| This dissertation is the first comprehensive history of Somali dress, focusing on how the aesthetics (forms and meanings) of dress have changed as Somalis have interacted with people from other cultures and migrated from the Horn of Africa to Minneapolis-St. Paul, the largest Somali community in the United States. Data was gathered through a number of qualitative methods including the analysis of objects and photographs, critical reading of primary and secondary sources, field work at two "Somali malls" in Minnesota, and two partial life histories. Analysis of aesthetics was conducted using Marilyn DeLong's "expert viewer's framework," from The Way We Look. Through an evaluation of the concepts of "ethnic dress" and "world fashion," (a binary way of viewing what I see as non-Western versus Western dress), I also offer a new theoretical framework---involving microcultures, cultures and "macrocultures"---for understanding the multiple layers of history and cultural identity displayed in Somali dress. Somalis in Minneapolis-St. Paul are viewed by other Minnesotans not just members of their own culture, but as Muslims, Africans, and (due to the pressure of acculturation) part of the West. Even so, Somalis are not passive recipients of these identities. Considering their long history of interaction with people from other cultures including Arabs, Persians, the French, British, Italians, and other native groups in East Africa, Somalis have been well prepared to consider how their dress connects and separates them from other cultures. Although Somali dress may simply look like "ethnic dress" to outsiders (including scholars of textiles and apparel), it actually reflects a variety of cultural and macrocultural influences. |
