Clothing transitions : a study of Hmong dress and acculturation

Graduation date: 1984Hmong are immigrants from Southeast Asia who have been\ud granted refugee status in the United States. Following the\ud collapse of Laos in 1975, thousands of Hmong fled in fear of\ud reprisal from the Pathet Lao for having aided the U.S. military\ud effort there.\ud Traditional cultural patterns have been in a state of flux\ud as Hmong have been forced to migrate to an alien environment.\ud This study was conducted to record changes in the clothing practices\ud of Hmong immigrants, as well as changes in. other cultural\ud practices that are indicative of ethnicity.\ud Thirty-three Hmong residents of Oregon were interviewed to\ud obtain information regarding clothing and ethnicity. The influence\ud of ethnic identity on continued use of traditional costume was\ud analyzed by means of a chi-square and Fisher's exact test. It was\ud found that dress and ethnicity are interdependent; low ethnicity\ud was associated with low use of traditional costume, high ethnicity\ud was associated with high use of traditional costume