Power of Costume

In Playing Indian, Philip Deloria describes the role the Indian played as a chaacter in the development of a newly forming American identity.  On page 21 he writes, "We construct identity by finding oursleves in relation to an array of people and objects who are not ourselves."  In the construction of a new "American" identity, colonists aimed to construct themselves in opposition to the English, or the people of the "Old World" that they had left behind.  In order to define themselves as different and in order to claim an identity that truly belonged to them and the new land they occupied, they needed to employ aspects of an already existing identity that was present in this "New World".  The Native American identity was one that was readily accessible and recognizable and could be molded as the developing Americans desired. 

On page 20 Deloria says, "Indian "Others" have been constructed at the intersection of real and imagined Indians."  This statement refers to the practice of the colonists to take the parts of Indianness that they liked and found positive and their construction of other imagined aspects that would fit more conveniently into the character that they were hoping to design than some of the negatively viewed traits that existed in real Indian identity.  Native identities were desired because of their assumed bravery, rebellion, knowledge of the land, connection to a past history and set of traditions on this land, and adventurousness.  Colonists desired these qualities to set them apart from the English that were trying to control them.  However, colonists also wanted to remain seperated from the Indians who were also savage, uncivilized, and under their ultimate control.  Therefore, the Indian identity remained as a costume that was only brought out to be used in certain circumstances to make a statement when it was most apporpriate and effective. 

There is a power in being able to put on and remove this costume when convenient in order to lay claim to supposedly positive aspects of a people.  However, in taking the costume off again the Americans can then reassert their otherness and power over the people they sometimes like to dress up as.  The same is the case with black face.  This putting on of costumes and balancing of power and identity seems to be carefully thought through and calculated.  The exception to this percision seems to take place during carnival activities where revelry, rebellion, and chaos seem to come together for a time of enjoyment and possibly some kind of political statement. 

This image comes from St. Thomas Carnival in the Caribbean.  Though this history of Carnival is surely different from the U.S. revolutionary period account given in Deloria's book, I had never really thought about the possible influences of Native culture on the costumes that are present during this holiday of ours.