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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, the 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. 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. 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.
384 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2000
45 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 24, 2024
A very interesting study attempts to be Profound
Sumba has never been at the center of world attention and that’s probably lucky. In 2024, Ukraine and Gaza have unfortunately been at that place. Here is a book about textiles and how they are related to local culture and social life on one of the many Indonesian islands that stretch in a long chain from Java and Bali east to Papua New Guinea. Sumba is about the size of all the Hawaiian Islands put together, with a population today of around 800,000 though in the early 1990s, when the author did her fieldwork, there were fewer. Sumbanese designers and women weavers create numbers of very original, colorfully designed cloths which have entranced the many Westerners who have come in contact with them. Because tourism to the island is limited, many Sumbanese have gone to Bali to sell their product there. Fewer have exhibited their craft outside of Indonesia. Everywhere, they receive interest and sales.
Quote from p.198. “In this book, I have attempted to give the reader a profound sense of the complexities of the provenance of eastern Sumba textiles: some aspects of the actual processes of creation:….the pains and pleasures of cloth design: production and schemes of its trade;…I have tried to show why people sell or do not sell: their views on buyers: and what they gained or lost from individual efforts, whether through production or trade.”
The author writes very well of the various people connected with weaving and selling fabric in several different places in Sumba to show the variety of lives and opinions linked to such an industry—the weavers, the designers, the sellers and the entrepreneurs who travel to more touristy places in the country to market the cloth. She tells interesting stories about tourism on Sumba—the interactions between tourists and textile traders, tourists and the locals in general, cultural exchanges on a totally informal level. Without tourism and people abroad interested in traditional textiles, the production of such textiles would have never expanded as it did. Due to the rise of textile production and its associated activities, Forshee can say (p.129) that it all connects with “reformulating identities in an ever-changing world”. What once was a domestic activity had become a business with serious international connections thanks to the many collectors of “traditional” art overseas.
The textiles are seen as deeply traditional by most buyers, but the author shows us social processes that create the “tradition” that buyers hope to find. Many people designing the textiles have no idea of their own “tradition”—some actually referring to foreign-produced books to get ideas for their “traditional” designs. It is the modernity of tradition in Sumba. Indonesians in islands closer to international trends also see Sumba as beyond the horizon, a home of the “primitive” or exotic. So, for them also, the remote origin of Sumba cloths make them worth more. Forshee admirably does not try to label people’s behavior or products “typical”. A lot of change has occurred on the island—the Dutch colonial rule, religious conversion to Christianity or Islam, the arrival of the Indonesian state system, the penetration by the global market, and increased tourism. Amidst these changes, making and dealing with local cloth became an avenue for social mobility, separating themselves from traditions of the past. The textiles thus represent both the past and the present. Maybe we can add also them representing "an imagined past".
There is an excellent collection of both color and black and white photographs.
However, there is a downside to an otherwise interesting book. Many scholars wish to dress their writing in a cloak of professionalism, turning to jargon they believe to be required. As a result they make their work less accessible to anyone not familiar with anthropology-speak. Such scholars “situate” and “mediate” very often, they “reframe” and “remap” and talk of “inherent regions of dynamism”. Quoting another author on p.78-79, we find that person having “discussed gendered social ‘places’ as interpretive spaces established through encounters with the Other; that which is ‘just outside the boundary of the established domain’ charges the borders between conventional spaces of men and women.” “From such borders emerges an ongoing discourse”, Forshee adds. Many readers who might find the whole matter interesting may respond with a “huh?” Such leanings tend to make the whole rather over-wrought and seem to amount to an attempt to make her work more important, more “professional”. I felt that this imaginative study could stand on its own without such an attempt and definitely would appeal to a wider audience. Perhaps that was not the author’s aim.
Sumba has never been at the center of world attention and that’s probably lucky. In 2024, Ukraine and Gaza have unfortunately been at that place. Here is a book about textiles and how they are related to local culture and social life on one of the many Indonesian islands that stretch in a long chain from Java and Bali east to Papua New Guinea. Sumba is about the size of all the Hawaiian Islands put together, with a population today of around 800,000 though in the early 1990s, when the author did her fieldwork, there were fewer. Sumbanese designers and women weavers create numbers of very original, colorfully designed cloths which have entranced the many Westerners who have come in contact with them. Because tourism to the island is limited, many Sumbanese have gone to Bali to sell their product there. Fewer have exhibited their craft outside of Indonesia. Everywhere, they receive interest and sales.
Quote from p.198. “In this book, I have attempted to give the reader a profound sense of the complexities of the provenance of eastern Sumba textiles: some aspects of the actual processes of creation:….the pains and pleasures of cloth design: production and schemes of its trade;…I have tried to show why people sell or do not sell: their views on buyers: and what they gained or lost from individual efforts, whether through production or trade.”
The author writes very well of the various people connected with weaving and selling fabric in several different places in Sumba to show the variety of lives and opinions linked to such an industry—the weavers, the designers, the sellers and the entrepreneurs who travel to more touristy places in the country to market the cloth. She tells interesting stories about tourism on Sumba—the interactions between tourists and textile traders, tourists and the locals in general, cultural exchanges on a totally informal level. Without tourism and people abroad interested in traditional textiles, the production of such textiles would have never expanded as it did. Due to the rise of textile production and its associated activities, Forshee can say (p.129) that it all connects with “reformulating identities in an ever-changing world”. What once was a domestic activity had become a business with serious international connections thanks to the many collectors of “traditional” art overseas.
The textiles are seen as deeply traditional by most buyers, but the author shows us social processes that create the “tradition” that buyers hope to find. Many people designing the textiles have no idea of their own “tradition”—some actually referring to foreign-produced books to get ideas for their “traditional” designs. It is the modernity of tradition in Sumba. Indonesians in islands closer to international trends also see Sumba as beyond the horizon, a home of the “primitive” or exotic. So, for them also, the remote origin of Sumba cloths make them worth more. Forshee admirably does not try to label people’s behavior or products “typical”. A lot of change has occurred on the island—the Dutch colonial rule, religious conversion to Christianity or Islam, the arrival of the Indonesian state system, the penetration by the global market, and increased tourism. Amidst these changes, making and dealing with local cloth became an avenue for social mobility, separating themselves from traditions of the past. The textiles thus represent both the past and the present. Maybe we can add also them representing "an imagined past".
There is an excellent collection of both color and black and white photographs.
However, there is a downside to an otherwise interesting book. Many scholars wish to dress their writing in a cloak of professionalism, turning to jargon they believe to be required. As a result they make their work less accessible to anyone not familiar with anthropology-speak. Such scholars “situate” and “mediate” very often, they “reframe” and “remap” and talk of “inherent regions of dynamism”. Quoting another author on p.78-79, we find that person having “discussed gendered social ‘places’ as interpretive spaces established through encounters with the Other; that which is ‘just outside the boundary of the established domain’ charges the borders between conventional spaces of men and women.” “From such borders emerges an ongoing discourse”, Forshee adds. Many readers who might find the whole matter interesting may respond with a “huh?” Such leanings tend to make the whole rather over-wrought and seem to amount to an attempt to make her work more important, more “professional”. I felt that this imaginative study could stand on its own without such an attempt and definitely would appeal to a wider audience. Perhaps that was not the author’s aim.
July 21, 2007
ini dibeli [used] ketika harus ke sumba.
pamrihnya sih ingin tahu relasi antara "textile" dan "architecture", dua produk dari tindakan tektonik: merangkai, merajut, membangun.
tapi ternyata tidak banyak informasi mengenai teknik produksi tekstil di sini. yang banyak adalah penempatan tekstil dalam konteks ritus sosial sumba. namun demikian, saya tidak merasa rugi membelinya.
pamrihnya sih ingin tahu relasi antara "textile" dan "architecture", dua produk dari tindakan tektonik: merangkai, merajut, membangun.
tapi ternyata tidak banyak informasi mengenai teknik produksi tekstil di sini. yang banyak adalah penempatan tekstil dalam konteks ritus sosial sumba. namun demikian, saya tidak merasa rugi membelinya.
April 28, 2011
This is a beautifully written book--rich with details and full of info about the ethnography of eastern Indonesia. I learned so much reading it and the people really came to life. I won't look at Indonesian textiles in the same way now!
December 3, 2007
I am taking an anthropology class by Jill Forshee. Just finished reading this detailed anthropological look at Sumbanese fabric. Will be writing a paper this week.
March 19, 2014
An amazing book by an amazing teacher of mine.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews