The slippery sign cultural constructions of youth and youthful constructions of culture in tuareg men's face-veiling

摘要

A key focus of semiotic and anthropological investigation concerns aesthetics and social poetics. In poststructural analyses of signs and symbols as fluid and dynamic phenomena, an important domain of study is visual signification: for example, dress. This essay explores nuances of shifting meanings, both within and beyond the control of the wearers, in the tug-of-war between convention and invention, and beyond, in moving toward reinventions of headdress in intergenerational relationships and social upheavals. The focus is on ways in which signs in the Tuareg men 's face veils are manipulated, disputed, and transformed by youths in the Tamajaq-speaking communities of northern Niger and Mali. Moving beyond the veil's "traditional" meanings, this analysis will examine its refashioning as a "shifter" by youthful Tuareg men alienated by drought, unemployment, and war, in their counter-cultural critique through the use of style.