Notes on Crossroads lecture - 16 Sept. 04

Main point - studying material culture can lead to an understanding of a region or country's politics, economics, culture, arts, ceremonial life because objects such as textiles are used as prestige goods, acquired through trade, reserved for use in specific rituals and are heavily laden with symbolism.

Main Images used to illustrate talk  

+Map SE Asia - dichotomies.  Ways to generalize about peoples of the area. Mountains - small scale societies vs large state systems in lowlands. Upland shifting cultivation vs lowland sedentary agriculture

Shared by all - complex tradition of textiles

Earliest forms of weaving - plaiting mats, baskets, hats

Early form of clothing - bark stripped from special type of tree that is beaten to make it pliable, strips of bark cloth worn as loin cloth, skirts, hats, tops. Still made and used in some remote areas.

 

+Cotton bolls for spinning- ancient plant material in SE Asia, main type of fiber for weaving, also jute, banana, kind of flax, later pineapple fiber (developed in Philippines for very fine weaving)

+Weaving - The earliest loom weaving was a back strap loom (seated woman with strap around waist so she can control tension of loom.) Other end of warp secured to house post, tree or some other structure. Advantage of this type of loom was that it was portable, still in use by shifting agriculturists.  Generally narrow strips woven and two pieces sewn together.

 Later the upright frame loom was adopted but it is not easily moved. It requires a special room. The advantage is that the weaver can make wider fabrics.

+Design elements - meander, rhomboid, skull tree, man with arms and legs to sides, tree of life, patterns running on a diagonal, many patters from ancient Dong Son culture from North Vietnam (500 B.C.)

+Malaysian silk brocades - silk with gold or silver thread woven designs. Costly, reserved for wealthy or royalty, style of dress indicates social status as does richness of fabric and amount of time it takes to make. Silk brocade with gold or silver supplementary thread is time consuming to weave.

+Trade - A cloth from India, called patola from Gujarat, had a profound effect on SE Asian cultures. Patterning different - central pattern with border design. This was adapted to designs in SE Asian weavings. Secondly, it was of silk - rich colors. And tie dyed pattern in both warp and weft threads - difficult to line up the patterns in the threads. Time consuming to make. Only the Bali Aga of Tenganan make it today. Became sacred cloth in SEAsia. Reserved for most sacred rituals.

+Drama in Central Java copied costumes of Javanese royalty. Many layers of cloth draped on the body reflect high status. Seen in drama this is a way of preserving styles of the past.

 +Lahta Tribe from Burma - This is an example of upland peoples' clothing - All wear same style; same color pattern in cloth. This identifies an individual to a particular tribe. Individual variation exists in adornment, such as necklaces, waistbands, bracelets, etc. Here is where wealth is kept - in jewelry.

+White Hmong tribal maidens (from Northern Thailand & Burma)- all alike but variation in apron panel. Each girl cross-stitched her own apron to demonstrate her sewing  skill

+Ship Cloths from Lampung, Sumatra - Coth identifies individual to a clan. Ship symbolic of transport of the deceased to the other world. Each clan has own cloth. Hung for ceremonies such as funerals

+Blue Miao (Hmong) (in mountainous regions of Laos & Vietnam) making batik pattern (resist paste or wax) on cloth which is then dyed with indigo (dk blue) and then embroidered. Patterns have names - chicken eye, scales of fish, flying insect, etc. Women who weave know these names. May be associated with a household (only certain descent line uses patterns, or by tribe)

Cloths have stories to tell - photographs of Cambodian silk cloth with elephants, temples, processions of people holding candles for festival of lights.

Burmese story cloths - Tell stories of the lives of the Buddha (Jataka tales). These story cloths hung in the temple during a festival while the monks chant the stories - sometimes continuously day and night over several days.

Influence of new ideas or political reality found in cloth - Sumba (eastern Indonesian island) cloth with attempt to portray horses in perspective rather than as a flat side view. Or Lao tribal group that wove guns and helicopters in a border of a skirt during Vietnam war. Indonesian batik often depicted Dutch ships, motor cars, Dutch people with bulbous noses in their batiks.

Religious symbolim in cloth - Hinduism in Indonesian batik - wings of garuda, mountains - sacred Mt. Meru,

-Islam - figures dropped from designs, change to Quranic writing or flower patterns and geometric designs.

- Chinese and western influence - floral motifs, Chinese cloud pattern

Colors - red associated with blood, ritual cloths for headhunters,

Patterns reserved for royalty - diagonal patter of double spiral in Central Java.

Cloth left uncut - draped rather than cut and sewn in fitted manner as in west. Done to preserve overall design. Two and half meter length wrapped around waist or sewn as a tube or sarong. A length draped over the shoulders for warmth, laid on the floor mat as a sheet, knotted around the waist as a loin cloth, worn as a breast cloth, used to tie bundles to carry on the back or to hold an infant on the hip.

Ann Wright-Parsons

Director, Anthropology Museum

16 Sept. '04