Change Across Space and Time

With topics ranging from African American women's headwraps to beauty pageants in Swaziland to naked divers & the royal wedding in Japan, this absorbing 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 & religious traditions, serves both to unite & separate people from each other. The authors in this compilation -- ethnographers, folklorists, & textile scholars -- present case studies from around the world to illustrate their different theoretical frameworks & assumptions. In considering how the body is modified & supplemented, they discuss not only garments & accessories, but also hairstyles & cosmetics. Illus.