Between the Folds : Stories of Cloth, Lives, and Travels From Sumba

Textiles have long been integral to the social life and cosmology of the people of East Sumba, Indonesia. In recent decades, Sumbanese 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. Through the individual stories of those involved in the contemporary production and trade of local cloth--including animists, Christians, and Moslems; Sumbanese, Indonesian Chinese, and Westerners; inventive geniuses, master artisans, and exploited weavers; rogues, entrepeneurs, nobles, and servants--a vivid account emerges of the inner workings of a so-called "traditional" society and its arts responding inventively to decades of international collecting

The houses far from home featured in this book are located in Vanuatu, a chain of islands between Fiji and Australia in the southwest Pacific. Once known as the Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides, the islands were jointly administered by the British and French from 1906 to 1980. In this innovative and revealing study of a unique colonial project, Margaret Rodman tells the stories of these houses, exploring the profound differences of perspective, experience, and power that domestic spaces reveal and offering a novel look at the history of British colonialism in the Pacific.

Each chapter has at its heart a house where readers can explore dimensions of race, gender, and power that domestic spaces reveal. Moving across time, between different islands and actors, between oral memories and archival documents, Margaret Rodman provides a richly documented "multi-sited ethnography" of the social history of the New Hebrides.

"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. Moreoever, the book illuminates some formerly unexplored conditions of artistic provenance."--BOOK JACKET. Contents Preface: Entering the Field Acknowledgments Part One: Fabricscapes Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Locations, Histories, Identities Chapter 3: Enfolding History and Flux Part Two: Between the Folds Chapter 4: Wandi Chapter 5: Parai Mutu Chapter 6: Hawewa Part Three: Shuttling between Worlds Chapter 7: Worlds Converge Chapter 8: Village Encounters Chapter 9: On Other Islands Chapter 10: Unfolding Passages Chapter 11: Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index About the Author