Dress and Ethnicity: Change across Space and Time

The editor, Joanne B. Eicher, has devoted her career to the study of dress, particularly in Nigeria, and has published extensively on the topic, including Dress and Gender, co-edited with Ruth Barnes, and Dress and Identity, co-edited with Mary Ellen Roach-Higgins and Kim K.P. Johnson as well as numerous articles. Eicher's hand is particularly evident in this volume. Many of the North American contributors have studied or collaborated with her. Her influence on a new generation of scholars of dress has been significant and this volume is, in part, both a celebration and a record of that achievement. Eicher's introductory essay pleads for the end of the analytical neglect which dress has suffered in the study of ethnicity and summarizes the kinds of contributions -- as represented by this volume -- which dress can make to the study of ethnicity. Such clothing facts are neither exceptional nor mere curiosities. Eicher and Erekosima continue their long-term collaboration on the analysis of Kalabari (Nigeria) dress in this volume with an article entitled, "Why Do They Call It Kalabari? Cultural Authentication and the Demarcation of Ethnic Identity." Their sweeping, primarily macro focus reveals how the variety in Kalabari dress depicts internal political order and relations with close and distant ethnic neighbours. They rely on their theory of the "cultural authentication process" to explain the dynamic by which new elements are continually incorporated into Kalabari dress but continue, all the while, to visibly distinguish the Kalabari from those around them. It is this ability to continually change and accommodate new circumstances while retaining a sense of constancy in identity which is particularly suited to the material attributes of clothing. This article is paired neatly with Barbara Sumberg's "Dress and Ethnic Differentiation in the Niger Delta," detailing the dress interests and styles of the Nembe, a group neighbouring the Kalabari and sharing many cultural characteristics with them -- but maintaining subtle distinctions. By juxtaposing Kalabari and Nembe styles of dress, Sumberg explains how political, social and economic factors may have informed their differences and helped shape their sense of identity. In her concluding chapter, co-written with Barbara Sumberg, entitled "World Fashion, Ethnic, and National Dress," Eicher highlights new trends in dress and attempts to construct universal distinctions. As the globe has become more tightly knit, t