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

By Jill Forshee

Book Overview

Textiles have long been integral to the social life and cosmology of the people of East Sumba, Indonesia. In recent decades, the people of East Sumba 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. Such responses involve gender, ethnicity, and social rank, and are especially highlighted within global market spaces. The stories in Between the Folds vary widely and include those of animists, Christians, and Moslems; Sumbanese, Indonesian Chinese, and Westerners; inventive geniuses, master artisans, and exploited weavers; rogues, entrepreneurs, nobles, and servants.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 082482346X
• ISBN13: 9780824823467
• Release Date: December 2000
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Fabulous book!

This is an amazing book. It is eloquently written, engaging and insightful...one of the best books out there on Indonesian textiles and their recent transformations. Collectors, scholars and students alike will find this book one of their favorites. I've assigned this book in classes and students love it--they tell me it is one they will keep on their shelves. I agree--it is a keeper!

smart, fun, and readable

Reads like a novel, but is also scholarly. This is a really unique ethnography! My students have loved it. Highly recommended for scholars, textile people, and Indonesia enthusiasts. Great writing, ethnographic details, and up close descriptions of the lives of an amazing range of characters from a "traditional" eastern Indonesian culture in modern times. The chapter about the intersections of cultures in Bali is priceless and would make a good film. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew the main characters and wanted their stories to go on. Good anthropology!

Let's have a second edition!

Hopefully this will come out in second edition. We need to read how these stories go on! Good anthropology!