Authentic culture is here understood as the production of cultural values that are constructed through local human-material encounters, a coalescence that does not subject itself to the boundaries of a brand or corporate identity. As Nina Sylvanus describes in her Essay Fashionability in Colonial and Postcolonial Togo: ‘While authenticity is the product of social struggles over who controls the production of values, the experience and performance of authenticity at the contemporary moment,…,lies as much with the small Vlisco cloth-purchasing elite as it does with middle-class consumers adopting China prints, and with the reassembled styles of urban youth on the streets of Lomé.’ (in Tranberg Hansen, 2013:41)
This suggests that the cultural value of objects is defined by the way they are used in context and imbued with meaning through their incorporation into specific social structures and local cultural practices. Referring to the words of Jonathan Friedman: ‘Objects don’t have social lives, social lives have objects’ (cited by Sylvanus in Tranberg Hansen, 2013:32) one could argue that this social interaction with material in context forms the very basis of cultural values, a process ofcreolization according to David Howes (Howes, 1996:5). Anyone who has seen the film directed by Jamie Uys, The Gods must be crazy,will understand this definition which is here exemplified through the story of San bushmen who discover an empty bottle of Coca Cola in the Kalahari desert, an event that will impact on their whole tribe’s social structure (Howes, 1996:4).
Similarly it can be told through the stories of cloth: where cloths in Kenya and Tanzania for example include the use of proverbs that women employ to communicate amongst themselves, tartan patterns are prominent in southern Mozambique where they are donned during traditional wedding ceremonies (Field Research, 2016, I-JM-13.1.16). Commemorative cloths serve to express an opinion or political statement (Eicher and Ross, 2011:499) and globally recognised symbols such as the paisley pattern have been adapted to suit local interpretations (the paisley pattern is called the cashew nut pattern in Mozambique) (Shaw, 2011:18). An interesting cultural practice amongst the Shangana speaking people of southern Mozambique has been the naming of abstract print patterns such as a chequered design locally referred to as Xadrez or Chadrez. These names usually reflect the colour or pattern of the cloth, for example a very fine red and white chequered design is called ‘Udzeca Vermelha’, which is a tiny fly that lays eggs into the wounds of cattle (Field Research, 2016, II-MR-1.2.16). In Togo, print fabrics are used historically in dress and costume as an important expression of prestige and social status (Sylvanus in Tranberg Hansen, 2013) whereas Capulana in Mozambique is traditionally worn in one piece as a wrap with a complementary headscarf and has only recently become a material for tailoring (Eicher and Ross, 2011:497). Such examples demonstrate how cloth has been inscribed with specific meanings or functions during its user phase and has consequently become an integral part of local cultures.
Questions of authenticity
Authentic culture is here understood as the production of cultural values that are constructed through local human-material encounters, a coalescence that does not subject itself to the boundaries of a brand or corporate identity. As Nina Sylvanus describes in her Essay Fashionability in Colonial and Postcolonial Togo: ‘While authenticity is the product of social struggles over who controls the production of values, the experience and performance of authenticity at the contemporary moment,…,lies as much with the small Vlisco cloth-purchasing elite as it does with middle-class consumers adopting China prints, and with the reassembled styles of urban youth on the streets of Lomé.’ (in Tranberg Hansen, 2013:41)
This suggests that the cultural value of objects is defined by the way they are used in context and imbued with meaning through their incorporation into specific social structures and local cultural practices. Referring to the words of Jonathan Friedman: ‘Objects don’t have social lives, social lives have objects’ (cited by Sylvanus in Tranberg Hansen, 2013:32) one could argue that this social interaction with material in context forms the very basis of cultural values, a process of creolization according to David Howes (Howes, 1996:5). Anyone who has seen the film directed by Jamie Uys, The Gods must be crazy, will understand this definition which is here exemplified through the story of San bushmen who discover an empty bottle of Coca Cola in the Kalahari desert, an event that will impact on their whole tribe’s social structure (Howes, 1996:4).
Similarly it can be told through the stories of cloth: where cloths in Kenya and Tanzania for example include the use of proverbs that women employ to communicate amongst themselves, tartan patterns are prominent in southern Mozambique where they are donned during traditional wedding ceremonies (Field Research, 2016, I-JM-13.1.16). Commemorative cloths serve to express an opinion or political statement (Eicher and Ross, 2011:499) and globally recognised symbols such as the paisley pattern have been adapted to suit local interpretations (the paisley pattern is called the cashew nut pattern in Mozambique) (Shaw, 2011:18). An interesting cultural practice amongst the Shangana speaking people of southern Mozambique has been the naming of abstract print patterns such as a chequered design locally referred to as Xadrez or Chadrez. These names usually reflect the colour or pattern of the cloth, for example a very fine red and white chequered design is called ‘Udzeca Vermelha’, which is a tiny fly that lays eggs into the wounds of cattle (Field Research, 2016, II-MR-1.2.16). In Togo, print fabrics are used historically in dress and costume as an important expression of prestige and social status (Sylvanus in Tranberg Hansen, 2013) whereas Capulana in Mozambique is traditionally worn in one piece as a wrap with a complementary headscarf and has only recently become a material for tailoring (Eicher and Ross, 2011:497). Such examples demonstrate how cloth has been inscribed with specific meanings or functions during its user phase and has consequently become an integral part of local cultures.
continue to next chapter