BA1 CLASS READING - INTRODUCTION TO TEXTILES AND CULTURE  - THE FABRIC OF EXISTENCE (TEXTILES IN HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS) GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION - this reading is extracts (...) from the set text.


TEXTILES IN HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS


Language and imagery

The English language is full of of expressions that indicate how central textiles are in our collective consciousness; we often visualise our reality in textile terms. The expressions and metaphors refer to textile elements (fibers, filaments, cords, strings, or threads), to textile processes, and to finished cloth ... We have long had metaphoric expressions such as 'life cord', 'life hanging by a thread', 'moral fibre', and 'the fibre of our being' ...

A number of Sanskrit words relate to both textiles and the spiritual path. 'Sutra', for example, can be simply translated as 'text or scripture' ... The term comes from sut or 'thread', and the concept of stringing together. 'Tantra' is variously translated as 'weave', 'woven together', or 'continuity'. Its root is 'tang', the word used for a stretched warp ...

Western philosophers also draw on textile imagery. In his 1962 book, 'The Joyous Cosmology', Alan Watts used the image of a woven textile to describe the interplay between the physical plane and the world of consciousness ... One of the earliest verses in the Bible also implies that to be human is to be involved with cloth. Immediately after they 'fell' into a mortal (human) state, according to Genesis 3:7, Adam and Eve started sewing - they joined fig leaves together and made aprons to cover their nakedness.

Some textile expressions imply or allude to the magic of creation ... We speak of 'spinning a yarn' when we draw out words and put them together to tell a tale, and we 'put a spin on' ideas or events, shaping them as we would like them to be. People who dabble in magic 'weave' spells ... (Gordon, 2013, pp.18-21).

Making cloth, making life


The idea that cloth-making is seen as a generative or life-giving activity shows up in many of the world's creation stories, myths, and fairy-tales. Typically, the immortals (usually goddesses) involved in creating life are portrayed as spinners and weavers ... The Norse goddess Frigg was understood to be spinning the sky; in Scandinavia, in fact, the constellation many know as 'Orion's Belt' is called 'Frogg's distaff' ... The Navajo ... hold that Spider Woman instructed the women how to weave on a loom that her husband, Spider Man, told them how to make. Its cross poles were made of sky, and its structure was supported with cords of earth. The warp sticks were made of sun rays, the heddles or rock crystal and sheet lightning ...


In the Middle Ages, the Virgin Mary was often portrayed as a cloth-maker - a spinner, primarily, but occasionally a weaver ...


Cloth-making can seem alchemical, for through it an ordinary and often not highly valued substance can be transformed - 'reborn' - into another 'higher', state. This is the source of the central conceit in the Rumpelstiltskin fairy-tale, in which the heroine is asked to spin straw into gold. The primal associations between making thread and/or making life are also implicit in that story, for the dwarf demands her first-born child as his ultimate price for completing the transformation. Many European folk tales posit women as spinners and weavers; in fact, 'good' women are usually portrayed as those who are the most skilled and industrious cloth-makers. (Gordon, 2013, pp.38-9).



Textiles and our mortal story


Since textiles are metaphorically equated with life and mythically linked to time, we can easily understand why they hold important meaning at every point in life's mortal journey. This may begin even before birth. In Sumatra, for example, a Batak woman is presented with  a 'soul cloth' during the seventh month of pregnancy, which is believed to extend protective power to the fetus ... In every culture, babies are quickly wiped down and wrapped up in cloth - surrounded by fabric - when they come into the world, immediately establishing an intimate relationship with textiles. Cloth is then part of all subsequent rites of passage when there is a literal or metaphoric change of state or being ...


Textiles and textile-related tools played parts in the rituals surrounding marriage negotiations. European men, for example, used to adorn textile tools for their sweethearts ... 


Among the Akha people of Burma (Myanmar), the mark of commitment was a thread. A prospective bridegroom might come to a village with fresh clothing for his intended bride, and if she decided she was ready to continue the relationship, she gave him a bouquet of flowers tied with cotton string. Long after the flowers died, it remained as a literal reminder of the couple's bond ...


Finally, textiles routinely play an important role in the rituals that mark the end of the mortal journey. A corpse is almost always wrapped or covered with cloth. When an individual dies in bed, the sheet is pulled up over the face, symbolising the fact that the person no longer needs to breathe. (Gordon, 2013, pp.44-52).


REFERENCE

Gordon, B. (2013 [2011] ) Textiles. The whole story - uses, meaning, significance. London: Thames and Hudson.