What is dress? Though many people think of clothing when they hear the term, dress is actually considered, at least by social historians, to be any addition or supplement to the human body. Dr. Bukola Oyeniyi, assistant professor of history, recently published a book focused on how our dress establishes our identity. Oyeniyi’s book, “Dress in the Making of African Identity: A Social and Cultural History of the Yoruba People,” focuses on the history of Yoruba — a people in Nigeria — dress and the various changes that have occurred to it, as well as the history of the Yoruba people as seen through dress. “Although societies conceive of dress differently, there are two common purposes of dress in all societies,” explained Oyeniyi. “The first purpose is the need to protect the body from the elements and unauthorized visual intrusion, while the second is the need to create, reinforce and project both individual and corporate identity.” Oyeniyi believes that in order to function effectively in our increasingly “globalized village,” we must learn as much as we can about other peoples, cultures, products and values. “The overarching lesson of the book is recognizing and understanding individual and group differences and respecting these differences,” explained Oyeniyi. “Conflicts and civil wars — including terrorism — could be a thing of the past if we can individually and collectively identify and respect other people’s or group’s peculiarities, preferences and values.” Oyeniyi says that understanding who and what we are in both private and public spaces is essential for effective engagement. “To end all conflicts, to stimulate trade, to ensure good governance, to ensure better relations and so on,” said Oyeniyi, “we need to know and respect what we share as members of the human community and what makes us different.” “I have found that dress and identity are inexorably tied and that dress is not a value-free cultural material,” stated Oyeniyi. “It is laden with meanings that we often take for granted.” Oyeniyi has also discovered that dress can take precedence over speech in any encounter, so a person could ‘lie’ with dress. Dress also expresses a current or an aspired state, and people often dress the way they want to be addressed. “This is the first book to holistically establish a relationship between dress and individual and group identity,” said Oyeniyi. “In fact, the book establishes that being a Yoruba man or woman cannot be dissociated from Yoruba dress and that Yoruba dress cannot also be dissociated from being a Yoruba man or woman. The book shows the different ways through which Yoruba people — rich or poor, male or female, old or young — create and express taxonomic sameness and difference whether as individuals or as members in a group.”