Paper short abstract:

In this paper I seek to go beyond the notion of acculturation to understand the complexities of contact and cultural change in a touristic and indigenous territory: Kuna Yala (Panama). The use of traditional dress (mola) by Kuna women is central to understanding Amerindian relations with alterity.

Paper long abstract:

In Kuna Yala (Panama), the traditional dress of women -consisting of a hand-sewn mola blouse, purchased headcloth and skirt, gold nosering, and bead limb-bindings- has been an emblem of indigenous identity for more than eighty years. Kuna narrating the story of their famous rebellion of 1925 typically say that they fought to preserve women's dress, which was being suppressed by non-indigenous police, as well as to defend their land and autonomy. More recently the mola has become an important source of income, as thousands of blouses and blouse panels are sold annually to tourists and collectors.

How is one to understand the continued use of traditional dress by Kuna women? Far from trivial or anecdotal, this question is central to understanding Amerindian relations with alterity in general and with specific alters. In particular, we focus here on the connection between native dress and tourism, asking whether Kuna women use molas to attract or metaphorically seduce foreign tourists. The answer will put in doubt the dichotomies of opposition and exclusion in terms of pure/impure often posited to explain the self-identity of peoples like the Kuna. Our analysis takes inspiration from the hypothesis that Amerindian societies are organized on principles of ambivalence as well as alterity, a notion found in Lévi-Strauss's explorations of the opening towards the Other, as well as in current discussions about the symbolic value of bodies and western dress in Amazonian societies.