Tying and untying the trouser-cord

Dimensions of normativity, morality, and emotion in Pakistani body behaviour

Bibliographic Data

ID2174435
AuthorsJürgen Wasim Frembgen (corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume5
Issue1
Pages49-70
Publication date2004-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanberra Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0314-9099 • E-ISSN: 1740-9314
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1444221042000201698
OpenAlexW1964423755
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited9

This paper focuses on a study of the multi-functional trouser-cord (that ties traditional Pakistani trousers) and its connotations within the Islamic dress tradition as well as local concepts of the body. Comparable to the importance of belts and loincloths in other cultures of the Muslim, Christian, and Hindu world, the apparently simple and unpretentious drawstring plays a central role in the Pakistani discourse of chastity and desire. On the one hand the tying of the trouser-cord stands for the Muslim ideals of modesty and body control, but on the other the untying of the string refers to the dimension of emotion and sexuality where it can be strategically deployed as a medium of erotic play, allurement, and sensuousness. Thus, the trouser-cord is an item of clothing carrying ambiguous meanings, reflecting the tension and moral polarity between ‘nomos’ and ‘eros’

Aesthetics · Clothing · Epistemology · Human sexuality · Islam · Morality · Political science · Sociology · Theology · Tying · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Gender Studies · Law · Martial Arts: Techniques, Psychology, and Education · Philosophy · Public Spaces through Art

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