Chae Rin Hwang hwa14432800
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HWA14432800 Chelsea Textile Year One Jeremy Scott is an American designer who is known for bringing elements of humour, rebellion and outlandish designs to the runway. His inspirations are from all over the world; from McDonald's to SpongeBob to actual trash. Despite his quirky take on fashion, one of the pieces in the Jeremy Scott/Adidas collaborations which is 'The Jeremy Scott x Adidas Roundhouse Mid Handcuffs' has caused racism controversy. The retro shaped shoes with orange plastic "shackles" that fastened around the ankles was blamed for promoting the great crime of race-based African slavery. Adidas Originals claimed that Scott's "outrageous and unique take on fashion has nothing to do with slavery" (Huffington Post, 2012). 
"Material Culture" is a term which emphasizes how inanimate things within the environment act on people, and are acted upon by people, in order to carry out social functions, to regulate social relations and to give symbolic meaning to human activity (Woodward, 2007, p.3). According to Kopytoff, he argues that commodities have social lives, and possess a kind of cultural biography which goes beyond their mere exchange value (Woodward, 2007, p.102). So how could material culture be applied to an object such as shackles? What was the social background behind the shackles and what kind of a social function did shackles bring to the society? "The attempt to commercialize and make popular more than 200 years of human degradation, where blacks were considered three-fifths human by our Constitution is offensive, appalling and insensitive" (J. Jackson, 2012). A shackle is not only a heavy metal cuff that is used to keep prisoners in check, but it is a key object in a specific social practice during the Atlantic slavery which began in the early 16th century: it refers to the opposition against human rights, to the right-wing bigotry against African race, but also to the unpunished human trafficking. Slavery has been a major phenomenon of human history. The truth cannot be ignored that during the long history of Atlantic Slavery, over eleven million Africans were landed in the Americas as slaves. The lives of the enslaved were to a great extent controlled by the terrible conditions in which they existed. In the Americas, the system of slavery was accepted that Africans were to be perceived and treated in animalized form. By dehumanizing Africans, it meant that the mechanics of chattel slavery could thrive. Many artefacts were transported during the transatlantic slave trade. We can obtain many important insights of the shipping of human cargoes by studying these artefacts. These artefacts also contribute to our understanding of the daily routines of slave ships. One of the surviving artefacts from the slave trade known as, the "shackle" or "bilboe", was used in order to restraint and repression the enslaved on slave ships and plantations. The Henrietta Marie was an example of a slave ship that recovered many artefacts of double iron shackles after its wreck in 1700. Components and the utility of the shackles were used as below: Bilboes comprised a pair of U-shaped shackles, which were fitted over the ankles or wrists. Commonly, two individuals would be coupled together in one double shackle (that is, the right ankle of one person would be shackled to the left ankle of another). Loops at each terminus slid onto a bolt of iron around a stock. An iron wedge was hammered into the stock to lock the shackles (Blythe&Hamilton, p.109). Alexander Falconbridge, the surgeon during the slave trade of the 18th century, wrote," The men negroes, on being brought board ship, are immediately fastened together, two by two by hand-cuffs on their wrists and by irons rivetted on their legs (1788, p.19). By shackling the slaves two by two, this gave the slavers a physical and psychological advantages as the tools prevented physical injury to crew or cargo that might result from any such revolt. Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 89.01 Kb. Share with your friends:
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