New Age Anthropologie

Most women I know let out a sigh of yearning at the mention of Anthropologie. Gorgeous, albeit pricey, clothes, accessories, and décor. I was recently at my friend Michelle’s place when I notice their monthly catalogue on her kitchen table. Excited to lust after items I could not afford, I started to thumb my way through the catalogue. Upon closer examination, my excitement faded, quicly displaced by discomfort.

The location of the shoot appears to be India. A beautiful backdrop no doubt, but not very original and quite frankly, a little colonial in style.

A quick sample of the catalogue to your right - the lovely model is wearing the "contrasting halves dress". How clever, to have a contrasting dress on a glowing model in front of a small army of brown boys. Are we seriously still using "locals" as props to ensure the product is prominently shown? Is this actually seen as appropriate?

See more of the catalogue here.

I was thinking about why this particular company would bother to go on a trek to India to produce an offensive catalogue. Then it struck me: Anthropologie. The connotation of the brand name itself, Anthropologie, combined with this absurd neo-colonial imagery leads me to ask the question: Are people that unaware of history, or do they feel they have the power to simply ignore it?

Anthropologists have generally made me uncomfortable. The need to examine other cultures is not what makes me uncomfortable, it is the classic attitudes that I have encountered in reading, talks and the like that have incited an unsettling feeling to stir deep within my belly. The history of this particular field is not pretty. The study of people in "other" cultures emerged from the study of natural history. Cultures that had been colonized by European powers were studied in a "scientific" manner, studied as one would study the environment. Once anthropology was seen as distinct from natural history, the concept of race and the placement of value on races was a hot topic. Cultural dominance often comes with the assumption of cultural superiority - and wasn't that the essence of colonialism?

Although the field has changed rapidly and anthropologists of today would not share the views of their nineteenth and even twentieth century peers, it's unfortunate that this retailer has chosen to be "clever" with their May catalogue and use beautiful clothes to dredge up reminders of an ugly past.

"Anthropologie offers a one-of-a-kind and compelling shopping experience that makes women feel beautiful, hopeful and connected ... Complex as you are, you remain our inspiration and because of this, we endeavor to bring you an unimagined experience."

I am a bit more complex than you imagined.

Identity and Survival

Upon discovering the colloquial use of Paki in Spain (or in Barcelona at the very least), Andreea and and I decided to dig a little deeper.

First stop? Google. After watching a documentary called Pakcelona, we learned about Huma Jamshed, a businesswoman who owns a travel agency and started a Pakistani women's association in Barcelona - ACESOP. We tracked her down in Raval, one of the city's better known immigrant-populated neighbourhoods. Since it was siesta time, we headed from her office to the women's centre.

After moving to Spain to complete a PhD in Madrid, Huma started a business in Barcelona and established ACESOP. Huma has developed an interesting perspective on the subject of Pakis. Check out the video below for her thoughts.

From this conversation, it became clear that for Huma survival issues were the primary priority and identity issues would only become important after the community becomes more established in Spain.

It is impossible to undermine the importance of her point; economic and social security are not only vital to quality of life but survival itself. When helping someone escape an abusive home and trying to ensure their immigration status will be valid without their sponsor, it becomes obvious that identity politics will not be front of mind.

This, however, does not mean that survival and identity are mutually exclusive issues. In immigrationspeak, settlement and integration are processes vital to considering immigration successful for both the immigrant and host country. (Yes, people have all sorts of issues with these terms and their meanings, but bear with me for now.)

Settlement typically refers to the immediate issues - housing, employment, schooling and the like.

Integration is a longer-term process, the ultimate aim being for immigrants to feel they are able to participate in their adopted society socially, economically, culturally and politically. For me, this vision represents the opposite of ghetto-ization.

When people have a name for a group of "ethnic" people that the community itself does not use, when they are geographically clustered in particular neighbourhoods that are considered dangerous until the yuppies move in and gentrify it, when an employer cannot with "good conscience" hire an individual because of their ethnic background as it is perceived to be a huge risk, when girls are being asked by their parents to not continue school after high school so as not to be corrupted by the "adopted" country's culture - this vision of integration is a distant reverie.

The way an identity is constructed by both the adopted society and the ethnic community will forever shape the relationship between the two.

When a Paki means a corner store to locals, it corners Pakis into a particular socio-economic box. Identity shapes how one will survive - barely living is barely survival.