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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:'A dog with a collar...': field notes on an 'indigenous wedding gown'
Author:Dederen, J.-M.ISNI
Year:2011
Periodical:Anthropology Southern Africa (ISSN 2332-3264)
Volume:34
Issue:3-4
Pages:89-95
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:Venda
female dress
girls' initiation
Abstract:This ethnographic narrative details the social and symbolic nature of the 'tshirivha' leather skirt, a garment which was once used by Venda-speaking women in Limpopo Province, South Africa, to articulate their marital status. Contemporary Venda women refer to it as 'our traditional wedding gown'. At present it is rarely seen outside the context of girls' initiation rites, where it functions as a didactic tool and features as a centrepiece of the graduation outfit. The author first discusses two ethnographic texts, produced in the 1930s and 1960s, which shaped much of his initial (mis)understanding of the 'tshirivha'. He then outlines his own fieldwork in the mid-1990s and the amended views on the 'tshirivha' which resulted from it. From the opinions and views of female elders who had partcipated as novices in puberty rites during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, the 'tshirivha' emerges as both a symbolic tool for the expression of female identity, as a marker of a separate, semi-autonomous world, and as a subtle means for the promotion of women's interests and concerns. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract, edited]
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