'I See by Your Outfit That You Are a Cowboy': Attire as a Marker of Ethnic, Social, and Personal Identity.

A model for interpreting the role of clothing in society and culture is presented. From the point of view of the wearer in any culture, the decision as to what to wear is based on two kinds of information: the nature of the occasion and the wearer's image of his social identity. People, therefore, use clothing to project information about themselves. An analysis of the clothing behavior of Tzeltal speaking Tenejapa Indians of Chiapas, Mexico, initially shows clothing as a symbol of ethnic differentiation from Spanish-speaking Ladino families. Within the Tenejapa society, there are accepted combinations and types of clothes for specific occasions which express the wearers' social identity and his degree of self-esteem. Any other form of clothing is marked by the addition of descriptive features termed "cues." Consequently, special outfits are worn by such little seen figures as civil-religious officials to identify them to the community. Variations from the accepted form of attire by the elements of the general population indicate the amount of freedom within the society. (Author/DE)