Exoticisation undressed is an innovative ethnography that makes visible
the many layers through which our understandings of indigenous cultures
are filtered and their inherent power to distort and refract
understanding. The book focuses in detail on the clothing practices of
the Ember'a in Panama, an Amerindian ethnic group, who have gained
national and international visibility through their engagement with
indigenous tourism. The very act of gaining visibility while wearing
indigenous attire has encouraged among some Embera communities a closer
identification with an indigenous identity and a more confident
representational awareness. The clothes that the Embera wear are not
simply used to convey messages, but also become constitutive of their
intended messages. By wearing indigenous-and-modern clothes, the
Embera-who are often seen by outsiders as shadows of a vanishing
world-reclaim their place as citizens of a contemporary nation. Through
reflexive engagement, Exoticisation
undressed exposes the workings of ethnographic nostalgia and the Western
quest for a singular, primordial authenticity, unravelling instead new
layers of complexity that reverse and subvert exoticisation.