Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-149). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-149). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Anthropology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

University of Technology, Sydney. Institute of International Studies. / Within Borneo, the indigenous Iban pua kumbu cloth, historically associated with headhunting, is steeped in spirituality and mythology. The cloth, the female counterpart of headhunting, was known as women’s war (Linggi, 1999). The process of mordanting yarns in preparation for tying and dyeing was seen as a way of managing the spiritual realm (Heppell, Melak, & Usen, 2006). It required of the ‘women warriors’ psychological courage equivalent to the men when decapitating enemies. Headhunting is no longer a relevant cultural practice. However, the cloth that incited headhunting continues to be invested with significance in the modern world, albeit in the absence of its association with headhunting. This thesis uses the pua kumbu as a lens through which to explore the changing dynamics of social and economic life with regard to men’s and women’s roles in society, issues of identity and nationalism, people’s relationship to their environment and the changing meanings and roles of the textiles themselves with global market forces. By addressing these issues I aim to capture the fluid expressions of new social dynamics using a pua kumbu in a very different way from previous studies. Using the scholarship grounded in art and material culture studies, and with particular reference to theories of ‘articulation’ (Clifford, 2001), ‘circulation’ (Graburn & Glass, 2004) and ‘art and agency’ (Gell, 1998; MacClancy, 1997a), I analyse how the Dayak Iban use the pua kumbu textile to renegotiate their periphery position within the nation of Malaysia (and within the bumiputera indigenous group) and to access more enabling social and economic opportunities. I also draw on the theoretical framework of ‘friction’ and ‘contact zones’ as outlined by Tsing (2005), Karp (2006) and Clifford (1997) to contextualize my discussion of the of the exhibition and representation of pua kumbu in museums. Each of these theoretical frameworks is applied to my data to situate and illustrate my arguments. Whereas in the past, it was the culture that required the object be made, now the object is made to do cultural work. The cloth, instead of revealing hidden symbols and meanings in its motifs, is now made to carry the culture, having itself become a symbol or marker for Iban people. Using an exploration of material culture to understand the complex, dynamic and flowing nature of the relationship between objects and the identities of the producers and consumer is the key contribution of this thesis.

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2005. / Bibliography: leaves 206-220.

University of Technology, Sydney. Institute of International Studies. / Within Borneo, the indigenous Iban pua kumbu cloth, historically associated with headhunting, is steeped in spirituality and mythology. The cloth, the female counterpart of headhunting, was known as women’s war (Linggi, 1999). The process of mordanting yarns in preparation for tying and dyeing was seen as a way of managing the spiritual realm (Heppell, Melak, & Usen, 2006). It required of the ‘women warriors’ psychological courage equivalent to the men when decapitating enemies. Headhunting is no longer a relevant cultural practice. However, the cloth that incited headhunting continues to be invested with significance in the modern world, albeit in the absence of its association with headhunting. This thesis uses the pua kumbu as a lens through which to explore the changing dynamics of social and economic life with regard to men’s and women’s roles in society, issues of identity and nationalism, people’s relationship to their environment and the changing meanings and roles of the textiles themselves with global market forces. By addressing these issues I aim to capture the fluid expressions of new social dynamics using a pua kumbu in a very different way from previous studies. Using the scholarship grounded in art and material culture studies, and with particular reference to theories of ‘articulation’ (Clifford, 2001), ‘circulation’ (Graburn & Glass, 2004) and ‘art and agency’ (Gell, 1998; MacClancy, 1997a), I analyse how the Dayak Iban use the pua kumbu textile to renegotiate their periphery position within the nation of Malaysia (and within the bumiputera indigenous group) and to access more enabling social and economic opportunities. I also draw on the theoretical framework of ‘friction’ and ‘contact zones’ as outlined by Tsing (2005), Karp (2006) and Clifford (1997) to contextualize my discussion of the of the exhibition and representation of pua kumbu in museums. Each of these theoretical frameworks is applied to my data to situate and illustrate my arguments. Whereas in the past, it was the culture that required the object be made, now the object is made to do cultural work. The cloth, instead of revealing hidden symbols and meanings in its motifs, is now made to carry the culture, having itself become a symbol or marker for Iban people. Using an exploration of material culture to understand the complex, dynamic and flowing nature of the relationship between objects and the identities of the producers and consumer is the key contribution of this thesis.

Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-98). Also available online in Scholars' Bank.

A première vue, la poterie est une activité qui se pratique seule :la potière possède son propre atelier dans le village et est l’unique bénéficiaire de la vente de ses récipients. Néanmoins les enquêtes de terrain menées dans l’Arewa et le Kurfey oriental (Niger) révèlent qu’à chaque étape de la chaîne opératoire, l’artisane est en contact, plus ou moins proche, avec d’autres praticiennes (apprenties, artisanes de la localité ou d’autres localités). Ces contacts, organisés ou informels, prennent généralement place dans le contexte de certaines étapes de la chaîne opératoire à deux échelles d’analyse différentes :l’échelle villageoise par l’occupation d’un atelier et/ou d’un site de cuisson commun à divers artisanes et l’échelle extra villageoise par la fréquentation de sites d’extraction et de marchés partagés par des artisanes issues de localités différentes. Autant d’espaces de pratiques fréquentés par les potières susceptibles d’échanger leurs savoirs, collaborer et construire, ensemble, un répertoire de connaissances mobilisables. Quand une potière réalise son récipient, elle inscrit sa pratique dans un monde connu et habité. Sa technique est autant marquée par son apprentissage que par son identité familiale et villageoise ainsi que par ses interactions avec d’autres artisanes. Si on admet que chaque pratique est située et que la situation donne du sens à la pratique, il devient impératif d’examiner les situations de partage des savoirs ainsi que les cadres dans lesquels ces situations prennent place. Nous mettrons en évidence les points de contacts qui lient et interconnectent les artisanes d’une même localité et des différentes localités de la zone d’étude. Nous évaluerons les dimensions sociales et relationnelles de l’apprentissage de la poterie ainsi que la façon dont les habiletés sont conceptualisées et investies par les artisanes. En analysant le contexte d’apprentissage et de pratique des artisanes, nous souhaitons apporter un éclairage sur comment s’accroche le social et la technique et ainsi expliquer les configurations techniques observées au sein de la région d’étude. <p> / Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This dissertation reframes the history eighteenth-century British art as a history of textiles. Women across England, Ireland, and Scotland grew, dressed, spun, and wove the hemp, flax, and wool textiles that were the basis for both the cultural implements and practical tools of empire: oil paintings on linen canvas and needlework of worsted thread hung in metropolitan exhibition spaces, while hemp rope, sail cloth, and coarse linen facilitated Britain’s global reach and transportation of commodities. Over the course of three chapters, “Rope,” “Linen,” and “Thread,” I demonstrate how ordinary textiles made and used by women were key tools for the funding, making, and aesthetics of art. In the first chapter, “Rope,” I trace the labor of female models in British drawing academies through their poses supported by rope, and consider historical encounters between rope and the female working body in carceral contexts. Following the entwined forms of life models and rope demonstrates just how entangled the spaces of punishment and the life studio were. The second chapter, “Linen,” is about the structure, materiality and hidden histories embedded in linen painting canvas. First, by comparing linen weaves, thread counts, stamps, and fiber content, I demonstrate the material connections between the world of coarse linen goods and the textile supports of oil paintings. I then argue that the texture of canvas was crucial to the “unfinished” aesthetic of portraiture that became fashionable in the late eighteenth century and attend to the racialized and gendered discourses intrinsic to this painting style. The last chapter, “Thread,” examines spinning and needlework as elite performances of female industry against the backdrop of mechanization, nascent labor movements, and imperial expansion. I contend that these conflicts played out in romanticized depictions of women spinning and the celebration of public exhibitions of worsted embroidery, namely Mary Linwood’s Gallery. While scholars from the fields of economic history, material culture, and art history have considered the topics of industrialization, labor, textiles, and art separately, this is the first study to bring them together as an intervention in eighteenth-century British art history. By rendering textile labor visible in eighteenth-century British art, I argue that manufacturing, imperialism and the visual arts were financially, materially, and ideologically enmeshed processes.

There has been considerable debate in the gender and development literature on income earning opportunities and their empowerment potential for women, particularly rural women, in developing countries. In this, a critical question for the empowerment of women is, does access to resources, for example, enterprise income, translate into power and its various manifestations for women within their households? This study argues that access to resources alone is not a sufficient prerequisite for empowerment. Improved access to resources will only transform into empowerment outcomes if women are able to exercise their agency to achieve desired outcomes. The study, therefore, highlights the centrality of agency in the empowerment process. Agency acts as a link between resources on the one hand and empowerment outcomes on the other. Furthermore, the relationship between agency and empowerment is dialectical as the two concepts under investigation are constitutive of each other. Put differently, enhanced agency results in empowerment, which in turn feeds back to increased agency, leading to further empowerment. Hence, empowerment is presented as both an outcome of the exercise of agency and a driver of agency. The study frames the question of agency and empowerment within feminist theory of agency - Western, African and South African. Using a case study of the Ikhowe Craft Group in rural Eshowe, the study examines the role of agency in the empowerment process for rural women crafters in two ways. Firstly, through the feminist political ecology approach, it evaluates their ability to access the natural resource, Cyperus spp. for use in craft making. Secondly, it examines their individual agency within their households and their collective agency in the Craft Group. Within the overarching feminist research paradigm, a mixed methods research methodology was used, which entailed embedding quantitative data collection and presentation within qualitative research techniques. The empirical evidence suggests that the women crafters’ agency was enacted and empowerment achieved within a context of enablement and constraints, with gender culture and traditional leadership emerging as significant variables that mediate the rural women’s agency within their households and in accessing the raw material for their craft. Gender and culture intersect to influence how the women construct their identities, roles and responsibilities within their households. Despite the constraints of social structure, the women emerge as important agents of social change in their households. In addition, the study has revealed the private sphere to be a significant site of both the women crafters’ agency and subordination. Hence, any conceptualization of women’s agency and empowerment, particularly that of rural women, needs to be context-specific to be able to adequately capture the realities of the women that impinge on their ability to act. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.