| Abstract |
- The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of West
African influence on apparel textiles in the United States during
the 1960's and 1970's as depicted in four magazines, Ebony, Life,
Time and Mademoiselle. The objectives of the study were to:
establish a frequency of occurrence for the use of West African and
West African influenced apparel textiles, determine the periods of
greatest use of West African and West African influenced apparel
textiles, determine if there were a difference among the magazines
in frequency of occurrence of West African and West African
influenced apparel textiles, determine the most frequent specific
West African apparel textile designs and motifs and determine the
levels of cultural authentication that occurred with the borrowing
and use of West African apparel textiles all within the United
States during the period beginning in 1960 up to and including 1979
as depicted in Ebony, Life,, Time and Mademoiselle magazines.
Issues of Ebony, Life, Time and Mademoiselle magazines from
every other month beginning with January dating from 1960 to
1979 were sampled (n = 438). Time and Life were weekly
publications therefore the first issue of each month was used. Life
magazine was not used from 1973 to 1979 as it was temporarily
discontinued. Each illustration, color and black and white, showing
West African and/or West African influenced apparel textiles was
analyzed. In order to achieve percentages of West African and West
African influenced apparel textiles for each magazine, the
November issues of Ebony and Mademoiselle magazines from each
year were sampled (n = 40) to determine the number of non-West
African and non-West African influenced apparel textiles. Content
analysis methodology was used. The text accompanying the
illustrations was used to determine the origin and type of textile
design.
To test the reliability of the researcher's judgement, a pilot
test for interjudge reliability was conducted. The researcher and
two judges examined issues of Ebony, JJ.t. and Mademoiselle
magazines. lnterjudge reliability for West African and West
African influenced apparel textiles was 100%, and for non-West
African and non-West African influenced apparel textiles it was
87% - 99%.
Descriptive statistics in the form of frequency counts and
percentages were utilized. Chi square contingency tables were
used to test the hypotheses.
It was hypothesized that there would be a significant difference
in frequency of occurrence of West African and West African
influenced apparel textiles in the United States from all four
magazines between the decades of the 1960's and 1970's as
depicted in Ebony, Life, Time and Mademoiselle magazines. No
significant difference was found between the decades unless the
magazines were analyzed individually. Ebony and Mademoiselle
individually showed significant differences between the
frequencies of occurrences in the 1960's as compared to the 1970's
of West African and West African influenced apparel textiles.
There were no occurrences in any of the issues of Life and Time
sampled.
It was hypothesized that there would be a significant
difference in frequency of occurrence of West African and West
African influenced apparel textiles in the United States between
Ebony, Life, Time and Mademoiselle magazines during the period
beginning in 1960 up to and including 1979. There was a difference
in frequency of occurrence of West African and West African
influenced apparel textiles between the four magazines because no
occurrences were found in Life and Time.
Cultural authentication theory was used as the theoretical
framework for this study. Cultural authentication was developed
as a means of distinguishing nonwestern dress from western dress
(Eicher and Erekosima, 1980).
It was hypothesized that there would be a significant difference
in frequency of occurrence among the levels of cultural
authentication of West African textile designs in the United States
during the period beginning in 1960 up to and including 1979 as
depicted in Ebony, Life, Time and Mademoiselle magazines.
This hypothesis was not tested because only 11 illustrations had
evidence of selection, the first level of cultural authentication.
West African and West African influenced apparel textiles were
apparent in the 1960's and 1970's as depicted in Ebony, Li.t., Time
and Mademoiselle magazines but were not as frequent as had been
expected from the literature reviewed. Most of the overall
occurrences of West African and West African influenced apparel
textiles and all of the 1960's occurrences were in Ebony, a
magazine targeted towards African Americans. A variety of West
African and West African influenced apparel design types occurred
in the 1970's in Ebony and Mademoiselle, only kente cloth occurred
in the 1960's.
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