Silk-embroidered garments as transformative processes: layering, inscribing and displaying Hausa material identities

Abstract

This article explores some aspects of Hausa wild silk embroidered gowns known as riga, interpreting these famous and prestigious attires in the light of techniques and transformative processes. The author thus highlights implicit forms of knowledge underlying material practices about, first, the wearing and layering of highly decorated gowns and, second, the process of creating silk-embroidered motifs (on the outside gown) and inked patterns (on the inside gown) that stand as the objectification and expression of charismatic power through self-display. The author proposes that Hausa wild silk-embroidered gowns constitute a material identity of power in that they materialize individual as well as group social status, prestige, fame and wealth. The empirical materials derive from ongoing fieldwork in northern Nigeria on the production and use of wild silk, a particular substance/material to which mystic properties are attributed and which plays an important role in the empowerment of riga.

An emotional economy of mundane objects

“…Chitakunye and Maclaran 2014;Holttinen 2014;Madianou and Miller 2011;Miller 1998), as well as belonging to religious (D'Alisera 2001;Tarlo 2007), ethnic (Avieli 2009), or literary (Craig 2011) communities are thus seen to be objectified and mediated by objects that are enmeshed in peoples' everyday lives -such as clothes, accessories, chapbooks, food, letters, cassettes, and television. This objectification of identities, relationships, and collectivities may take place in ways that conform to (Douny 2011;Naji 2009) or resist and challenge (Smith 2009) dominant moral or political orders and hierarchies. Such processes involve the entwinement of materiality and symbolism (e.g.…”

“…On the other hand, material culture studies have drawn our attention to the entwinement of meanings, symbols, subjectivities, and relationships with the artifactual quality of objects (e.g. Aronczyk and Craig 2012;Beckstead et al 2011;Borgerson 2005Borgerson , 2009Craig 2011;Douny 2011;Kravets and Ö rge 2010;Miller 1987Miller , 1998Miller , 2005Smith 2009) and to the constitutive and co-emergent, rather than merely representative, nature of this entwinement. Familial socialization and interaction (e.g.…”

“…Such processes involve the entwinement of materiality and symbolism (e.g. Bartmanski and Woodward 2013;Craig 2011;Curasi, Price, and Arnould 2004;D'Alisera 2001;Douny 2011;Epp and Price 2010;Holttinen 2014;Kravets and Ö rge 2010;Sandıkcı and Ger 2010) -and thus the symbolic densification of objects (Weiner 1994). Yet, we detect that the relationships and ideals that are materialized, transformed, and negotiated through objects and related practices -such as provisioning (Miller 1998), preparing food (Holttinen 2014), watching television (Chitakunye and Maclaran 2014), exchanging written letters and audio recordings (Madianou and Miller 2011) in the context of the "loving family," or making clothes that materialize mother-daughter and kinship bonds (Margiotti 2013) -are also inherently emotional.…”

“…While the entwinement of iconization and signification with materialization (Bartmanski and Woodward 2013;Beckstead et al 2011;Craig 2011;Douny 2011;Kravets and Ö rge 2010) has been documented, we provide an additional dimension to materiality. Examining the entwinement of materiality with emotions, and exploring the structuring potentiality of the materiality-emotionality nexus also allows us to see how seemingly individual or interpersonal experiencessuch as listening to music, owning cassettes, gifting, selling, or dispossession may serve communal bonds by generating shared experiences and emotional orientations.…”

An Anthropology of Landscape

“…There has been much anthropological interest in the material culture of 'things', particularly approaches that articulate their meanings and social relations (for example , Miller 1998;Tilley 1999;Buchli 2002;Küchler and Miller 2005;Tilley et al 2006;Naji 2009;Douny 2011). As yet a lengthy study of mountain bikers, their bikes and attire has not been written but there is certainly scope to explore a number of approaches; Warnier's praxeological approach, for example, could include factors such as the sensual and emotional; the memories each bike may encapsulate for the rider; the creation of identity that has been shaped, perhaps, by the embodied material culture of the biker; the transforming of space into a place embodied in movement; and the meaning silently conveyed by choice of bike and clothing worn.…”