Dress and Ethnicity - Change Across Space and Time (Paperback, New)

With topics ranging from African-American women's headwraps to beauty pageants in Swaziland and the recent royal wedding in Japan, this book contributes a new slant to the literature on ethnicity by focusing on the frequently noticed but less often analyzed phenomenon of dress. Dress, along with language, culinary and religious traditions, serves both to unite and separate people from each other. The authors - ethnographers, folklorists and textile scholars - present case studies from around the world to illustrate their different theoretical frameworks and assumptions. In considering how the body is modified and supplemented, they discuss not only garments and accessories, but also hairstyles and cosmetics. This book should interest anyone wishing to understand and explore ethnicity through this fascinating and effective means of communication.