Joanne B. Eicher

Hmong American New Year Rituals : Generational Bonds through Dress

Within performed ritual, Hmong Americans use dress as a medium to express a vision of cultural life responsive to both their cultural past and their new American context. This article is a part of a larger research project focused on the role of dress in the formulation of Hmong American cultural life. This paper focuses on how dress is used within two different New Year performances to make sense of the position of the Hmong in America. Public and private Hmong American New Year rituals are arenas wherein dress is used to express the struggle for reconciliation between the older and younger generations, the old and new ways, and Hmong and American cultures. Separate and differently focused New Year celebrations formally acknowledge the valued roles of Hmong elders as links to the Hmong past and Hmong youth as links to an American future. Both celebrations incorporate a recognition of the core problem of reconciling Hmong and American cultures. Both use dress to give voice to the young and the old as they struggle for cultural definition in the United States.

Analysis of Historic and Contemporary Dress: An African Example1

A method for analyzing dress was modeled after methods for analyzing languages. The primary data were 607 photographs of members of an extended family of Yoruba people in Nigeria. The photographs, taken between 1900 and 1974, were divided into three groups cor responding to political periods within the time span. Steps in analyzing the data were: (1) list all items worn; (2) calculate frequency of appearance of each item; (3) identify associations made with items worn most frequently, i.e., male/female, Western/indigenous; (4) within the three time periods, determine modes related to associations found in step 3; (5) identify items which appear as alternates or additions to modal items; (6) develop rules of dress relating social roles and statuses of individuals to use of particular forms of dress. Although the method was applied to studying dress of a non- Western population, the techniques have potential for com parative studies of the dress of any culture.

Unexpected Luxury: Wild Silk Textile Production among the Yoruba of Nigeria

Abstract Mulberry silk produced in China is the type most recognized and used in silk garments. There are at least seven additional silk fiber sources. The Yoruba are a large ethnic group in Nigeria who use native silk that they call sányán from the Anaphe moth as one of their most prized fiber resources. Throughout colonial and post-colonial history, both Nigerians and others investigated methods for domesticating wild silk production. Yoruba strip cloth, called aso-òkè includes three main categories: sányán, etù and alãrì, each appropriate for persons of high social standing and for important occasions, displaying cultural significance. Cotton becomes used as a substitute for expensive silk yarns, being dyed the traditional color of the silk fabrics. To the Yoruba aesthetic, the purpose of something is more important than its actual form. Even as weavers now produce the traditionally sányán cloths with substitute fibers, the cloths glory remains.

Transmission and Reconstruction of Gender through Dress: Hmong American New Year Rituals

This is the second of two articles focused on the role of dress in the formulation of Hmong American cultural life. The first article focused on the performance of two versions of Hmong American New Year and how dress is used by Hmong Americans to make sense of their position between the cultural world of the past and contemporary American culture. This paper centers on the transmission and reconstruction of female gender roles in the American context as expressed through womens headdress worn to the Hmong American New Year celebration. Both uses of dress arose out of attempts to reconcile the cultural life of the past with their lives in the United States; both are expressed visually through the dressed and evaluated body within the context of the Hmong New Year celebration.

The cultural significance of dress and textiles

Renne, Elisha P. Cloth that Does not Die: The Meaning of Cloth in Bunu Social Life. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995. xxi + 269 pp. including appendix, notes, glossary, bibliography, and index.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Model and the Use of Imported Madras Cloth Among the Kalabari

40.00 cloth. Hendrickson, Carol. Weaving Identities: Construction of Dress and Self in a Highland Guatemala Town. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993. xiv + 295 pp. including notes, bibliography, and index.

Book review: Fashion's world cities. By Christopher Breward and David Gilbert. Oxford: Berg Publishers. 2006. xv + 285 pp. £60.00 hardback. ISBN-13 9781845204129. £19.99 paper. ISBN-13 9781843204136

35.00 cloth,

Dressing and preening the body

15.95 paper. Schevill, Margot Blum. Maya Textiles of Guatemala. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992. xiii + 295 pp. including notes, bibliography, and indices.

Dress and Identity

65.00 cloth,

Dress and Ethnicity

29.95 paper.