When we donate our unwanted clothes to charity, we rarely think about what will happen to them: who will sort and sell them, and finally, who will revive and wear them. In this fascinating look at the multibillion dollar secondhand clothing business, Karen Tranberg Hansen takes us around the world from the West, where clothing is donated, through the salvage houses in North America and Europe, where it is sorted and compressed, to Africa, in this case, Zambia. There it enters the dynamic world of Salaula, a Bemba term that means to rummage through a pile. Essential for the African economy, the secondhand clothing business is wildly popular, to the point of threatening the indigenous textile industry. But, Hansen shows, wearing secondhand clothes is about much more than imitating Western styles. It is about taking a garment and altering it to something entirely local, something that adheres to current cultural norms of etiquette. By unraveling how these garments becomes entangled in the economic, political, and cultural processes of contemporary Zambia, Hansen also raises provocative questions about environmentalism, charity, recycling, and thrift.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
The University of Chicago Press
ISBN-13
9780226315812
eBay Product ID (ePID)
95662222
Product Key Features
Author
Karen Tranberg Hansen
Publication Name
Salaula: the World of Secondhand Clothing and Zambia
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Subject
Economics, Anthropology
Publication Year
2000
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
314 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height
232mm
Item Width
167mm
Item Weight
486g
Additional Product Features
Title_Author
Karen Tranberg Hansen
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States
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