• Skip to Content
  • Skip to Main Navigation
  • Skip to Search

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington IU Bloomington

Open Search Menu

The College of Arts & Sciences

Department of Anthropology

  • Home
  • About
    • Four Fields of Study
    • Core Faculty
    • Affiliate & Adjunct Faculty
    • Associate & Assistant Scientists
    • Research Associates
    • Emeriti Faculty
    • Staff
    • Graduate Students
    • History
    • Land Acknowledgement
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • About Bloomington
    • Alumni & Giving
  • Undergraduate
    • Anthropology B.A.
    • Anthropology + Linguistics B.A.
    • Minors
    • Certificates
    • Courses
    • Field Schools
    • Advising
    • Honors Program
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Student Experience
    • FAQs
  • Graduate
    • Anthropology Ph.D.
    • Food Studies M.A.
    • Interdisciplinary Curatorship M.A.
    • Minor, Anthropology
    • Minor, Anthropology of Food
    • Advising
    • Courses
    • Financial Support
    • Fellowships & Awards
    • Student Experience
    • Admissions FAQs
    • How to Apply
  • Research
    • Research Areas
    • Publications
    • Centers & Labs
  • Career Preparation
    • Career Paths
    • Career Advising
    • Professional Training
    • Professional Organizations
  • News & Events
    • Newsletter
    • Faculty News
    • Student News
    • Departmental News
    • Calendar of Events
    • Graduate Student Association Symposium
    • Bauman Distinguished Lecture Series
    • Skomp Distinguished Lecture Series
  • Search
  • Contact
  • Student Portal
  • Newsletter
  • Faculty News
  • Student News
  • Departmental News
  • Calendar of Events
    • Graduate Student Professionalization Workshop
  • Graduate Student Association Symposium
  • Bauman Distinguished Lecture Series
  • Skomp Distinguished Lecture Series
  • Home
  • News & Events
  • Calendar of Events
  • Talk by Deborah Durham - The Way She Carries Her Handbag: The Force of Clothing in Consumerist Botswana

Talk by Deborah Durham - The Way She Carries Her Handbag: The Force of Clothing in Consumerist Botswana

Friday, February 21, 2020

3:30 P.M. – 4:30 P.M.

Location: Wylie Hall Room 115

The Way She Carries Her Handbag: The Force of Clothing in Consumerist Botswana

A young woman told me that you could tell a married woman by the way she carried her handbag, as she had "accomplished something." What does accomplishment mean, in a Botswana increasingly saturated with shopping malls and inexpensive consumer goods? Many past accounts of Botswana have noted the interplay of two forms of self-making: one, "making for oneself," associated with accomplishment; the other, making oneself as an intersubjective and intercorporeal person. This interplay persists in the new consumerism, across a range of goods including cars, houses - and clothing. Clothing, like other items, is a powerful and complicated force in self-making. The handbag (and other items) shapes the person - the way she walks and carries it - and the people surrounding the item endow it with various kinds of force. The handbag, shawls, tight leather skirts, sharp shoes, and ethnic dress donned for celebrations signify selfhood, are the product and signs of social relationships, and also are the vehicles of a kind of phatic emotional force that anchors an intercorporeality/intersubjectivity that is distinctive of selfhood in Botswana. Successful self-making, in clothing as in other practices, means bringing together all of these.

Please refer flyer for more information

  • Faculty + Staff Intranet

Department of Anthropology social media channels

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • College of Arts & Sciences
  • Department of Anthropology

The College of Arts & Sciences

Indiana University

Copyright © 2023 The Trustees of Indiana University

Accessibility | Privacy Notice

The College of Arts & Sciences

  • About
    • Four Fields of Study
      • Archaeology
      • Bioanthropology
      • Linguistic Anthropology
      • Social-Cultural Anthropology
    • Core Faculty
    • Affiliate & Adjunct Faculty
    • Associate & Assistant Scientists
    • Research Associates
    • Emeriti Faculty
    • Staff
    • Graduate Students
    • History
    • Land Acknowledgement
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • About Bloomington
      • Music + Entertainment
      • Campus Culture & Resources
      • Food & Restaurants
      • Sustainability
      • Sports & Fitness
      • Housing In Bloomington
    • Alumni & Giving
      • Newsletter
  • Undergraduate
    • Anthropology B.A.
    • Anthropology + Linguistics B.A.
    • Minors
      • Anthropology
      • Archaeology
      • Anthropology of Food
      • Medical Anthropology
    • Certificates
      • Global Human Diversity
      • Ethnography of Communication
    • Courses
    • Field Schools
      • IU Field Schools in Archaeology
      • Oaxaca, Mexico
      • Sorrento, Italy
      • IU Field Schools in Archaeology
    • Advising
      • Academic Advising
      • Career Coaching
      • Administrative Contacts
    • Honors Program
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Student Experience
    • FAQs
  • Graduate
    • Anthropology Ph.D.
      • Concentration, Archaeology + Social Context
      • Concentration, Food Studies
      • Concentration, Medical Anthropology
      • Concentration, Paleoanthropology
    • Food Studies M.A.
      • Food Studies Coursework
      • Food Studies Resources
      • Career Opportunities
    • Interdisciplinary Curatorship M.A.
    • Minor, Anthropology
    • Minor, Anthropology of Food
    • Advising
    • Courses
    • Financial Support
    • Fellowships & Awards
    • Student Experience
    • Admissions FAQs
    • How to Apply
      • Anthropology Ph.D.
      • Food Studies M.A.
  • Research
    • Research Areas
    • Publications
    • Centers & Labs
  • Career Preparation
    • Career Paths
    • Career Advising
    • Professional Training
    • Professional Organizations
  • News & Events
    • Newsletter
      • Process: Summer 2022
        • Letter from the Chair
        • New advisor Kristen Murphy
        • New editor Tony Webster
        • Class notes
        • Anya Peterson Royce retires
        • April Sievert retires
        • M. Nazif Mohib Shahrani retires
        • Susan Seizer retires
        • Faculty updates
        • Student updates
        • Tenure and promotion
        • Graduation and Awards Ceremony 2022
    • Faculty News
    • Student News
    • Departmental News
    • Calendar of Events
      • Graduate Student Professionalization Workshop
    • Graduate Student Association Symposium
    • Bauman Distinguished Lecture Series
    • Skomp Distinguished Lecture Series
  • Contact
  • Student Portal
    • Undergraduate
      • Anthropology B.A.
      • Anthropology + Linguistics B.A.
      • Minors
      • Certificates
      • Field Schools
      • Advising
      • Honors Program
      • Career Preparation
      • FAQs
      • Resources
    • Graduate
      • Ph.D.
        • Concentration, Archaeology + Social Context
        • Concentration, Food Studies
        • Concentration, Paleoanthropology
        • Concentration, Medical Anthropology
      • Ph.D. Procedures
      • Food Studies M.A.
        • Food Studies Course Descriptions
      • Minor, Anthropology
      • Minor, Anthropology of Food
      • Financial Support
        • External Funding
      • Getting Started at IU
      • Forms + Useful Links
        • Departmental Forms
        • IU + College Forms
    • Courses