eBook downloads, eBook resources & eBook authors
Well-known anthropologist Lamphere highlights the voices of three generations of Navajo women who are weaving their traditional beliefs with modern American culture to create a new blueprint for their lives and the next generations.
In the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, a large indigenous population lives in rural communities, many of which retain traditional forms of governance. In 1996, some 350 women of these communities formed a weavers’ cooperative, which they called Jolom Mayaetik. Their goal was to join together to market textiles of high quality in both new and ancient designs. Weaving Chiapas offers a rare view of the daily lives, memories, and hopes of these rural Maya women as they strive to retain their ancient customs while adapting to a rapidly changing world. Originally published in Spanish in 2007, this book captures firsthand the voices of these Maya artisans, whose experiences, including the challenges of living in a highly patriarchal culture, often escape the attention of mainstream scholarship. Based on interviews conducted with members of the Jolom Mayaetik cooperative, the accounts gathered in this volume provide an intimate view of women’s life in the Chiapas highlands, known locally as Los Altos. We learn about their experiences of childhood, marriage, and childbirth; about subsistence farming and food traditions; and about the particular styles of clothing and even hairstyles that vary from community to community. Restricted by custom from engaging in public occupations, Los Altos women are responsible for managing their households and caring for domestic animals. But many of them long for broader opportunities, and the Jolom Mayaetik cooperative represents a bold effort by its members to assume control over and build a wider market for their own work. This English-language edition features color photographs—published here for the first time—depicting many of the individual women and their stunning textiles. A new preface, chapter introductions, and a scholarly afterword frame the women’s narratives and place their accounts within cultural and historical context.
Original research and examples from artists illustrate how different textile-based art approaches can provide therapeutic outlets for women with a complete variety of life experiences. The psychology of this therapeutic approach is explained as well as explanations of specific techniques and suggestions for practise with a wide range of clients.
Navajo rugs set the gold standard for handwoven textiles in the U.S. But what about the people who create these treasures? Spider Woman's Children is the inside story, told by two women who are both deeply embedded in their own culture and considered among the very most skillful and artistic of Navajo weavers today. Barbara Teller Ornelas and Lynda Teller Pete are fifth-generation weavers who grew up at the fabled Two Grey Hills trading post. Their family and clan connections give them rare insight, as this volume takes readers into traditional hogans, remote trading posts, reservation housing neighborhoods, and urban apartments to meet weavers who follow the paths of their ancestors, who innovate with new designs and techniques, and who uphold time-honored standards of excellence. Throughout the text are beautifully depicted examples of the finest, most mindful weaving this rich tradition has to offer.
First published in 1999. Driven by the interest of the author this study looks at the lives of immigrant women in central New York who are working in the garment industry in hope that by raising awareness Congress will current review legislation when its highlighted how it affects these women and their families. Her view is that the media and public discussion tends to present these women as if they are all illegal immigrants looking for welfare benefits instead of law-abiding, hard-working residents. This research is written to describe what these women are like, what their experiences regarding immigration have been, and how arbitrary legislative policies and regulations affect them. much these women it also illuminates how much personally the woman have sacrificed in the way of social status, cultural comfort, and family relationships to come to the United States.
An invaluable title for every woman who is working towards reclaiming her own power Weaving is a process; woman is the essence of this book. Every woman will experience blood mysteries, dealing with mother, being a daughter, Amazon, Hetaerae, and integrating the shadow, if she is to mature. Share with the author, a Jungian analyst for over 25 years, the experiences you have in common with other women in the process of becoming. As Barbara Black Koltuv reveals, there is no such thing as a completed definition of woman. Women are always in the process of becoming and weaving together all the elements of their lives into their own unique patterns.
"My mother used to weave aaydans, the Marathi generic term for all things made from bamboo. I find that her act of weaving and my act of writing are organically linked. The weave is similar. It is the weave of pain, suffering, and agony that links us." Activist and award-winning writer Urmila Pawar recounts three generations of Dalit women who struggled to overcome the burden of their caste. Dalits, or untouchables, make up India's poorest class. Forbidden from performing anything but the most undesirable and unsanitary duties, for years Dalits were believed to be racially inferior and polluted by nature and were therefore forced to live in isolated communities. Pawar grew up on the rugged Konkan coast, near Mumbai, where the Mahar Dalits were housed in the center of the village so the upper castes could summon them at any time. As Pawar writes, "the community grew up with a sense of perpetual insecurity, fearing that they could be attacked from all four sides in times of conflict. That is why there has always been a tendency in our people to shrink within ourselves like a tortoise and proceed at a snail's pace." Pawar eventually left Konkan for Mumbai, where she fought for Dalit rights and became a major figure in the Dalit literary movement. Though she writes in Marathi, she has found fame in all of India. In this frank and intimate memoir, Pawar not only shares her tireless effort to surmount hideous personal tragedy but also conveys the excitement of an awakening consciousness during a time of profound political and social change.
Weaving Women's Spheres in Vietnam examines the changing status of womanhood in 'traditional', transitional and contemporary Vietnam from anthropological, historical, and sociological perspectives, focusing particularly on women's active agency in negotiating their own roles in family, religion and community.
In this innovative study, Sarah Hill illuminates the history of Southeastern Cherokee women by examining changes in their basketry. She explores how the incorporation of each new material used in their craft occurred in the context of lived experience, ecological processes, social conditions, economic circumstances, and historical eras. 110 illustrations. 6 maps.
