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  1. #26
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Washington, DC
    Posts
    1,632

    A contrast

    I have been reading this thread with great interest. Let me just offer you, from Lima's history, a contrast in how people interpret modesty and morality.

    Lima was the capital of the vice royalty of Peru, which at some point encompassed most of South America. Between 1560 and around 1840, whenever in the streets, women wore a manto (a type of shawl, made of silk) and saya (a long skirt). They would cover their entire head, save for one eye. There is some speculation that the "fashion" came from Andalucia, from Muslim women who used a shawl rather than a hijab to cover their heads after the reconquest of Spain.

    In Lima, rather than being modest attire, it was widely used by women to flirt in anonymity (allowing a shoulder to be uncovered, showing a wrist or ankle...). As early as 1561, the viceroys attempted to prohibit the use of the shawls as something that represented immorality and an attack to "good customs". At some point the second Archbishop of Lima (Santo Toribio) tried to prohibit its use in processions or in church and threatened with ex-communion. Every time, the prohibitions generated a huge outcry and did not work. The custom slowly disappeared in the mid 1800s (a couple of decades after independence from Spain) in favor of French fashions.

    The "tapada limeƱa" ("tapar" = to cover) remains an icon of flirtatious behavior by women from Lima. I find this contrast interesting.
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