TRADITIONAL CLOTHING AS A SYMBOL OF SOCIAL IDENTITY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF KOREAN HANBOK AND UZBEK TRADITIONAL ATTIRE

Abstract

In this paper the researcher examines how people in Joseon Korea and pre modern Uzbekistan used traditional clothing to communicate visually. It focuses on the ways that garments showed the social rank, the political power and the cultural background of the wearer. By researching the history of textiles in Korea besides Central Asia, the study compares the symbolic roles of 한복 (韓服, Hanbok) among the ruling groups with the clothing of the Uzbek aristocracy. With specific attention to the chapan, atlas and zardoʻzi embroidery, the paper looks at those items within their social structures. And the analysis shows where the two systems are similar in structure and where they differ culturally. To conclude the author argues that clothing in both societies was not for decoration that lacks purpose but it was a formal system of symbols that indicated the level of a person in society and the group they belonged to.