Academic research: musings

[mariusgmioc]

Interesting topic and definitely food for thought!

Now what antique photos of people wearing traditional dress may tell us is open to interpretation and debate as we won't know the circumstances in which that photo was made.

I remember as a kid, on a village fair day in my grandparents village, I could get dressed up like a cowboy and get my photo taken. Does this mean that in the 60' the Romanian kids wore cowboy gear and were sporting guns?! Definitely not.
But at the same time at another village fair day I would wear the Romanian national dress... that was almost identical to the one my father wore as a kid... that was almost identical tho what my grandfather wore every Sunday when going to the church... or to the village pub.

And since many of the old photos with people wearing ethnic clothing are of genuine people wearing their festive clothes, and since ceremonial/festive clothes were almost invariably inspired by the historical dress of those people, we can get a pretty good approximation on how the historical dress of the respective people may have looked.

So, I believe in many if not most instances, antique photos do tell us a lot about how people got dressed and what weapons were assorted to their dress.

Additionally, an antique photo may also tell us about how a certain weapon was worn and even handled. Was it worn hanging from the belt or stuck in the sash?! Was it worn in the front, like the Omani khanjar or at the back like the Nepalese kukri?! Was it worn inclined to the right or to the left and was it gripped over or under the hand?!

Of course, this not scientific research, but my own assumption, based on my personal experience and common sense.