Artistry Permits and Custom May Ordain - Northwestern University

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consumption of regional and foreign cloth was the measure of culturedness. 131 Therefore,
taste and the broader aesthetic appeal of variety both unified and stimulated competition
among the inhabitants of the East African coast. 132 Cloth consumption allowed even the
most marginalized people to be incorporated into Swahili society. Indeed, cloth was the
most important “social skin” of the Swahili at all socioeconomic levels because it was
accessible, albeit at radically different, socioeconomically determined levels. 133 Thus the
widespread use of cloth by all segments of Swahili society made it a unique instrument in
the development of a sociopolitical hierarchy. 134
I share McCraken’s belief that cloth consumption was a means for inscribing
culture in the material world and for visually communicating status, identity, and taste. 135
Therefore, since status (or claims to status) hinged on the possession of cloth for display
and personal adornment, cloth gave culture and “ungwana-ness” a concrete form. 136 It
was the understanding of one Portuguese observer that dress was a vehicle, perhaps the
most important one, by which people could “show their superiority over their
neighbors.” 137 In Swahili society, culturedness as expressed in one’s style of dress was
important for legitimating and maintaining social status, and one could vie for a better
position in the social hierarchy by displaying wealth. Indeed, the ultimate aim of wealth
accumulation was not so much continual wealth reproduction as it was the attainment of
a cultured mode of life. Commerce and agriculture were avenues to social status and
political access; thus merchants and other accumulators of wealth saw intrinsic value in
131 In the Braudelian tradition, J. Thornton argues that it is essential to study trends in fashion and cloth
consumption to understand the economics of textile production. Since many of the same areas of West-central
and West Africa that produced significant amounts of cloth also imported more foreign textiles than their
neighbors, it is probable that desire for variety and style promoted increasing consumption. “Pre-colonial African
Industry and the Atlantic Trade, 1500-1800,” African Economic History. 19 (1990): 18-9.
132 P. Bourdieu develops the ideas of “meaning” and “taste,” or the yardstick by which cultural potency is
measured, in Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London, 1984.
133 T. Turner conceptualizes adornment, including jewelry and body painting, as a “social skin” in “Social Skin,”
in Not Work Alone. Eds. J. Chefras and R. Lewis. London, 1980. 112-40.
134 J. Schneider and A. Wiener, “Cloth and the Organization of Human Experience,” Current Anthropology. (27)
2 (1986): 178-84.
135 McCracken, Culture and Consumption, 132.
136 Douglas and Isherwood call materials “the visual part of culture” in The World of Goods. E. and J. Goody argue
that in western Gonja (Ghana), the number, style, and newness of cloths are still considered the best index of a
woman’s social position, not simply her wealth. “The Naked and the Clothed,” in Cloth of Many Colored Silks.
Eds. J. Hunwick and N. Lawler. Evanston, 1997. 77.
137 Gaspar de San Bernadino was referring to the residents of Pate. Itinerario, in SD, 163.