Facebook X YouTube Instagram TikTok NetGalley
Google Books previews are unavailable because you have chosen to turn off third party cookies for enhanced content. Visit our cookies page to review your cookie settings.

This is not a Grass Skirt (Paperback)

On fibre skirts (liku) and female tattooing (veiqia) in nineteenth century Fiji

P&S History > Social Science & Culture > Anthropology & Sociology World History > Australia & the Pacific

Imprint: Sidestone Press
Pages: 236
Illustrations: 68fc/24bw
ISBN: 9789088908125
Published: 24th October 2019
Casemate UK Academic

Please note this book may be printed for your order so despatch times may be slightly longer than usual.

in_stock

£45.00


You'll be £45.00 closer to your next £10.00 credit when you purchase This is not a Grass Skirt. What's this?
+£4.99 UK Delivery or free UK delivery if order is over £40
(click here for international delivery rates)

Order within the next 11 hours, 37 minutes to get your order processed the next working day!

Need a currency converter? Check XE.com for live rates



The Pacific ‘grass skirt’ has provoked debates about the demeaning and sexualised depiction of Pacific bodies. While these stereotypical portrayals associated with ‘nakedness’ are challenged in this book, the complex uses and meanings of the garments themselves are examined, including their link to other body adornments and modifications. In nineteenth-century Fiji, beautiful fibre skirts (liku) in a great variety of shapes and colours were lifetime companions for women. First fitted around puberty when she received her veiqia (tattooing), women’s successive liku were adapted at marriage and during maternity, performing a multiplicity of social functions.

This book is based on a systematic investigation of previously understudied liku in museums collections around the world. Through the prism of one garment, multiple ways of looking at dress are considered, including their classification in museums and archives. Also highlighted are associated tattooing (veiqia) practices, perceptions of modesty, the intricacies of intercultural encounters and the significance of collections and cultural heritage today.

 

The book is intended for those interested in often neglected women’s objects and practices in the Pacific, in dress and adornment more generally and in the use of museum collections and archives. It is richly illustrated with rare and previously unpublished paintings and drawings, as well many examples of liku themselves.

There are no reviews for this book. Register or Login now and you can be the first to post a review!

Other titles in Sidestone Press...