Other Cultures With Kilts

[gordontaos]

Now that my wife and I are living in Santa Fe we are attempting to experience all that "The City Different" has to offer.
This past week we went up to The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.
Before we even entered Maggie said, "look hon, he's wearing a kilt"!
So of course we had to get the photo of the Apache Spirit Dancer.
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Once inside we saw other items identified as kilts. Now when I speak with the guys at Taos Pueblo they call their daily garments "wraps". However here the more formal garments are officially identified as kilts.

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It looks as if even the folks here in the new world wear kilts as part of their traditional attire!

[David Thorpe]

They may be called kilts, but they are not. A man's unbifurcated garment is not necessarily a kilt. There are innumerable examples.

[Downunder Kilt]

Before declaring a garment as kilt, one has to look at the origin of the word kilt. It was originally a verb almost certainly eminating from scandinavian countries. From my limited research it became a noun in the 17th century. I would be certain that there would be an Indian word for the garments pictured. An interesting discusion on the word kilt took place on Bob Dunsire's forum in 2011 - http://forums.bobdunsire.com/forums/...d.php?t=138308

There appears to be an opinion that any wrap garment worn by various civilizations at any time in history, can be called a kilt, especially by westerners. Try telling a Indonesian that his sarong is a kilt.

[Ordway]

They may be called kilts, but they are not. A man's unbifurcated garment is not necessarily a kilt. There are innumerable examples.

I wish I could be so sure, about anything. All unbifurcated garments are not necessarily kilts, but in this case if the natives call them kilts, that is good enough for me. Words are being appropriated all the time, as was kilt a mere couple of centuries ago. It is only a word.

[gordontaos]

Actually, my Indian friends call them wraps, and the people of Taos Pueblo rarely translate their words for outsiders. I find it very interesting that the Museum of Indian Art and Culture has made a conscious decision to call them kilts, which is why I included photos of the item description. My reading of the Oxford Dictionary definition clearly defines kilts as having pleats, tartan, and a Scottish heritage.

[kiltedrennie]

I took a quick look at their web site. Under the About -> History section you'll find the following:

"In response to unsystematic collecting by Eastern museums, anthropologist Edgar Lee Hewett founded the Museum of New Mexico in 1909 with a mission to collect and preserve Southwest Native American material culture. Several years later, in 1927, John D. Rockefeller founded the renowned Laboratory of Anthropology with a mission to study the Southwest's indigenous cultures. In 1947 the two institutions merged, bringing together the most inclusive and systematically acquired collection of New Mexican and Southwestern anthropological artifacts in the country."

Perhaps the museum's origins and their intended audience influenced their naming conventions? Given my Western/American civilization upbringing, calling it a wrap sounds like a better functional description than a kilt given the tourist audience. Skirt has too much of a gender bias, and kilt is too closely tied to Scottish culture. Not many know the original meaning of "to kilt".

[opositive]

though not a kilt, i would use the "cousinly" moniker: warrior wear

[Hawk]

Actually, my Indian friends call them wraps, and the people of Taos Pueblo rarely translate their words for outsiders. I find it very interesting that the Museum of Indian Art and Culture has made a conscious decision to call them kilts, which is why I included photos of the item description. My reading of the Oxford Dictionary definition clearly defines kilts as having pleats, tartan, and a Scottish heritage.

Most of you know by now that I am an Indigenous Man, a Tribal Man, and a tribal citizen of my families Tribal Nations. GordonTaos is entirely correct, as never in our various tribal languages ( and I can only, within my own Algonquian based language group, share this knowledge...) and some working knowledge of other indigenous languages, can say that these type garments are not "Kilts". As stated above, many times these are simply referred to as Wraps, or Blankets, etc....

Most of these types of attire are worn during certain times, ceremonial times and times of celebration for The People, as we refer to ourselves. It is not often you see these worn, and when they were, around non-indigenous people early on, they might of been mistaken for the only reference they had in their culture, was either a kilt or a shirt.

Hawk

[LitTrog]

It is only a word.

So is "Indian."

[Ordway]

So is "Indian."

Yes and first used by Europeans thinking they had found India. I haven't heard of the Asian variety complaining that North American aboriginals are called Indians.