Global Trade and Cultural Authentication: The Kalabari of the Niger Delta

by Joanne B. Eicher (Editor)

Overview

Global Trade and Cultural Authentication, edited by Joanne Eicher, showcases the complexity and enduring aesthetic and ingenuity of Kalabari artisans. The Kalabari people, most of whom make their homes in the eastern Niger Delta region of western Africa, are renowned for the artistry in working with globally imported textiles and dress for centuries.
 
The 22 essays in this edited volume feature the work of leading Nigerian and American scholars and offer an in-depth, nuanced understanding of Kalabari textiles, aesthetics, and engagement with past and present global trade networks.
 
Using dress and textiles as a lens, Global Trade and Cultural Authentication explores the Kalabari people's centuries-long role in the global trade arena. Their economic interconnectedness demonstrates that Africa was never a "dark continent" but, rather, critically involved in a global trade built around Kalabari resourcefulness and imagination.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253062598
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2022
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Joanne B. Eicher is Regents Professor Emerita in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. She is editor (with Brent Luvaas) of The Anthropology of Dress and Fashion: A Reader, co-author (with Sandra Lee Evenson) of The Visible Self: Global Perspectives on Dress, Culture and Society, 4th edition, and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
I. Cultural Authentication and Textiles
1. Dress, Textiles, and the Kalabari Material World, by Joanne B. Eicher and Tonye Victor Erekosima
2. Kalabari Cut-Thread and Pulled-Thread Cloth, by Tonye Victor Erekosima and Joanne B. Eicher
3. Cut-Thread Cloth Characteristics, by Otto Charles Thieme
4. "Our Great Mother . . . Tied This Cloth", by Elisha P. Renne
5. The Economics of Making Pelete Bite, by Joanne B. Eicher, Tonye Victor Erekosima, and Carl Liedholm
6. Indian Madras Plaids as Real India, by Sandra Lee Evenson
7. Ecological Systems Theory and the Significance of Imported Madras Cloth, by Joanne B. Eicher, Tonye Victor Erekosima, and Manuella Daba BobManuel-Meyer Petgrave
8. India and West Africa, by Barbara Sumberg and Joanne B. Eicher
9. Designed for Wrapping, by Hazel Ann Lutz
II. Kalabari Dress
10. Male and Female Artistry, by M. Catherine Daly, Joanne B. Eicher, and Tonye Victor Erekosima
11. The Stages of Traditional Womanhood, by M. Catherine Daly
12. Dress and Gender in Women's Societies, by Susan O. Michelman and Joanne B. Eicher
13. The Aesthetics of Men's Dress, by Tonye Victor Erekosima and Joanne B. Eicher; with Chapter Addendum: Aesthetics of the Color White in Kalabari Men's Dress, by Tonye Victor Erekosima
14. Dress as a Symbol of Identity of Sir (Chief) O. K. Isokariari, by Joanne B. Eicher
15. Beaded and Bedecked, by Joanne B. Eicher
16. Coral Use and Meaning, by Susan J. Torntore
17. Headwear, by Joanne B. Eicher and Tonye Victor Erekosima
III. Kalabari Rituals
18. Celebration and Display, by Joanne B. Eicher and Tonye Victor Erekosima
19. Fitting Farewells, by Joanne B. Eicher and Tonye Victor Erekosima
20. Centenary and Masquerade Rituals, by Joanne B. Eicher
21. Kalabari Rituals and Dress as Multisensory Experiences, by Joanne B. Eicher
IV. The Kalabari Diaspora
22. The Kalabari Diaspora in the Twenty-First Century, by Joanne B. Eicher
Bibliography
Glossary
Index

What People are Saying About This

Rowland Abiodun

Focusing on the little-known influence of the Kalabari people of Nigeria in the Atlantic world, this book challenges scholars to reassess their understanding of Art and especially textiles vis-à-vis their technology, regional trade, and aesthetics in Africa.  It also addresses the place of textiles in the construction of political and gender identities. Most importantly, the contributors to this volume have taken precise aim at the central problem of revealing fairly and accurately the inseparability of aesthetic and social experiences of post-colonial Africa and new idioms of artistic expression in Africa and the African diaspora. Besides its obvious usefulness to students in art history, this important book will speak to a wider audience of scholars in the African humanities and social sciences.

Editorial Reviews

"Dressing from birth through death in spectacular colors, textiles, and accessories from across the world, the Kalabari of the Niger river delta have a long and changing history of incorporating global influences into their lives. Representing team efforts of Joanne B. Eicher and colleagues from Africa and elsewhere through more than half a century of dedicated scholarship, this finely-honed collection turns previous publications from scattered sources about cultural authentication into a cornucopia of riches. Textile scholars, art historians, and everyone interested in dress-cultures within and beyond Africa and the diaspora will revel in this books' in-depth observations."—Karen Tranberg Hansen, Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University

"Focusing on the little-known influence of the Kalabari people of Nigeria in the Atlantic world, this book challenges scholars to reassess their understanding of Art and especially textiles vis-à-vis their technology, regional trade, and aesthetics in Africa.  It also addresses the place of textiles in the construction of political and gender identities. Most importantly, the contributors to this volume have taken precise aim at the central problem of revealing fairly and accurately the inseparability of aesthetic and social experiences of post-colonial Africa and new idioms of artistic expression in Africa and the African diaspora. Besides its obvious usefulness to students in art history, this important book will speak to a wider audience of scholars in the African humanities and social sciences."—Rowland Abiodun, John C. Newton Professor of the History of Art and Black Studies, Amherst College

From the Publisher

Dressing from birth through death in spectacular colors, textiles, and accessories from across the world, the Kalabari of the Niger river delta have a long and changing history of incorporating global influences into their lives. Representing team efforts of Joanne B. Eicher and colleagues from Africa and elsewhere through more than half a century of dedicated scholarship, this finely-honed collection turns previous publications from scattered sources about cultural authentication into a cornucopia of riches. Textile scholars, art historians, and everyone interested in dress-cultures within and beyond Africa and the diaspora will revel in this books' in-depth observations.

Karen Tranberg Hansen