Between the folds : stories of cloth, lives, and travels from Sumba / Jill Forshee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Forshee, Jill.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sumbanese (Indonesian people)--Clothing.

Sumbanese (Indonesian people).

Clothing and dress.

Sumbanese (Indonesian people)--Industries.

Sumbanese (Indonesian people)--Commerce.

Textile fabrics, Sumbanese.

Textile industry--Indonesia--Sumba Island.

Textile industry.

Textile design--Indonesia--Sumba Island.

Textile design.

Commerce.

Industries.

Indonesia--Sumba Island.

Sumba Island (Indonesia)--Social life and customs.

Sumba Island (Indonesia).

Physical Description:

xiv, 265 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), map ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Honolulu : University of Hawaiʻi Press, [2001]

Summary:

Textiles have long been integral to the social life and cosmology of the people of East Sumba, Indonesia. In recent decades, the people of East Sumba have entered a larger world economy as their textiles have joined the commodity flow of an international "ethnic arts" market stimulated by Indonesia's tourist trade. As Sumba's villagers respond to an immensely expanded commerce in their cloth, tensions and ironies emerge between historical and innovative forms in both cloth and lives. Such responses involve gender, ethnicity, and social rank, and are especially highlighted within global market spaces. The stories in Between the Folds vary widely and include those of animists, Christians, and Moslems; Sumbanese, Indonesian Chinese, and Westerners; inventive geniuses, master artisans, and exploited weavers; rogues, entrepreneurs, nobles, and servants.

Using a narrative approach, Jill Forshee takes readers into diverse lives, including those of villagers traveling to Bali and tourists visiting Sumba, and follows their adventures along various routes over time. Through personal stories of those involved in the contemporary production and trade of local cloth, a vivid account emerges of the inner workings of a so-called "traditional" society and its arts responding inventively to decades of international collecting. These stories expand anthropological concepts of the boundaries of regions and the certainties of cultures in ways that are tangible and immediate to the reader. Moreover, the book illuminates some formerly unexplored conditions of artistic provenance.

Contents:

Part 1 Fabricscapes

Chapter 2 Locations, Histories, Identities 15

Chapter 3 Enfolding History and Flux 28

Part 2 Between the Folds

Chapter 4 Wandi 53

Chapter 5 Parai Mutu 85

Chapter 6 Hawewa 108

Part 3 Shuttling between Worlds

Chapter 7 Worlds Converge 131

Chapter 8 Village Encounters 148

Chapter 9 On Other Islands 161

Chapter 10 Unfolding Passages 181.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [231]-258) and index.

ISBN:

0824822889

082482346X

OCLC:

44019162