Other Cultures With Kilts

[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