Cosplay

What good is tribal identity if you don't display it? And people do, routinely: symbols are flaunted, mantras are mumbled, identity is acted out. It's everywhere, once you start noticing it, and is a major mode of of operation in social situations. The specialized and enacted forms under the general rubric of cosplay are really worth their own collection of examples from the bottomless well of YouTube examples.

The term cosplay was coined in 1984 (in Japanese: 'kosupure') but of course the dress-up expression surely harks back to at least the 15th century, in various forms of masquerade (think the familiar characters of the Commedia dell'arte) and appears in various pre-Lenten Carnival celebrations (Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday, and Carnival in Rio are the ones everybody knows). But think also of Rocky Horror Picture Show, Sci-fi Cons, 'crossplay'/drag shows, steampunk gatherings,

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Renaissance Fairs, and Morris Dance, all of which involve elaborate costuming and some degree of licensed behavior deviation.

I spent a few hours collecting YouTube examples of such celebrations:

...and happened upon a vein of Middle Eastern themed cosplay routines
that one might examine with an eye to what's being appropriated and how...

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...and the very special case of the Mardi Gras Indians
(see also history of)

...and Iko Iko