Montag, 4.7.2022, 17.45 Uhr
Hörsaal III
mit Gerda Kuiper
The trade in second-hand clothes is a highly contested one, both globally and in more local settings. Whereas the purchasing of used clothes is often promoted as a way to reduce one’s ecological footprint within the Global North, the trade of such clothes from the Global North to the Global South is sometimes considered as waste dumping and a source of pollution. This lecture will start out by introducing both perspectives. It will then focus on experiences in the Global South through an anthropological case study on the second-hand clothing trade in Tanzania. A discussion of viewpoints of local government officials, traders and consumers will show that local concerns do not revolve around the environment but rather around the pollution of individual bodies, for instance through wearing second-hand underwear. The example of the used clothing trade thus highlights the cultural complexity of the concept “pollution”.