Sartorial culture in Bangladesh
Institute on Infusing South Asia into the Undergraduate Curriculum
East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
Dr. Angela R. Demovic, Assistant Professor of Anthopology
Wichita State University
Thanks to photographer Ziaul Haq for permission to use his images
Anthropology of the Body (Anth 397/597)
• The course is about the body and its
construction as a cultural artifact
• The example of Bangladesh will inform several
topics covered in the course
– Cloth and Adornment
– The Colonial encounter, Embodiment, and Identity
– Globalization and Women’s Bodies
Why the Question of Women’s Dress in Bangladesh?
Burqa and Shalwar, Jeans and Sari - Changing Fashions on the Streets of
Dhaka (in “Society” on the 19th of October 2009)
http://www.demotix.com/news/163007/burqa-and-shalwar-jeans-and-sarichanging-fashions-streets-dhaka
• research done by the Department of Women’s Studies
at Dhaka University , concerned with whether women
in Bangladesh are increasingly adopting the veil
• In addition to various burqua styles, reports an
“expanded spectrum” since independence in 1971 in
women’s attire including shalwar kameez, jeans and
short kurtas, traditional saris
• “women’s wear is an intricate part of the Bangladeshi
woman’s changing views of herself and the world”
Unless specifically asked about another
garment, responses about what sorts of dress
particular informants choose, when, and why
have focused overwhelmingly on the sari.
Interviews with Bangladeshi women have
elicited a detailed list of the appropriate color
and style of sari to wear on various holidays,
both religious and secular. The sari is also an
important symbol of a woman’s life stage.
Widowhood and the white sari
Part I: What have
Bangladeshi Women Told
ME so far?
The Sari as marker of
female maturity
The Sari as traditional ethnic dress
Terence Turner on “The Social Skin”
-Body adornment is a powerful symbolic language
-The concept of the “social skin”
-Socialization of the naked body through adornment
Terence S. Turner. 1993. “The Social Skin.” In Reading
the Social Body, eds. Catherine B. Burroughs and Jeffrey
David Ehrenreich. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.
The politics of dress
Georg Simmel “Fashion, Adornment and Style”
in Simmel on Culture: Selected Writings
Eds. David Frisby and Mike Featherstone
London, SAGE Publications Ltd.
(available on Google books)
The Shalwar Kamiz: A love hate relationship
Three discourses:
1.
Hindu (Vedic) versus Islam
Bangladeshi women recognize the garment is
identified with Islam, by far the majority religion of
Bangladesh. The style first arrived in India with the
Mughal invaders during the 14th century – unlike the
sari, for which there is evidence in Indus Valley art
2.
“East Pakistan” versus “Bangladesh”
The brutality of Pakistan’s attempt to prevent
Bangladeshi independence in 1971 remains an
unresolved, salient issue in contemporary
Bangladeshi political discourse. The Shalwar Kamiz
is associated with Pakistan, as its national dress.
(My Significant “Other” and a cousin)
3.
West versus East
The garment allows freedom of movement (for
example, to visit fish markets, or to prepare dawaat)
without embracing Western dress
Some Ideas About the History of The Situation
Gender Differences: Roots in the Colonial Era and developed with
Nationalism
Sources:
Chatterjee, Partha “Colonialism, Nationalism, and Colonialized
Women: The Contest in India.” American Ethnologist, Vol. 16,
No. 4 (Nov., 1989), pp. 622-633
Thapar-Björkert, Suruchi; Ryan, Louise. “Mother India/Mother
Ireland: Comparative Gendered Dialogues of Colonialism and
Nationalism in the Early 20th Century.” Women’s Studies
International Forum v. 25 no. 3 (May/June 2002) p. 301-13.
Mukhopadhyay, Bhudev. “Lajjā – śīlatā” (Modesty), In Bhȗdevracanāsambhār, Pramathanath, ed. Calcutta. 1969. Mitra and
Ghosh.
Mukhopadhyay discusses Lajjā – śīlatā, a quality
of “modesty” which he says is spiritual, is more
cultivated and cherished by women than by men,
and which necessitates a difference in the
manner/degree of Westernization for men and
women
Ghar and bāhir : the home and the world
“In the world, imitation of and adaptation to Western norms was a necessity, at home, they were tantamount to
annihilation of one’s very identity.” (Chatterjee 1989:624)
“To ridicule the idea of a Bengali woman (in the first half of the 19 th century) trying to imitate the ways of a
memsāheb… was a sure recipe calculated to evoke raucous laughter and moral condemnation in both male and
female audiences. It was… a criticism of manners, of new items of clothing… of the use of Western cosmetics and
jewelry, of the reading of novels… What made the ridicule stronger was the constant suggestion that the Westernized
woman was fond of useless luxury and cared little for the well-being of the home.” (Chatterjee 1989:625)
Additional Historical Sources
Borthwick, Meredith. 1984. The Changing Roles of Women in Bengal 1849-1905.
Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press.
Chatterjee, Partha. Nationalist Thought in the Colonial World. London: Zed Books.
Ghosh, Srabashi. 1986. “Birds in a Cage: Changes in Bengali Social Life as Recorded in
Autobiographies by Women.” Economic and Political Weekly: Review of Women’s
Studies (October) pp 88-96.
Men’s Dress: Politics, Identity, and Class
Urban upper middle-class men overwhelming choose Western clothing, a
legacy of the same history of dress and Nationalist notions of men’s and
women’s roles.
Note the dress of Mohammad Yunnus, (founder of Grameen
Bank), compared to other men pictured below. Some men
choose more traditional forms of dress, particularly for
festivals. Compare these choices to the ideas about the
meaning behind differences in dress of Gandhi and
Ambedkar introduced in Dr. Ananya Vajpeyi’s lecture.
Other ways of Fitting our Institute Lectures Into the Picture
Chakrabarti and the “self-ification” of the “Other” –
Project: Have students think about dress and habitus in their own lives. Are there parallels to
this in American dress? What influence does history have over determining women’s dress?
Does mobility require sartorial negotiation?
Anna Bigelow’s discussion of “multireligious devotion” – Bangladeshi women’s culture
is very syncretic in nature. There is a “shared religious culture,” which includes
many preIslamic rituals in women’s lives (ex. marriage ritual, rice rituals based in
Lokkhi worship). Tie this in to Vrinda Dalmiya’s lecture on “Environment, Gender
and Science.” Why do authors talk about preserving these preIslamic rituals in
terms of “sustainability?”
Rozario, Santi and Samuel, Geoffrey. “Gender, Religious Change and
Sustainability in Bangladesh. Women’s Studies International Forum, Vol 33,
Issue 4, July-August 2010, Pages 354-364.)
Islamic modesty garments in rural and urban Bangladesh
Reading: Rozario, Santi “The new burqa in Bangladesh: Empowerment or violation of women's
rights?” Women’s Studies International Forum, Volume 29, Issue 4, July-August 2006, Pps 368-380
•Increases in women’s mobility with globalization -- Bangladeshi women developing local modernities
•Backlash against women’s new roles (in garment industry, at university, microloans)
•the place of Islamist movements in Bangladeshi politics – moving away from syncretic forms of
religion towards a “pure” Islam
•Santi’s view that “Islamist feminism” is not developing in Bangladesh (In comparison to Egypt watch
film “A Veiled Revolution”)