Bob Geldof unveiled an ambitious new project last week. He is planning to
compile a Dictionary of Man that will record details of every tribe and
society on earth. Even for St Bob that’s quite a tall order, but luckily he
won’t have to travel too far for his first case study: all he will need is a
ticket for the next West Ham game.
A photographer called Tom Dulat penetrated the darkest heartlands of Upton
Park on Wednesday night and was able to observe the traditions and
sophisticated rituals of this ancient people. Or rather, he watched them go
down 4-1 against Chelsea. But as he scanned the crowd he made a startling
discovery.
Amid the fans in their claret and blue shirts, he suddenly spotted a
distinctive figure with gold teeth, a nose ring, two further studs on each
temple and wooden plates in the lobes of his ears that would not look out of
place in the Amazon basin.
“I always scan the crowd and this face just jumped out,” said Dulat. “I have
never seen anything like it in all my life.”
What he had spotted was a living museum of anthropology which just happened to
be implanted into the face of a football fan called Dave Moore. Let’s do a
quick museum tour.
Note first the stretched ear-lobes, which are most famously associated with
the Masai people of Kenya, but which were also known in pre-Christian
societies and are still common in some of the most remote parts of Asia and
South America.
Mark also the three dots on that chin. These are a rather modest form of moko,
a tattoo that traditionally denotes rank and family in Maori societies.
Moving up from the moko markings, we see the nose ring. The only difference
between this and the nose rings of Amazon tribes is that the Amazon ones are
made of bone.
At the top of the display we see two painful looking implants that are
reminiscent of a Japanese practice in which studs are concealed just below
the surface of the skin. And that star on his neck? Well, that could mark a
connection with the neo-pagan movements of Europe. Or so says Cyril Siorat,
an anthropologist from Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Yes, you might think Dave is just a football fan who had a couple of tattoos
done and then got carried away. But anthropologists even have a name for
him. Or at least they have a name for his type. He is a Contemporary Body
Modifier, inspired by a movement in 1970s California called the Modern
Primitives.
“Its followers are inspired by the body modification of other cultures, but
they don’t necessarily do it for the same reasons,” said Siorat. “This
movement pioneered piercings that we now consider mainstream.”
It just goes to show that a spring night at Upton Park can be as fascinating
as anything that Geldof might uncover in the rainforests of Sumatra. And
it’s not just football: our country is rich in distinct tribes. From the
heavily made-up Goths to the Pringle sweaters of Mondeo Man, they all have
their own distinguishing dress codes and behaviour.
An anthropologist called Kate Fox investigated these tribes four years ago and
reported her findings in a book called Watching the English. She says that
when it comes to youth culture, the British are more inventive than anybody
else in the world.
“We have always had sub-cultures, and they have always distinguished
themselves from the mainstream and from each other by their dress codes,”
she wrote. And, thanks to global-isation, we are getting more influences
than ever before.
“In the past, young English people looking for a sense of identity and a means
of annoying their parents had a choice of just one or two — at the most
three — counter-culture youth tribes. Now there are at least half a dozen,
each with its own subgroups and splinter groups.”
The attraction of these tribes is simple: it is to be as different as possible
from the people you don’t like, and pretty much the same as the people you
do like. The trouble is that the differences are often so subtle that it can
be difficult to distinguish between rival groups.
Mother: “I see you’ve become a Goth, dear. That’s very nice.”
Daughter: “Mother! Doh! This isn’t Goth, it’s Emo.”
Goths, you see, are so much older. The look is darker, perhaps with a touch of
punk. You might mistake a Goth for somebody who is planning a night’s
trick-or-treating. The Emo look is rather more floppy and bohemian. Or
perhaps not.
That’s the trouble. We have so many tribes these days that they have all
started to blur into one another. (Although best not to use the word Blur —
they were so 1990s.)
It was once easy to tell the difference between a yuppie and a hippie.
Absolutely basic stuff. Now life is much more complicated. There are Bo-hos,
who are yuppies with a touch of hippie. But there are also yippies, who are
hippies with a touch of yuppie. And somewhere in there are the Big Chillers,
who dress like Sienna Miller and drive to Glastonbury in Range Rovers. Why
are the British so good at this sort of thing? It’s because we have had
years of practice at distinguishing between the slightest of social nuances.
The world of music and youth culture is as much of a social minefield as
anything Jane Austen or Nancy Mitford could have invented. Mr Darcy only had
to manoeuvre his way through a few dances: imagine if 19th-century Hampshire
had offered nine different types of heavy metal, all with their own
idiosyncrasies and dress codes. There’s thrash metal, death metal, black
metal, power metal, doom metal, Gothic metal, Nu metal, industrial metal and
Grindcore.
Don’t bother remembering any of this, though. Because as soon as the outside
world gets to grips with the customs and rituals of a tribe, it’s time for
the tribe to move on. “Thrash metal barely exists any more,” one fan told me
rather sniffily as he explained the hierarchy of metal. “Even Nu Metal is
slightly out of date these days.”
Just to make life more complicated, there is seemingly an overlap between the
worlds of Nu Metal and Emo — and between Emo and Goth, and between Goth and
punk. And we haven’t even mentioned Cyberpunks and how they overlap with
Nu-Ravers (it’s all in the gadgetry, apparently).
What is it about the worlds of music and football that makes them so
susceptible to this splintering? After all, you rarely hear about hardcore
chartered surveying and thrash accountancy.
“Football and music are conducive to moments of intense shared experience,”
said Siorat.
“They can help to foster feelings of togetherness and create a strong group
identity, create a social network.”
It’s not even a new phenomenon. According to Fox, this has been going on since
the preRaphaelites invented the “arty” look. That evolved into the bohemian
look favoured by the Edwardians.
Two wars rather interrupted proceedings, but youth cultures have been coming
and going at an accelerating rate since Britain emerged from the austerity
of the second world war: teddy boys, mods, rockers, hippies, punks. And
don’t even ask about the difference genres of house, techno and trance.
All in all, it’s very good news for Geldof: no need for him to travel the
world after all. There are enough tribes on his doorstep to keep him in
business for many years.
Additional reporting: Melanie Clayton
FIVE OF THE BEST
NU-RAVE Not unlike the old rave scene, but followers favour a much more
surreal look – huge glasses, feather boas, silly hats. Be warned, though: if
they wear anything electronic, they’re probably Cyberpunks
CHAVS Always with us, the threatening white underclass. Ferret-faced,
and apparently dressed from the hip-hop department of Argos (which is also
their jeweller). They loom from a thousand doorways, or kick cans around
shopping centres. On their heads, the last hurrah of the baseball cap
RAPPER SCALLIES The British-rapper version of the chav. They still
dress like Ali G, listen to hip-hop, but have a distinctive hairstyle with
shaved sides and a spikey top. As worn by Naseem Hamed
EMO The Romantic poets would have enjoyed Emo style – with its devotion
to teenage angst and writing poetry. The key look is the floppy hair –
ideally thin and black – that droops over one eye. Also look out for tight
jeans and beaten-up trainers
INDUSTRIAL METAL Tight top, black; drainpipe trousers, black;
platform-heel shoes. Tattoos, piercings, but shorter hair than traditional
metalheads
I just really enjoyed this article and this is coming from someone who when asked to classify herself answers with something akin to -goth dark wave metal hippy fettishist =) Figure that one out!!
Kasey, melbourne, Australia