1 FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
Introduction: Commercial, imperial, and tribal sociocultural systems represent a continuum of characteristics along which individual examples emerge to blossom or decline in size and complexity as they move through time. One system is not “better” than another, and movement from one system to another is neither inevitable nor a sign of “progress.” A commercial sociocultural system is the expression we use to describe a structure of people all over the world at one point in time and space interacting with one another across many societies through commerce in goods and services. Looking at dress allows us to see this interaction in sharper focus.
Course Objective: Analyze cultural factors such as economics, technology, social organization, aesthetics, religion, and rituals relative to dress and humanity.
Goals: Describe the characteristics of a commercial sociocultural system. Explain the role of dress in a commercial sociocultural system.
Materials: Scale of World Culture (on Canvas) FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
We begin first by examining the contemporary commercial sociocultural system most familiar to you using 21st-century examples. Sometimes looking at a familiar society objectively is challenging, because we each inhabit our own bubble of experience. The urban executive and the Idaho logger live different lives, but exist in the commercial American sociocultural system and experience life differently than those in tribal and imperial systems. Comparing the three sociocultural systems encourages thinking about how your life in the commercial world differs from lives in the tribal and imperial worlds of either the past or today. FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
Commercial sociocultural systems are based on global business and industry – and its implication for dress. Using the word commercial conveys the idea that for the last 500 years, through globalization, people are connected to one another by the manufacture and trade of products and services and other aspects of culture. FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
Flat-world platform is a phenomenon that enables, empowers, and enjoins individuals and small groups to go global so easily and seamlessly. This phenomena is the product of the convergence of the personal computer with fiber optic cable and the rise of work flow software (Friedman, 2006).
For example, a freelance designer in Portland, Oregon can manage clients in LA and Boston, create Adobe merchandising boards and send digitally, video conference with clients, send technical packs to factories in Taiwan or India, and track production via the Internet.
Take a look at the label on the shirt you are wearing right now. Where was it made? How about the shoes on your feet right now? (unless you are barefoot, of course) FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
Listed below are the predominant characteristics of commercial sociocultural systems:
many people live in large cities
commercial culture is industrialized
concentrated farming is more profitable and efficient than individual family farms
belief in progress and science and reason to solve problems
commercial economy is based on large corporations
many consumers are literate and ranked by financial income and education rather than caste or bloodlines
religion is an important part of identity for many
patriotism is expected and emphasized as a right and obligation of every citizen of each nation-state FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
Population and residence are important implications for dress since they signal social identity. There are huge populations of people working in highly specialized jobs wearing obvious forms of identification such as uniforms and name badges. They facilitate city life with minimal confusion and citizens feel free to communicate individual views through t-shirts indicating team spirit, musical preference, political agendas, corporate advertising, etc.
Dress can also serve to downplay gender distinctions. FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
population, residence, and dress
In commercial sociocultural systems, citizens engage in frequent travel for business and recreation. Corporations have international locations and some international destinations are chosen for weddings/honeymoons, holidays, and vacations.
College students are backpacking across Europe and Asia. (Have you?)
As such, retailers offer an array of goods for travel such as luggage, backpacks, camping gear, and light weight, wrinkle-free clothing. Hence the growing need for OPDD programs in colleges and universities nationwide. FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
population, residence, and dress
A diasporic group may introduce new ideas in its newfound place which are easily accepted or copied by those around them or appear in a collision of ideas. For instance, when the Christian and Islamic persecution fueled Jewish immigration to the U.S. after 70CE, the Jewish diaspora crystalized unique dress forms such as the tefillin (tef-FILL-in), tallit (ta-LEET), and tzitzit (tseet-tseet).
diaspora: a migration of people from one region to another FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
technology, economy, and dress
Products are manufactured, purchased, and sold in exchange for money in commercial sociocultural systems. Textiles and apparel are manufactured in huge quantities within a factory setting. Fabric is woven and knitted from a wide range of materials drawn from agricultural, timber, and chemical sectors around the world; while almost every country has its own domestic textile and apparel industry, production processes are integrated on a global scale, with several countries contributing to the production of the final garment based on skill level and labor cost (Dickerson, 1998). FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
technology, economy, and dress
It is necessary to mass-produce apparel using standard sizing because it makes it feasible to cut and sew billions of garments at high rates of speeds and fit the greatest number of people. This works well so long as a population is relatively homogenous with narrow ranges of variation in height, weight, girth, and body mass. Standard sizing has been criticized by the U.S. because it does not serve a population rich in ethnic diversity (Chae, 2013).
The industry research association, Textiles and Clothing Technology Corporation (TC), conducted a comprehensive sizing survey of the U.S. population to create SizeUSA- current measurements on sizes and shapes of today’s adult consumer for manufacturers, brands, and retailers. FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
technology, economy, and dress
With less production of food on the family farm and more in agribusiness, there is a need for heavy machinery, fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Dress choices should protect and safeguard the farm worker from a variety of hazards.
In commercial sociocultural systems, military uniforms serve as an assemblage of technological defense mechanisms; from a military vantage point, dress is a tool of battle. FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
technology, economy, and dress
The massive scope of production of all goods in commercial culture has negative effects on the natural environment such as textile bleaching and dyeing. Thus, recycling and upcycling is both an environmental necessity and a fashion force. For example, petro-plastic pop bottles are now restructured into fibers that are transformed into luggage and sportswear fabric such as polar fleece.
Fashion is the driving force behind the manufacturing and distribution of most dress in commercial sociocultural systems; cross-cultural influences, technological improvements, demographic shifts, and current events all contribute to the sensation that we need new wardrobes to communicate who we are in changing times. Retailers such as H&M and Zara offer “fast fashion” on-trend garments produced quickly and at a low cost; fast fashion shortens the time from idea to sales rack from 6 to 9 months to 3 to 4 weeks – profits increase since these retailers are ahead of their competitors.
In 1930, the average American woman owned 9 outfits. Today, she buys more than 60 new pieces of clothing each year. How about you? FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
social structure, division of labor, and dress
Since commercial enterprise drives commercial sociocultural systems, people are stratified based on their access to money and profits; most visibly is the extremes of poverty and wealth. Impoverished and lower- income individuals often own and wear fewer garments, sometimes made of lower-quality materials; whereas wealthier individuals have the money to spend on types of dress that indicates social position (i.e. custom made at haute couture houses by famous designers). They can afford to follow fashion trends in dress, and they may even hire personal trainers to maintain a certain body form.
The benefit of mass production and importation of apparel is the availability of low-cost high-quality clothing. By comparison, sewing at home is time consuming, doesn’t save money, and is now an act of artisanship since fewer people understand apparel construction and pattern making. This loss of expertise is viewed as a national security issue: most uniforms produced for the U.S. military are now required to be manufactured in the U.S. per a congressional bill in 2013. FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
social structure, division of labor, and dress
When middle and higher-income individuals tire of their garments, they may sell them to a consignment shop or donate to charities. In 2013, Goodwill took second-hand shopping to a new level with Second Debut, a chain of upmarket brand name and designer label apparel boutiques.
Secondhand trade from the U.S. and Europe to Zambia takes on a different twist. Clothes are reworked to better fulfill the local aesthetic, which are viewed as fashionable. This application of used clothing has implications for the way we look to others- people in many African countries wear cast-off Euro-American dress and thus appear to Euro- American eyes as more poverty stricken than what they really are. FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
social structure, division of labor, and dress
International trade agreements influences world dress. For example, when workers in developing countries such as Mexico earn regular income, they can afford to purchase brand-name garments. As demand for brand-name apparel and other Euro-American styles increases, world dress become more evident.
When designers search the globe for fresh ideas that will appeal to many markets, the ethnic and national dress of these very same countries will provide sources of inspiration for world fashion.
world dress: items commonly worn in many locations across the world (business suits, jeans, uniforms, athletic shoes)
world fashion: items currently trending across the world
national dress: dress specific to a society within its own borders; inspiration for world fashion FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
polity and dress
World dress characterized the commercial sociocultural system in which many of us live and work. Euro-American dress styles have been culturally borrowed or culturally authenticated by the people of countries all over the world. Business suits, jeans, uniforms, and athletic shoes are common reminders of global cultural influence on all societies suggesting a new egalitarian style of dress from other world cultures have been incorporated into world dress.
As nations form and re-form along geographic and ethnic boundaries in the globalizing world, people of many countries often feel the need to communicate national identity by means of a national costume. Tourists often collect dolls in national costume as souvenirs and since many modern nations are made up of a variety of ethnic groups, singling one specific form of national dress is difficult.
At the same time that some forms of ethnic dress are being selected for transformation into national dress, other forms of ethnic dress are being selected for transformation into hi fashion.
national costume: a national dress that has crystalized into an ideal form FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
polity and dress
Despite the homogenous appearance of world dress and world fashion, cultural differences persist. For example, in parts of Asia, some youth both relish their global connections in adopting global styles of dress yet retain their tribal and family origins in their hearts; they wear expensive designer togs and frequent trendy discos but hold the values of respect for age and family. The trend toward homogenous dress worldwide, especially apparent in urban youth, tends to blind us to the cultural differences that continue to exist behind the shared dress. FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
religion, ideology, and dress
In other cultures, religion is superseded by an ideology. Consider Confucianism, the scholarly tradition and moral order based on the teachings of Confucius or communism, a social order characterized by the absence of class and the common ownership of the means of production based on the writings of Karl Marx.
ideology: an overall philosophy or way of thinking about right and wrong
Political ideology is evident in dress in commercial sociocultural systems. For example, in Communist China after 1946, the Mao suit became daily dress for most Chinese. Another example is that U.S. citizens pride themselves on their equality under democracy and the ubiquitous use of jeans. FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
religion, ideology, and dress
Some commercial sociocultural systems are characterized by monotheism and the faithful are often distinguished by dress that fosters the act of worship. For instance, the ritual act of donning the tefillin and tallit by Jewish men and wearing the veil by Muslim women. Many types of ecclesiastical dress and dress practices were instituted at a time when the culture was smaller in scale. In some cultures, ecclesiastical and religious dress may be modernized to align with changing times.
monotheism: belief in one omniscient God; this God may differ from culture to culture
ecclesiastical dress: dress relating to Christian Church or clergy FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
collision of religion, ideology, and dress
Religion, ideology and dress collide with the use of the veil by Muslim women. Some view the veil worn by Islamic fundamentalist women as oppression, a symbol of religion that denies women political voice and economic freedom and thus being inferior to men. For some Islamic women, the veil offers protection from unwanted male advances, providing a spiritual center, and clearly rejecting Western influence (el Guindi, 1999).
The veil is sometimes considered a fashion statement. The veil is a complex statement about Islamic women’s social role in a commercial sociocultural system which affects travelers visiting a Muslim country. FCSE 3080 Dress and Humanity
Part 4: Sociocultural Systems of World Culture & Dress Commercial Sociocultural Systems
In sum, many people live in urban centers and are engaged in the manufacturing of products that satisfy the diverse needs of both domestic and overseas economies. Dress is an important tool that communicates identity and status in commercial sociocultural systems. Countries depend upon one another through trade and supranational organizations (UN and WTO) to keep peace, maintain trade linkages, and distribute the benefits of a world economy to all sociocultural groups and to those societies actively engaged in globalization.