader will be an essential resource for students and scholars of fashion studies, social and cultural anthropology, material culture, sociology and related fields.
"Acknowledgments Introduction Brent Luvaas and Joanne B. Eicher Part 1: Classic Works in the Anthropology of Dress and Fashion Preface 1. The Principle of Order in Civilization as Exemplified by Changes in Fashion A.L. Kroeber 2. Customs and Beliefs: Ceremonial Alfred R. Radcliffe-Brown 3. Dress Ruth Benedict 4. Fashion Edward Sapir 5. Dress: Its Origins, Forms, and Psychology, with Special Emphasis on the Sexual Psychology A.E. Crawley Part 2: Theorizing Dress and Fashion Preface 1. Fashion -v- Anti-Fashion Ted Polhemus 2. The Social Skin Terence S. Turner 3. Clothing as Language: An Object Lesson in the Study of the Expressive Properties of Material Culture Grant McCracken 4. Definition and Classification of Dress: Implications for Analysis of Gender Roles Joanne B. Eicher & Mary Ellen Roach-Higgins 5. The Antisocial Skin: Structure, Resistance, and ""Modern Primitive"" Adornment in theUnited States Daniel Rosenblatt 6. Style and Ontology Daniel Miller Part 3: Material Culture Preface 1. The Other Half: The Material Culture of New Fibres Kaori O’Connor 2. Cloth and Clothing Jane Schneider 3. Jeanealogies: Materiality and the (Im)permanence of Relationships and Intimacy Sophie Woodward 4. Wild Silk Textiles of the Dogon of Mali: The Production, Material Efficacy, and Cultural Significance of Sheen Laurence Douny 5. Clothing sociality: Materiality and the everyday among the Kuna of Panama Margherita Margiotti Part 4: Dressing the Body in Culture Preface 1. Kalabari Cut-Thread and Pulled-Thread Cloth Tonye Victor Erekosima and Joanne B. Eicher 2. Cloth that Does Not Die: The Meaning of Cloth in Bùnú Social Life Elisha Renne 3. The Political Economy of Elegance: An African Cult of Beauty Jonathan Friedman 4. The Predicament of Dress: Polyvalency and the Ironies of Cultural Identity Deborah Durham 5. Body Talk: Revelations of Self and Body in Contemporary Strip Clubs Katherine Frank Part 5: Dressing the Colony, Fashioning the Nation Preface 1. Dressing for Dinner in the Bush: Rituals of Self-Definition and British Imperial Authority Helen Callaway 2. Fashioning the Colonial Subject Jean Comaroff and John Comaroff 3. The Ao Dai Goes Global: How International Influences and Female Entrepreneurs Have Shaped Vietnam's ""National Costume"" Ann Marie Leshkowich 4. Dress for Sukses:Fashioning Femininity and Nationality in Urban Indonesia Carla Jones 5. “Doing” Danish Fashion: On National Identity and Design Practices of a Small Danish Fashion Company Marie Riegels Melchior Part 6: Clothing, Class, and Competing Cosmopolitanisms Preface 1. Fashion, Anti-Fashion, and Heteroglossia in Urban Senegal Deborah Heath 2. Dressed to ""Shine"": Work, Leisure and Style in Malinda, Kenya Johanna Schoss 3. Fashionable Muslims: Notions of Self, Religion, and Society in San'a Annelies Moors 4. Landscapes of Attraction and Rejection: South Asian Aesthetics in Islamic Fashions inLondon Emma Tarlo 5. Forging Connections, Performing Distinctions: Youth, Dress and Consumption in Niger Adeline Masquelier 6. Fashionably Modest of Modestly Unfashionable? Eric Silverman Part 7: Making Global Fashion Preface 1. The Globalization of Asian Dress: Re-Orienting Fashion or Re-Orientalizing Asia? Carla Jones and Anne Marie Leshkowich 2. Haute Couture in Tehran: Two Faces of an Emerging Fashion Scene Alexandru Balasescu 3. Recasting Fashion Image Production: An Ethnographic and Practice-Based Approach to Investigating Bodies in Media Stephanie Sadre-Orafai 4. Ethnographic Entanglements: Memory and Narrative in the Global Fashion Industry Christina H. Moon 5. Making Clothes for International Markets: A Clothing Perspective on Globalization Jianhua Zhao 6. In Patagonia (Clothing): A Complicated Greenness Sharon J. Hepburn Part 8: The Afterlives of Dress and Fashion Preface 1. Other People's Clothes? The International Second-hand Clothing Trade and Dress Practices in Zambia Karen Tranberg Hansen 2. Making New Vintage Jeans in Japan: Relocating Authenticity Philomena Keet 3. Fake Brands Magdalena Craciun 4. On Cutting and Pasting: The Art and Politics of DIY Streetwear Brent Luvaas Bibliography Index"
Brent Luvaas is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Drexel University, USA. He is the author of DIY Style (Berg, 2012) and the blogger behind www.urbanfieldnotes.com, a street style blog documenting fashion on the streets of Philadelphia. Joanne B. Eicher is Regents Professor Emerita at the University of Minnesota. Joanne is Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopedia of Dress and Fashion (Bloomsbury and OUP); Series Editor, Dress, Body, Culture (Bloomsbury) and Dress and Fashion Research (Bloomsbury); Editor, Global Trade and Cultural Authentication: The Kalabari of the Niger Delta; and Co-Author, The Visible Self, (Fairchild); Dress and Gender (Berg); Dress and Ethnicity (Berg); Beads and Beadmakers (Berg); Mother, Daughter, Sister, Bride (National Geographic); and a wide variety of published articles in professional journals and chapters in books.
Reviews for The Anthropology of Dress and Fashion: A Reader
A major and seminal contribution to highlighting the research of fashion and dress anthropology that is not regarded as a formal subject of its own. * The Journal of Dress History * The contributions are diverse and interesting, while the sections are comprehensive and relevant ... The reader makes an excellent resource for both those teaching and those learning about anthropology's contribution to the study of dress and fashion. * Dress: Journal of the Costume Society of America *
