Religious Life of Dress

From clothing to the painted and scarified nude body, through overt, public display or esoteric symbols known only to the initiated, dress can convey information about beliefs, faith, identity, power, agency, resistance, and fashion. Taking a 'senses' approach, Hume's engaging account takes into consideration the look, smell, feel, touch and sound of religious apparel, the 'smells and bells' of dress and its accoutrements, as well as the emotions evoked by donning religious garb. The book's global perspective provides wide-ranging, yet detailed, coverage of religious dress, from the history and meaning of the simple 'no-frills' attire of the Anabaptists to the power structure displayed in the elaborate fabrics and colours of the Roman Catholic Church; Hume examines the 2,500 year-old tradition of Buddhist robes, the nudity of India's holy men, and much more. With chapters on Sufism, Vodou, modern Pagans, as well as painted and tattooed indigenous and modern Western bodies, the reader is swept along on a sensual journey of the sight, sound, smell and feel of wearing religion. Unique in its field, this intriguing and informative anthropological approach to the body and dress is an essential read for students of Anthropology, Anthropology of Dress, Sociology, Fashion and Textiles, Culture and Dress, Body and Culture and Cultural Studies.

The book is a good introduction to either religious studies or to the importance of religious dress to personal or group identity. Well worth reading., Anthropologist Hume (Univ. of Queensland, Australia) has published several works on pagan and aboriginal religious practices in Australia. This book, filled with ideas and quotes from other writers, attempts to provide an overview of an extremely complex subject., Hume’s emphasis on the smell, feel, texture, and types of cloth used in religious practice is particularly original, as is her discussion of dress associated with the dead. This unique volume underscores the ways that clothing contributes to people’s identities and their sense of moral order, in this world and beyond., Lucidly written, this is a superb account of religious life, its rites and taboos read through dress and embellishment. Hume engages new ground in her world-wide coverage of Western religions, Islam, the great Eastern faiths and mystical ceremonies. With exceptional insight she demonstrates the sensorial and transformative lie at the heart of these embodied practices., This book combines deep insights into the symbolic significance with evocative descriptions of the sensuous experience of religious dress and adornment in a wide array of spiritual traditions, from Catholicism to Candomblé and from Buddhism to Modern Paganism. By digging beneath appearances, Lynne Hume enables the reader to acquire an embodied sense of the varieties of religious devotion and experience through what people wear.

Lynne Hume is Associate Professor in the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.