Female Tradition in a New Context: The Case of the Khanga

This article examines the Khanga which originated from East Africa. It is a rectangle piece of pure cotton cloth with a border that is usually printed in bold designs and bright colors. It is as long as your outstretched arm and wide enough to cover you from either neck to knee or breast to toe. The khangas are a symbol of proper African womanhood and are used for many different things. 

For example, after a girl reaches puberty she receives the khangas as gifts from her family. They are used in weddings, in which the mother of the bride receives them from friends and family to thank her for raising her daughter and as reassurance that when he daughter leaves with her husband she will have loved ones to help her cope with her loss. The khangas are also used after marriage where the bride gets a set of khangas from her husband that represent a sign of belonging and intimacy and every time the husband receives a salary he is expected to buy his wife a new khanga. However many khangas a women has indicated her husband wealth and his appreciation at the same time. We related the khanga wedding aspect to American culture and how Americans traditionally wear either white or off white dresses, throw the bouquet, or catch the garter. Whereas in Tanzania they use the khangas and the colors they wear are bright and bold. 

We related it to the chapter by relating it to status and dress because in some parts of the world female status begins when a girl reaches puberty and in Tanzania, the girls are given the khanga which represents womanhood and is also an example of the power of dress to express status. In addition we related it to socialism because before socialism the khanga included community sayings and proverbs and wearing them showed the different status of women. However after socialism the khangas began to include political messages and expressed their status in political issues. 

Saudi Women with “Sexy Eyes” Will Have to Cover Them Up in Public

As most people may know, Saudi Arabia is one of the most if not the most conservative country in the world. It is the only country in the world that doesn’t allow women to do a lot of things that they should be allowed to do. In the article written by John Didymus, he explains the new law that has come about. In 2011, the government of Saudi Arabia decided that they wanted to ban all women from showing their, as they referred to as, “sexy eyes” or tempting eyes. This new proposal was brought up when a committee member of the promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice was caught looking into a woman’s eyes because he thought they were pretty. The husband of the woman saw him looking and quickly got offended, which then led to the man who was looking to get stabbed twice. This is what led to them considering women cover up their “sexy eyes”. Saudi women are already required by law to wear a long black robe called an “abaya”, which partially covers their body from head to toe and sometimes even over the nose. It is part of their conservative culture to cover up their bodies, however it is going a little overboard by making women cover up their eyes, making their entire face not visible. This, to some extent, brings us to the Women’s Suffrage Movement, which made it possible for women to have their voice heard and their ideas projected through voting. However, Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that still does not give women the right to vote and takes away a lot of their rights. It is said that King Abdullah declared that women will be able to vote in the 2015 local elections.

We related the article to the chapter 3; group association. The level describes how organizations and groups have to do with culture. With culture within the group or organization, the role of dress varies. For Saudi women, culture plays a whole role in their world, which determines how a woman is supposed to dress. Due to the restrictions Saudi women must obey, therefore they must wear abaya, and possibly cover their eyes. If Saudi women do have to cover their eyes in the future it would be because of the role culture plays in their dress. It also relates to the meaning of dress messages, because the way you dress can be misinterpreted. For example, many man that are accused of rape, give the excuse that the way the victim was dressed was a sign of content. In Saudi, things such as rape aren’t as frequent as in other places such as United States, simply because they are covered up. But will “sexy eyes” be the next reason?

2.2 The Role of Fashion Change in the Fashion System
Competition in the Fashion System
The fashion industry is one of the most competitive industries. Everyone is competing with one another, from apparel designers, manufacturers, and distributors to importers, licensors, and retailers. Even though there is a broad range of apparel goods that are available, everything is categorized by either fashion or non-fashion. The competition is not solely based on prices, but on designs and the societal interpretation as well. Competition influences fashion change because designers or whomever it may be try to create their own unique designs hoping that consumers will catch on and if consumers do catch on, that is competition for another designer to do better that, which is where fashion changes. For example how Mary Quant wore the first miniskirt and Andre Courreges competed with that and revamped it.
Technology in the Fashion System

Technology plays a big role in the fashion system and influences fashion in a big way as well. It both supplies data and generates usable information in the form of simulations and models, which makes it easier for companies as far as their production and distribution cycles and accessing goods and services worldwide. Nowadays, many apparel companies clothing designs are made and edited with technology such as computers. There have been many advancements with technology and fashion in our society today. According to the article companies that do use technology have a competitive advantage over companies that don't.Today, one of the major advancements is 3D printing, which has had a big impact on the fashion world. Continuum is a clothing company that creates wearable 3D printed pieces. Customers can go to their website and design their own pieces and specify their body shapes and measurements. The company then uses nylon to print out each unique order. Here is a video of how they created their first shoe.

Having advancements as 3D printing allows companies to differentiate themselves from their competition because they bring something new and different to the table. Technology also plays a big role in consumer fashion as well, because consumers are attracted to technology in our society today. For example, browsing or shopping online makes it convenient for consumers. Even technology without fashion plays a big part in every individual's life.

Gronmo Typology of Strategic Positioning in an Information Society

Gronmo states that there are four strategic positions. The first is potentially influential, in which retailers have potential influence when their interests are congruent. An example would be if you created your own private label. You would want to select a store that has more influential in the market. By selecting a greater influential store as in Forever 21 and or Target would bring more profit to the private label than selecting a small independent store as in a boutique. Potentially powerful is when a manufacturing and or a retail store have more power than another. Potentially powerful is referred to when a retailer/ manufacture tends to be more powerful than their competitor. Certain laws and Acts are put to control restrictions goods, such as importing and exporting goods. Protection or as in the Robinson-Patman Act 1936 is consider when manufactures need to provide the same assistants to smaller retailers as they do with larger retailers. For example, a manufacture that wants to advertise with a retailer. Under the Robinson-Patman Act the manufacture needs to provide the same amount of advertising funds to the smaller retailer as they give the larger retailer. Finally the last strategic positioning is powerless. Powerless is when a small independent retailer has now power in the market, and is subject to decisions already made by more power retailers and manufacturing. It occurs when different retailers, independent and dependent are selling the same goods and when different manufactures are producing products that are similar to one another is when they people powerless. 

 

BODY RITUAL AMONG THE NACIREMA

The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema is a shocking article by Horace Miner about the Nacirema culture and their fundamental beliefs and rituals. This group of people can be found in North America living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Taqui and Taraqhumare of Mexico. Their fundamental belief is that the human body is ugly and unhealthy, so they use powerful rituals, daily ceremonies, and household shrines to make their bodies look a certain way. For example, they have rituals to increase and decrease the size of a women's breast, as well as rituals to make them thin or fat. In our society today, the mindset of some people have not changed. Women are still under going breast surgeries and both men and women get bypass surgeries to lose weight. Rituals are somewhat equivalent to surgeries, both are being performed to help someone maintain an ideological image. 

At first glance the Nacirema seems to be a very uncivilized culture because of the type of things that it involves, but by the end of the article you begin to realize that the Nacirema is very similar to American culture. Things such as their shrine can be interpreted as a bathroom. The potions and charms they use can be interpreted as medicine. The shrine box as a medicine cabinet. The latipso which is where they do the surgeries, as a hospital. The holy mouth man who does gouges their teeth out, can be interpreted as a dentist. The maidens who help them, as nurses, and the cutting of body pieces as surgery. All of these rituals are simply their everyday life and each ritual can be portrayed as a different perspective of American culture. After all, Nacirema is American spelled backwards!