Dress and Gender Making and Meaning

308 Pages·33.987 MB·English

by  Ruth Barnes, Joanne B Eicher

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Dress and Gender
Dress is one of the most significant markers of gender identity, yet
it has rarely been explored in depth. This volume opens up fascinating
aspects ofthe relationship between genderand dress by covering agreat
variety of ethnographic areas reaching from Asia, Europe, and Africa
to North and South America. The time span is equally wide-ranging
and offers present-day material as well as studies based on historical
data.
Ruth Barnes is an art historian who has done field research on textiles of
Lembata, in Eastern Indonesia. The results are published in her book The Ikat
Textiles ofLamalera: A Study ofan Eastern Indonesian Weaving Tradition,
and in several articles. She also has worked with ethnographic collections at
the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. Currently she is preparing a catalogue ofthe
NewberrycollectionofIndian block-printedtextilesattheAshmolean Museum,
Oxford University.
Joanne B. Eicher is a professor in the Department of Design, Housing, and
Apparel at the University of Minnesota. Her current fieldwork focuses on the
significanceofdressandtextilesamongtheKalahariofNigeria.Shehasauthored
Nigerian HandcraftedTextiles andAfrican Dress: A SelectandAnnotatedBib-
liography, and coauthored Dress, Adornment, and the Social Order and The
Visible Self: Perspectives on Dress.
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Women
GeneralEditors: ShirleyArdenerandJackieWaldren,
forTheCentreforCross-CulturalResearchonWomen, UniversityofOxford
Vol. 1: PersonsandPowersofWomen inDiverseCultures
Editedby ShirleyArdener
Vol. 2: DressandGender:MakingandMeaning
EditedbyRuthBarnes andJoanneB. Eicher
Vol.3: TheAnthropologyofBreast-Feeding:NaturalLaworSocialConstruct
Editedby VanessaMaher
Vol.4: DefiningFemales
Editedby ShirleyArdener
Vol.5: WomenandSpace
EditedbyShirleyArdener
Vol. 6: ServantsandGentlewomen totheGoldenLand: TheEmigration of
Single WomentoSouthAfrica, 1820-1939
Cecillie Swaisland
Vol. 7: MigrantWomen
EditedbyGinaBuijs
Vol8: Gender:SymbolsandSocialPractices
EditedbyVigdisBroch-Due, IngridRudie andToneBleie
Vol. 9: BilingualWomen:AnthropologicalApproachestoSecondLanguage
Use
EditedbyPaulineBurton, Ketaki Dysonand ShirleyArdener
Vol. 10:Gender,DrinkandDrugs
Editedby MaryonMacDonald
Vol. 11: WomenandMissions,PastandPresent
EditedbyFionaBowie, DeborahKirkwoodandShirleyArdener
Vol. 12: Women inMuslimCommunities:ReligiousBeliefandSocialRealities
Editedby CamilliaFawziEl-SolhandJudy Mabro
Vol. 13: WomenandProperty, WomenasProperty
EditedbyReneeHirschon
CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON WOMEN VOL. 2
I
Dress and Gender
Making and Meaning in Cultural Contexts
Edited by
Ruth Barnes and Joanne B. Eicher
BERG
Providence Oxford
I
Publishedin 1992,paperbackedition, 1993 by
Berg Pubishers, Inc.
Editorialoffices:
221 Waterman Street, Providence,RI02906, U.S.A.
150CowleyRoad, Oxford0X4 1JJ,UK
© Ruth Barnes and Joanne B. Eicher, 1992
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced
in any form or by any means without the permission
of Berg Publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Dress and gender: Making and meaning in cultural contexts. - (Cross-cultural
perspective on women)
I. Barnes, Ruth II. Eicher, Joanne B. III. Series 391.009
ISBN 854967206(cloth) 85496 8652 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dress and gender : Making and meaning in cultural contexts / edited by
Ruth Barnes and Joanne B. Eicher.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-85496-720-6
— — —
1. Costum—e Sex differences Cross-cultural studies. 2. Costume Social
aspects Cross-cultural studies. I. Barnes, Ruth, 1947-. II. Eicher,Joanne
Bubolz.
GT525.D74 1991 91-15885
391—dc20 CIP
PrintedintheUnitedStatesby E. B. Edwards Brothers,Lillington,NC.
Contents
Preface
Ruth Barnes and Joanne B. Eicher vii
Introduction
Ruth Barnes and Joanne B. Eicher 1
1. Definition and Classification of Dress:
Implications for Analysis of Gender Roles
Joanne B. Eicher and Mary Ellen Roach-Higgins 8
2. Women as Headhunters: The Making and Meaning
of Textiles in a Southeast Asian Context
Ruth Barnes 29
3. Cut and Sewn: The Textiles of Social Organization
in Thailand
H. Leedom Lefferts, Jr. 44
4. Purse-Proud: Of Betel and Areca Nut Bags in Laboya
(West Sumba, Eastern Indonesia)
Danielle Geirnaert 56
5. Gender Boundaries in the Production of
Guatemalan Textiles
Cherri M. Pancake 76
6. The Jewish Kippa Sruga and the Social Construction
of Gender in Israel
Suzanne Baizerman 92
7. Quilted Apparel and Gender Identity:
An American Case Study
Catherine Cerny 106
8. Lacemaking in Venetian Culture
Lidia Sciama 121
Contents
VI
9. Pachamama: The Inka Earth Mother of the
Long Sweeping Garment
Penny Dransart 145
10. Kalahari Dress in Nigeria: Visual Analysis
and Gender Implications
Susan O. Michelman and Tonye V. Erekosima 164
11. Whose Sleeves . . .? Gender, Class, and Meaning
in Japanese Dress of the Seventeenth Century
Louise Allison Cort 183
12. The Significance of Dress for the Orthodox
Hindu Woman
Julia Leslie 198
13. Continuity and Change in Hindu Women's Dress
O. P. Joshi 214
14. Dressing for Dinner in the Bush: Rituals of
Self-Definition and British Imperial Authority
Helen Callaway 232
15. Clothes Encounters of the Gynecological Kind:
Medical Mandates and Maternity Modes
in the USA, 1850-1990
Rebecca Bailey 248
16. Dress and Modes of Address: Structural Forms
for Policewomen
Malcolm Young 266
Notes on Contributors 286
Index 289
Preface
Ruth Barnes and Joanne B. Richer
The seed for this volume was planted in the spring and
summer of 1988, when Joanne Eicher was on sabbatical leave at the
Centre for Cross-Cultural Research on Women (CCCRW), Queen
Elizabeth House, Oxford. We each had worked with research topics
of dress and cloth, and while aware of the importance of both in a
social and historical context, we shared a concern about problems of
definition arising out ofthe existing literature on the topic. When Shir-
ley Ardener asked us to convene a workshop on dress, we decided to
take an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach in relating dress
to gender. We solicited contributions from anthropologists, art histo-
rians, and scholars trained in textiles and clothing. Our original intent
was to develop a dialogue of colleagues from the United Kingdom,
continental Europe, and North America, but this was extended to in-
clude participants from Australia and Asia as well; the fieldwork used
as a base for analyzing the topic included Asia, Africa, Europe, the
Middle East, as well as North and South America.
The workshop titled "Dress and Gender: Making and Meaning" was
held in April 1989 in Oxford, under the auspices of the CCCRW. Pre-
senters whose papers were available for inclusion in this volume are:
Rebecca Bailey, Suzanne Baizerman, Ruth Barnes, Helen Callaway,
Catherine Cerny, Louise Cort, Penny Dransart, Joanne Eicher and Mary
Ellen Roach-Higgins (joint paper), Danielle Geirnaert, Leedom Lef-
ferts, Julia Leslie, Susan Michelman, Cherri Pancake, Lidia Sciama,
and Malcolm Young. Although O. P. Joshi from India could not at-
tend, his paper was read. Tonye V. Erekosima, who also was not able
to attend, has coauthored a paper with Michelman for this book. Pre-
senters whose papers were not available for publication were Cathe-
rine Daly, Jenny Littlewood, and Julie Marcus. As invited discussants,
Shirley Ardner, Joy Hendry, and Howard Morphy added constructive
comments.
vn
Vlll Preface
Theessayspublishedinthisvolumeareallbasedonmaterialpresented
during the workshop. The intellectual stimulation and vitality of
We
discussion presented impetus for revisions of the manuscripts. are
most grateful to all participants for the effort and concentrated atten-
tion they gave to their contributions as well as the timely manner in
which they met publication deadlines.
We want to acknowledge help from many sources for the completion
of this book. Funding for travel for Joanne Eicher came from the Of-
fice of International Education and the College of Human Ecology,
International Programs, University of Minnesota. Substantial financial
helpforwordprocessingcame from the DepartmentofDesign, Housing
and Apparel, University ofMinnesota. By name, we wish to thank Bon-
nie Maas Morrison, Buckman Professor and Head of Design, Housing
and Apparel; Charleen Klarquist, word processing specialist, without
whose help this volume could not have been finished; as well as Mary
Heltsley, Dean; and Shirley Baugher, Associate Dean, College of Hu-
man Ecology. Unnamed are those who supplied travel funds for our
participants to attend the workshop and those who helped in the tedious
processing ofmanuscripts to be sent for editing. Whether support came
from the participants themselves or others, we appreciate that the
workshop took place. We would also like to thank Annette Weiner and
Jane Schneider for convening the Wenner-Gren conference on Cloth
and the Organization of Human Experience in 1983 at Troutbeck, in
Amenia, New York, that brought us together for the first time.
Ruth Barnes Joanne B. Eicher
Department of Eastern Art Department of Design,
Ashmolean Museum Housing, and Apparel
Oxford University of Minnesota
St. Paul