Cultural Authentication

Cultural Authentication is a process of assimilation in which an artifact, item, or idea external to a culture is adopted and changed. With this change, and over time, the artifact becomes a vital, valued part of the adopting culture's dress. Cultural authentication is a concept that has been found useful in interpreting the cultural diffusion of costume between western and non-western cultures. During the semester we will examine several examples of this process.

Four levels, or components, of cultural authentication have been defined. These levels do not necessarily occur in a fixed order; the order may vary by culture (Arthur, 1997).

Components of Cultural Authentication

Selection - Adopting an object or idea intact
Characterization - Adopting an object or idea intact, but the new culture attached its own symbolic meaning along with changing its use. May be named during this stage.
Incorporation - Adopting an object or idea in its original physical or ideological form, applying new symbolic meaning, and identifying the object or idea to a specific social group
Transformation - Physically altering, or modifying, the object or idea. Allows for cultural distinctiveness (Eicher ).

Three Types of Cultural Authentication
In the general process of cultural authentication, elements of dress from one culture are incorporated into the dress of another. This varies according to how elements of dress from the source culture and the receiving culture merge. Cultural authentication allows us to account for mixtures that occur due to global interactions of people with long-established traditions of dress. At its simplest level, the adopted item is used in the same way within the new (adopting) culture. However, dress is seldom copied exactly from one culture to another. Instead, it is transformed in form and meaning by the adopting group, so it is separated from the old setting, and becomes a unique part of the new culture.

Cultural authentication - involves movement of elements of dress across cultural lines. The incorporation of new elements takes place within varying lengths of time. Changes may range from extensive to barely noticeable.

(simplest level) - one cultural group selects an item of dress from another culture and uses the item in much the same manner. Involves only selection and possibly characterization levels.

Temporal authentication - this distinguishes how a group of people reach back into their own histories/cultural heritage's and borrow items of dress for contemporary adaptation. Temporal authentication occurs when a change takes place over time within a specific cultural group, while with cultural authentication, elements of dress move across cultural lines and the incorporation of new elements takes place at various times. Changes may be extensive or barely perceptible in both types of authentication.
Temporo-cultural authentication - elements from both of the above are combined. Temporo-cultural authentication occurs when an apparel designer reaches across cultural lines and also back through time for ideas to incorporate into contemporary fashions.

In Cultural Authentication Refined: The case of the Hawaiian Holoku, the author describes the cultural authentication of the holoku, an integral part of Hawaiian women's dress since the early 1800's. For the holoku, selection occurred first, followed almost immediately by transformation, then incorporation, and finally characterization. Hawaiian women, initially the royalty, called ali'i, were very receptive to adopting western fashion and requested garments be made for them by the missionary wives who came to Hawaii beginning in 1819. However, the contemporary style, high waist, narrow skirt and long, tight sleeves did not complement the figures of the typically plump Hawaiian royalty. Therefore, the dress had to be immediately redesigned, or transformed. A more appropriate style which took into account the Hawaiian figure type, as well as the hot, humid climate, was developed for a loose comfortable fit. The result was a full skirt, high neckline, an above-the-bust yoke, and tight sleeves.
The holoku which was first worn by the ali'i as a novelty, came to be associated with upper class status and also with new standards of modesty introduced by the Christian missionaries. Prior to this time, women wore the pa'u, a lower body covering made of kapa cloth which was wrapped several times around the body. Kapa cloth was produced by felting fibers from the inner bark of the mulberry tree. The pa'u was often decorated with geometric designs. The missionaries considered this garment shockingly immodest and encouraged the adoption of the holoku. Thus, the holoku was incorporated into Hawaiian women's dress.
It is difficult to determine exactly when characterization of the holoku occurred due to the fact that the Hawaiian language was unwritten. Although the dress is described in letters and diaries earlier, it was not until 1865 that the word holoku appears.

References
Arthur, L.B., (1997). Cultural authentication refined: The case of the Hawaiian holoku. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 15(3), 129-139.

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Last Updated: August 3, 1999