THE ETHICIST TAP : [A]

CULTURAL TRADITIONS : INCLUDING the ways people cover their heads - are part of an evolving set of practices, and the default condition of cultural practices is to be borrowed.

That's true whether you're Rosie the Riveter or one of my Ashanti kinfolk.

[Hermes] has a bustling global business based on the use of silks as head scarves on all continents.]

If women with alopecia start to wear head wraps, doing so will be the custom of their community.

At the same time, the way that a woman styles her head covering is also bound to take on an individual cast, and your attire, worn with confidence, will become part of your particular way of navigating the world.

Disrespect, not borrowing, is what's objectionable, and you're drawn to these head coverings because you admire them.

My advice? Wear whatever you can rock?

The World Students Society thanks Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, who teaches philosophy at N.Y.U.

His books include '' Cosmopolitanism, '' '' The Honor Code '' and '' The Lies That Bind : Rethinking Identity.''