News > January 24, 2008

By Katie Phillips | Contributing writer

The university’s Museum of Anthropology will be showcasing a new exhibit Jan. 25-May 3. Titled Ties That Bind: Wedding Customs from Around the World, the exhibit features wedding attire from seven different cultures.

click to enlarge

Two wedding dresses are displayed at a new exhibit in the university’s Museum of Anthropology, which highlights wedding clothes from seven different cultures. (Katie Phillips)

Lydia Dorsey, a senior anthropology major and designer of the exhibit, interned last fall at the museum.

She was assigned the task of developing an exhibit using seven pairs of wedding costumes, loaned to the university by Ten Thousand Villages in Greensboro.

Approaching the exhibit from an anthropological standpoint, Dorsey aimed to make the communal symbols behind the clothes hold more meaning than the individual clothes themselves.

“The exhibit will show the role weddings play in a community and culture,” Dorsey said in the museum’s newsletter. It was important to her and the museum’s curator, Beverlye Hancock, to show the significance of weddings in these communities through traditional wedding attire.

“Weddings bring people together; it is a communal event,” Dorsey said. The exhibit attempts to not simply show individual wedding costumes or even weddings, but rather the meaning and symbolism behind the tradition as a whole.

The seven cultures represented are the Quiche Maya from Guatemala, Mapuche from Peru, Maasai from Kenya, Rajastan from India, Java from Indonesia and the Blue Hmong and Mien from Thailand.

In the beginning of the school year, Dorsey learned the process of creating an exhibit, which includes labeling, cataloguing and installing.

She assisted with two exhibits last semester, Día de los Muertos and Face to Face: The Arts of Exchange in Mainland Papua New Guinea.

She came into the most recent project with little knowledge of what goes into the display aspects of museum exhibits. Dorsey said that even the type of font used for display is an important facet of the overall project.

Beginning in October, Dorsey did extensive research on the seven cultures that would eventually be exhibited in the museum.

She gained rare experience for a college student, essentially being able to complete the research and development of the exhibit with the oversight of the museum’s staff.

“My work on these exhibits helped me realize that the earlier you begin installation, the better,” Dorsey said. “Just like planning a party, no matter how much you prepare for the day, there will always be unexpected bumps in the road.”

Hancock oversaw the Dorsey’s work. She too believes that the university has provided a unique opportunity for Dorsey, something that can be experienced on rare occasion. According to Hancock, this opportunity will give Dorsey a leg up when applying to graduate schools, where she will most likely study curating and possibly law.

And to add a personal note to the final exhibit, the wedding dress of Dorsey’s mother will be showcased at the entrance, guiding visitors into the exhibit full of marital culture and symbols.