Dress can be expressed in an infinite amount of styles, colors, items, and locations, but one thing is consistent throughout: dress has meaning. No matter the person, demographic, age, race or religion, people all over the world participate in dressing activities every single day. By collecting a wide variety of items of dress from friends and family members, I was able to locate themes that arose time and time again. To start this process, I posted on social media asking friends and family to send me stories of items that have special or significant meaning. In the beginning, people seemed to be reluctant to send in information. Although this is likely simply because we live in such a fast paced society and people do not take the time for
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Memories, events, and relationships allow humans to gain attachment to nonmaterial items. Although many themes arose when reading through the stories, four main themes can be drawn from looking into the stories and going through them with a fine tooth comb. These themes that continually reoccurred include: familial relationships, death, event/sport, and beauty. Each theme can be shown in a multitude of ways throughout the stories as well as appearing many times through the duration of this course. Familial relationships appeared in every story that was sent into me for this project. Family is something that impacts humans’ lives on a daily basis. Whether discussing a tribal, imperial, or commercial sociocultural system, family values and relationships worked as the keystone and foundation of support. Family is the center of every type of society and items of dress retain extreme importance when memories of the same bloodline pass items down from one generation to the next. Items of jewelry retain extreme importance in stories, such as Abby’s, because the wedding ring from her great aunt is a symbol of marriage and unity in the United States. This relates directly to the lip plates of the Mursi tribe in Africa. Those women used large lip plates, much like how American women attain to acquire large diamond rings when proposed to by their future spouses. Since the beginning of the semester, family has been an …show more content…
As many people in modern society dislike speaking about death, it is something that cannot be avoided and reemphasizes the importance of life. In class, the discussion of various burial practices occurred when talking about different cultures, ethnicities, and globalization of dress. The discussion included talking about how people in the United States celebrate death in a somber ambiance with black attire, whereas other countries see death more as a celebration of life with vibrant and outgoing color schemes. The story of Sue’s tattoo and Angie’s charm bracelet relate directly to death. Sue got her tattoo in memory of her mother and father on the day in between their birthdays last year because she wanted to have some way to remember them on her body every single day as it has many almost 10 years since her mother passed away and 16 years since her father passed away. Angie’s bracelet is from her grandmother and the two of them always had a very close relationship and her grandmother never was able to meet her great granddaughter, Angie’s daughter, Rachel. This caused Angie to have even more significance in the item and she shows Rachel the item to help Rachel know her great-grandmother, even after she has passed on. Death is something that no one is able to avoid so it is best if we can use dress items to help us remember the people who have passed on before
Memories, events, and relationships allow humans to gain attachment to nonmaterial items. Although many themes arose when reading through the stories, four main themes can be drawn from looking into the stories and going through them with a fine tooth comb. These themes that continually reoccurred include: familial relationships, death, event/sport, and beauty. Each theme can be shown in a multitude of ways throughout the stories as well as appearing many times through the duration of this course. Familial relationships appeared in every story that was sent into me for this project. Family is something that impacts humans’ lives on a daily basis. Whether discussing a tribal, imperial, or commercial sociocultural system, family values and relationships worked as the keystone and foundation of support. Family is the center of every type of society and items of dress retain extreme importance when memories of the same bloodline pass items down from one generation to the next. Items of jewelry retain extreme importance in stories, such as Abby’s, because the wedding ring from her great aunt is a symbol of marriage and unity in the United States. This relates directly to the lip plates of the Mursi tribe in Africa. Those women used large lip plates, much like how American women attain to acquire large diamond rings when proposed to by their future spouses. Since the beginning of the semester, family has been an …show more content…
As many people in modern society dislike speaking about death, it is something that cannot be avoided and reemphasizes the importance of life. In class, the discussion of various burial practices occurred when talking about different cultures, ethnicities, and globalization of dress. The discussion included talking about how people in the United States celebrate death in a somber ambiance with black attire, whereas other countries see death more as a celebration of life with vibrant and outgoing color schemes. The story of Sue’s tattoo and Angie’s charm bracelet relate directly to death. Sue got her tattoo in memory of her mother and father on the day in between their birthdays last year because she wanted to have some way to remember them on her body every single day as it has many almost 10 years since her mother passed away and 16 years since her father passed away. Angie’s bracelet is from her grandmother and the two of them always had a very close relationship and her grandmother never was able to meet her great granddaughter, Angie’s daughter, Rachel. This caused Angie to have even more significance in the item and she shows Rachel the item to help Rachel know her great-grandmother, even after she has passed on. Death is something that no one is able to avoid so it is best if we can use dress items to help us remember the people who have passed on before