Cultural authentication is a concept that was developed by Erekosima (1979), Erekosima and Eicher (1981), and Eicher and Erekosima (1980, 1995) to aid in the description of the transfer of artifacts from one culture to another. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the development of belly dance costume in the United States is an example of cultural authentication and, in so doing, further test and refine the concept of cultural authentication. Contemporary belly dance costume in the United States was described after conducting field research of the belly dance community over a period of ten months. The history of belly dance and its associated costume in America was explored through the review of previous historical research. Belly dance and its associated costume in the United States was then analyzed in terms of cultural authentication by addressing a series of seven questions. These seven questions were formulated to determine whether the four levels of cultural authentication (selection, characterization, incorporation, and transformation) occurred, and whether they occurred in that order. Contemporary belly dance costume in the United States was classified into two categories: replicated and creatively interpreted. The dancer who wears replicated costumes believes that he/she is imitating, to the best of his/her ability, a documented style of dress worn by a specific ethnic group, at a specific time, within the areas of the Near and Middle East. The dancer who wears creatively interpreted costumes believes that while he/she has been inspired by documented styles of dress worn by ethnic groups within the areas of the Near and Middle East, his/her costume is particularly reflective of his/her unique personality and aesthetic preferences. It was concluded that the concept of cultural authentication is exceedingly vague. As currently defined, the concept and its four levels are inadequate to describe how Americans have acquired and used belly dance and its associated costume, what kinds of meanings Americans have attached to belly dance and its associated costume, and how market forces, advanced communication and transportation technologies, and individual and cultural identity issues are continually prompting and facilitating innovations to belly dance and its associated costume. / Graduation date: 1999

Belly dance classes have become increasingly popular in recent decades in the United States. Many of the predominantly white, middle-class American women who belly dance proclaim that it is a source of feminist identity and empowerment that brings deeper meaning to their lives. American practitioners of this art form commonly explain that it originated from ritual-based dances of ancient Middle Eastern cultures and regard their participation as a link in a continuous lineage of female dancers. In contrast to the stigmatization and marginalization of public dance performers in the Middle East today, the favorable meaning that American dancers attribute to belly dance may indicate an imagined history of this dance. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted on the West Coast of the United States and Morocco in 2008-2009, I explore American belly dance utilizing theoretical contributions from feminism, Foucauldian discourse analysis, and postmodernism. I argue that an anthropological investigation of American belly dance reveals that its imagery and concepts draw from a larger discourse of Orientalism, connected to a colonial legacy that defines West against East, a process of othering that continues to inform global politics and perpetuates cultural imperialism. But the creative identity construction that American women explore through belly dance is a multi-layered and complex process. I disrupt the binary assumptions of Orientalist thinking, highlighting the heterogeneity and dynamic quality of this dance community and exploring emergent types of American belly dance. Rather than pretending to be the exotic Other, American belly dancers are inventing a new exotic Self. This cultural anthropological study contributes to a greater understanding of identity and society by demonstrating ways that American belly dancers act as agents, creatively and strategically utilizing discursive motifs to accomplish social and personal goals.