Camouflage
in Ethnologia Europaea
Author:
Kristofer Hansson
Kristofer Hansson
Lund University
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To camouflage is to adapt in a situation. The word is used in different ways with many connotations and synonyms, as in disguise, mask, hide, conceal, obscure, cover-up and create a façade or smoke-screen. What the words have in common is that they point out how something can give protection from recognition. Camouflage is therefore a good word to use in studying how the individual being can mask and hide differences, stigmas, or abnormalities. Before translating the concept into specific cultural practices, it may be worth noting that it has been developed in two very separate fields: biology and war.