The Cultural Authentication of Ribbon: Use and Test of a Concept

Abstract

The concept of cultural authentication was utilized to organize research on the assimilation of European-produced silk ribbon into the material culture of native American tribes of the Great Lakes region from the mid-18th to mid-19th centuries. Conversely, the ethnohistorical data on ribbon were applied to the concept of cultural authentication as a test of its utility as a cross-cultural theoretical construct. While the findings suggest that further elaboration of the level of "characterization" is necessary, the concept of cultural authentication is affirmed as a means to provide a structure for the inquiry into and the interpretation of the transfer of cultural phenomena such as textiles and clothing.