Emma Tarlo
Biographic Data
| ID | 642230 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Emma Tarlo |
| GIVEN NAMES | Emma |
| FAMILY NAME | Tarlo |
| SIGNATURE | TARLO E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Goldsmiths University of London |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 55 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Turban
Racial hair
This article analyses how hair and race are entangled both within anthropology and in the commercial world of the billion-dollar global market for human hair. Focusing in particular on detached hair, it explores the recurring dynamic through which hair is racialized, on the one hand, and resists racialization, on the other. This process is traced in three interrelated contexts, the roots of which are embedded in historical conditions of dominatio…
Great Expectations
Wigs are curious liminal objects that hover somewhere between the categories of prosthesis and clothing and offer a variety of possibilities for the transformation of appearances from hair substitution and covering to disguise. In this article, I focus on the particular demands and expectations placed upon the sheitel (Yiddish term for wig) worn by increasing numbers of married Jewish women who identify as frum (Torah-observant). Based on researc…
Close Encounters of a Hairy Kind
A reflection on visual methods in anthropology, focusing on Emma Tarlo's research on the global trade in human hair
Dress and the South Asian Diaspora
In the introduction to his exploration of Hinduism in a British context (1987), Richard Burghart begins with an anecdote about the Maharaja of Jaipur, Madho Singh. When the Maharaja travelled to London in 1902, he recounts, he carried with him a range of indigenous products and undertook a range of ritual acts so that he could maintain some semblance of ritual purity, even though for a Hindu of his status the journey across the kalipani, the blac…
Visibly Muslim
Muslims in Britain and cosmopolitan cities throughout the West are increasingly choosing to express their identity and faith through dress, whether by wearing colourful headscarves, austere black garments or creative new forms of Islamic fashion. Why is dress such an important issue for Muslims? Why is it such a major topic of media interest and international concern? This timely and important book cuts through media stereotypes of Muslim appeara…
Hijab Online
This essay looks at the world of cyber Islamic commerce and the marketing of new forms of hijab through tracing the connections between the British Muslim entrepreneur Wahid Rahman who runs a website called HijabShop.com and the Dutch designer Cindy van den Bremen, designer of a new form of sports head covering known as Capsters. It considers the lifestyles of these two individuals, their diverse philosophies and their personal involvement in the…
Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis
An extended illustrated book review of Marjane Satrape's comic-strip book, Persepolis, which focuses on growing up in Iran in the 1970's and 1980's
Islamic Cosmopolitanism
This article focuses on the dress of three prominent Muslim women who have made a significant mark in British public life: the textile artist Rezia Wahid, the stand-up comedienne Shazia Mirza, and the councilor and advisor on Muslim affairs Humera Khan. It focuses, in particular, on their sartorial biographies, tracing the processes, experiences, and reasoning behind their clothing choices. Whilst the wearing of dress that is visibly identifiable…
Hijab in London
This article is about the significance of dress as a visible indicator of difference in multicultural London. It focuses in particular on the hijab (Muslim woman's headscarf), suggesting that its adoption by middle-class Muslim women is often a product, not so much of their cultural backgrounds as of the trans-cultural encounters they experience in a cosmopolitan urban environment. The article explores the transformative potential of hijab, demon…
A taste of anthropology
Even in Droitwich, it was possible. The onions turned a violent shade of ochre as they donned their spicy coats and the fragrant steam that filled the kitchen seemed to burn a clear passage directl
Reconsidering stereotypes
Dangerous Designs
Undressing Religion
From Islam to Confucianism to Voodoo, dress plays a pivotal role in religious expression. This book investigates how dress symbolically evidences both religious and social systems across a wide range of cultures - from Africa and South America to Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Caribbean. In some of these cultures, dress is part of a system of social control. Gender issues feature prominently since the control of female sexuality is often of gr…
Clothing Matters
Married to the mahatma
The Problem of What To Wear
Exhibitions
Hijab in London
This article is about the significance of dress as a visible indicator of difference in multicultural London. It focuses in particular on the hijab (Muslim woman's headscarf), suggesting that its adoption by middle-class Muslim women is often a product, not so much of their cultural backgrounds as of the trans-cultural encounters they experience in a cosmopolitan urban environment. The article explores the transformative potential of hijab, demon…
Islamic Cosmopolitanism
This article focuses on the dress of three prominent Muslim women who have made a significant mark in British public life: the textile artist Rezia Wahid, the stand-up comedienne Shazia Mirza, and the councilor and advisor on Muslim affairs Humera Khan. It focuses, in particular, on their sartorial biographies, tracing the processes, experiences, and reasoning behind their clothing choices. Whilst the wearing of dress that is visibly identifiable…
Reconsidering stereotypes
Racial hair
This article analyses how hair and race are entangled both within anthropology and in the commercial world of the billion-dollar global market for human hair. Focusing in particular on detached hair, it explores the recurring dynamic through which hair is racialized, on the one hand, and resists racialization, on the other. This process is traced in three interrelated contexts, the roots of which are embedded in historical conditions of dominatio…
The Problem of What To Wear
Exhibitions
The Problem of What To Wear
Married to the mahatma
Clothing Matters
Undressing Religion
From Islam to Confucianism to Voodoo, dress plays a pivotal role in religious expression. This book investigates how dress symbolically evidences both religious and social systems across a wide range of cultures - from Africa and South America to Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Caribbean. In some of these cultures, dress is part of a system of social control. Gender issues feature prominently since the control of female sexuality is often of gr…
Dangerous Designs
A taste of anthropology
Even in Droitwich, it was possible. The onions turned a violent shade of ochre as they donned their spicy coats and the fragrant steam that filled the kitchen seemed to burn a clear passage directl
Reconsidering stereotypes
Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis
An extended illustrated book review of Marjane Satrape's comic-strip book, Persepolis, which focuses on growing up in Iran in the 1970's and 1980's
Islamic Cosmopolitanism
This article focuses on the dress of three prominent Muslim women who have made a significant mark in British public life: the textile artist Rezia Wahid, the stand-up comedienne Shazia Mirza, and the councilor and advisor on Muslim affairs Humera Khan. It focuses, in particular, on their sartorial biographies, tracing the processes, experiences, and reasoning behind their clothing choices. Whilst the wearing of dress that is visibly identifiable…
Hijab in London
This article is about the significance of dress as a visible indicator of difference in multicultural London. It focuses in particular on the hijab (Muslim woman's headscarf), suggesting that its adoption by middle-class Muslim women is often a product, not so much of their cultural backgrounds as of the trans-cultural encounters they experience in a cosmopolitan urban environment. The article explores the transformative potential of hijab, demon…
Visibly Muslim
Muslims in Britain and cosmopolitan cities throughout the West are increasingly choosing to express their identity and faith through dress, whether by wearing colourful headscarves, austere black garments or creative new forms of Islamic fashion. Why is dress such an important issue for Muslims? Why is it such a major topic of media interest and international concern? This timely and important book cuts through media stereotypes of Muslim appeara…
Hijab Online
This essay looks at the world of cyber Islamic commerce and the marketing of new forms of hijab through tracing the connections between the British Muslim entrepreneur Wahid Rahman who runs a website called HijabShop.com and the Dutch designer Cindy van den Bremen, designer of a new form of sports head covering known as Capsters. It considers the lifestyles of these two individuals, their diverse philosophies and their personal involvement in the…
Dress and the South Asian Diaspora
In the introduction to his exploration of Hinduism in a British context (1987), Richard Burghart begins with an anecdote about the Maharaja of Jaipur, Madho Singh. When the Maharaja travelled to London in 1902, he recounts, he carried with him a range of indigenous products and undertook a range of ritual acts so that he could maintain some semblance of ritual purity, even though for a Hindu of his status the journey across the kalipani, the blac…
Close Encounters of a Hairy Kind
A reflection on visual methods in anthropology, focusing on Emma Tarlo's research on the global trade in human hair
Great Expectations
Wigs are curious liminal objects that hover somewhere between the categories of prosthesis and clothing and offer a variety of possibilities for the transformation of appearances from hair substitution and covering to disguise. In this article, I focus on the particular demands and expectations placed upon the sheitel (Yiddish term for wig) worn by increasing numbers of married Jewish women who identify as frum (Torah-observant). Based on researc…
Racial hair
This article analyses how hair and race are entangled both within anthropology and in the commercial world of the billion-dollar global market for human hair. Focusing in particular on detached hair, it explores the recurring dynamic through which hair is racialized, on the one hand, and resists racialization, on the other. This process is traced in three interrelated contexts, the roots of which are embedded in historical conditions of dominatio…
The Turban
Sociology (15 works) · Art (12 works) · History (12 works) · Aesthetics (9 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Law (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Fashion and Cultural Textiles (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)