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AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF SIX ECUADORIAN INDIGENA WOMEN WHO MAKE SHIGRAS
DISSERTATION
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate
School of the Ohio State University
By
Deanna Elizabeth Dennis, M.A.
The Ohio State University 1998
Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Patricia Stuhr, Advisor 7 Professor Don Krug 4 - A Professor Laurel Richardson Adviser Art Education Graduate Program UMI Number: 9822300
UMI Microform 9822300 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved.
This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ABSTRACT
In this study I present research concerning six women in the Ecuadorian
Sierra who make shigras (baskets). It is important because as cultures of the world become progressively interconnected, the exigency for addressing our human understanding of each other is imperative. Because global awareness is seldom promoted except on a superficial level, this study presents an example for use in expanding the focus of multicultural education as it is commonly understood to include the art and artists of all cultures of the world, not just the cultures represented in the United States. A second consideration is the changing perspectives of art and aesthetics and how these concepts can be explained and implemented in the classroom. These shifting views support deconstructing the artificially-imposed polarities of fine and folk artists and their work. The role gender plays in valuing art in Ecuador, and by implication in the United States, is also discussed along with some alternative ways of interacting with other cultures. It is not enough for teachers to understand only what they should teach but also that they need to be cognizant of children's understanding of art as grounded in their own cultural value system. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my advisor, Dr. Patricia Stuhr. Without her guidance and continuous encouragement, the writing of this dissertation would not have been possible. I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the members of my dissertation committee-Dr. Donald Krug for his understanding and support and to Dr. Laurel Richardson, a special thank you for sharing my "field."
Ill VITA
January 30,1943 Bom - Granite, OK
1965-1967 T.E.F.L. & Art Teacher, Iran
1976 B A Capital University, Bexley, OH
1977-1982 Art Teacher, Liberty Union- Thurston Schools, Baltimore, OH
1983 M A The Ohio State University
1984-1991 Art Teacher, Liberty Union- Thurston Schools, Baltimore, OH
1991-1992 G.T A T he Ohio State University
1992-Present Art Teacher, Liberty Union- Thurston Schools, Baltimore, OH
FIELD OF STUDY
Major Field: Art Education
IV TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
A bstract...... ii
Acknowledgments ...... ill
V ita ...... iv
List of Figures ...... vii
Chapters:
1. An Overview of the R esearch ...... 1
1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Background 1 1.3 Statement of the Problem 4 1.4 Purpose and Significance of the Research 7 1.5 The Research 8
2. Literature Review ...... 12
3. The M ethodology ...... 23
3.1 Introduction 23 3.2 Design of the Study 24 3.3 Locating a Site 25 3.4 First Trip to Ecuador 27 3.4.1 Preparations 27 3.4.2. Choice of Aesthetic Product 29 3.5 Second Trip to Ecuador 40 3.5.1 Preparations 40 3.5.2 Location of Key Informants 41 3.5.3 Development of Interview Questions 42 3.5.4 Collection of Data 42 3.5.5 Choice of Informants 47 3.5.6 Interviews 50 3.5.7 Gift Giving 52 3.5.8 Transcription and Analysis 54
4 . Shigras...... 55
4.1 History of Fiber in Inca Society 55 4.2 Geographic Environment 55 4.3 Uses 59 4.4 Characteristics 61 4.5 Construction 61
5. Findings ...... 67
5.1 Narratives 67 5.1.1 Gabriela 68 5.1.2 Beatrice 79 5.1.3 Maria 85 5.1.4 Ana 92 5.1.5 Isabel 97 5.1.6 Julia 104 5.2 Data Summary and Analysis 111
6. C onclusion ...... 119
7.1 Introduction 119 7.2 Implications for the Field of Art Education 119 7.3 Suggestions for Further Research 126
Glossary 128
Appendices 138 A. Lesson Plan - Arabic Calligraphy 139 8. Unit of Instruction - Art of Iran 145 C. Characteristics of Quechua Language 147 D. Major Locations of Various Aesthetic Products 149 E. Museums in Quito 152 F. Interview Questions 154 G. Analysis Charts 158 H. Sampling of Organizations which Promote Cross-cultural Awareness 178 Bibliography 181
vi LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1 Three-minute sketches of Ecuadorian children ...... 32
2 Sketches for game played with Ecuadorian children ...... 35
3 Traditional Inca design on woven hanging ...... 37
4 Variation on M.C. Escher design on woven hanging ...... 39
5 Map of Ecuador ...... 56
6 Example of typical contemporary shigra...... 58
7 Sketch of cabuya, or agave Americana ...... 57
8 Dyed and natural cabuya fib ers...... 62
9 Steps in shigra construction ...... 65
10 Bottom view of a s/7/gra illustrating beginning stitches ...... 66
11 Sketch of Gabriela and her daughter Angelita ...... 74
12 Sketches of Gabriela and her daughter Angelita ...... 75
13 Shigra with bird design. Made by Gabriela ...... 76
14 Reverse side of shigra with bird design. Made by Gabriela ...... 77
15 Bottom view of shigra with bird design. Made by Gabriela ...... 78
16 Sketch of Beatrice and a friend ...... 82
17 Sh/gra with stripe design. Made by Beatrice ...... 83
vii 18 Bottom view of shigra with stripe design. Made by Beatrice ...... 84
19 Sketch of Maria and her daughter Ana ...... 88
20 Shigra with geometric designs. Made by Maria ...... 89
21 Detail of shigra with geometric designs. Made by Maria ...... 90
22 Bottom view of shigra made by Maria ...... 91
23 Shigra with combination of stepped boxes and alternating diagonal bands. Made by A n a ...... 94
24 Detail of shigra with combination of stepped boxes and alternating diagonal bands. Made by Ana ...... 95
25 Bottom view of shigra made by Ana ...... 96
26 Sketches of Isabel...... 100
27 Shigra with combination design of stepped boxes and chicken. Made by Isabel ...... 101
28 Reverse side of shigra made by Isabel ...... 102
29 Bottom view of shigra showing unusually tight weave. Made by Isab el...... 103
30 Sketch of Ju lia...... 107
31 Shigra with stepped triangle design. Made by Julia ...... 108
32 Detail of shigra with stepped triangle design. Made by Ju lia 109
33 Bottom view of shigra made by Julia ...... 110
VIII CHAPTER 1 AN OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH Introduction
This chapter begins with a discussion of my background and includes an explanation of the events leading to my choice of a dissertation. This is followed by a discussion of the purpose of this study and the significance it holds for the field of art education. The final part of Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of each of the succeeding chapters.
Background Being the daughter of an oilfield welder, my childhood was interrupted by moves too frequent to allow peer relationships to develop. Instead, my companions were neighbors or landladies whose ethnic backgrounds included the creation of various aesthetic products that I viewed as fascinating. I remember watching Mrs. Marianski tatting beautiful borders onto her table linens, a skill she had learned as a girl in Czechoslovakia, and being allowed to help another neighbor sew beads onto a pair of moccasins in preparation for her daughter's formal presentation to the Chickasaw Nation. She had learned the technique during the time she and her family had lived on a reservation in Oklahoma. My first experience with embroidery was at the knees of Melpo, a Greek neighbor who, having recently immigrated, spoke very little English.
1 Although not explicitly verbalized by them, I easily recognized their pride in their work. As a child experiencing typical difficulty in acquiring new skills, I originally assumed their pride to be primarily in terms of their mastery of those skills. However, with each new experience my understanding expanded to recognize that what they received from their work was far more complex. I recognized a similarity between the importance they attached to making objects to be handed down to future generations and the painstaking stitches apparent in the objects I had inherited from my grandmother and aunts. When I began to make connections between the various objects which were sources of pride for my friends and family, I also began to recognize the connections to their ethnic heritages; the objects they were making were a significant part of their cultural identity.
This interest in indigenous art forms continued when, as a Peace Corps Volunteer between 1965 and 1967,1 lived in the Middle-Eastern country of Iran. The first year there I lived in the small village of Jahrom in the sourthem part of the country. I was extraordinarily privileged to be permitted to watch Quashquai women and girls tying the knots which resulted in the intricately designed carpets for which Iran is famous. The second year I lived in Zandjan in the north-western part of the Country. There I watched women and girls from the area making carpets unique to a different culture group, the
Kurds. My interest in those women, whose designs were so specific that their regional origin was easily recognized, led to my curiosity about Iranian women in other parts of the Country and the equally distinct designs they incorporated into the carpets they made. I was always accepted as a welcome visitor, a privilege to which, because of religious restrictions, male visitors were usually denied. The information available within this indigenous aesthetic product was far richer than just facts. I began to realize that what I had initially been seeing only as specifics relating to color or design was actually totally enmeshed within the culture. I became aware of the inter and intra-connections of such things as gender roles, family membership, ethnicity, history, tradition, and religion. Why had I never learned about such things in school? Why had my art classes only covered the paintings and sculptures of male Europeans? I wanted to learn more about ethnic material culture but did not know how to find out about it. I wondered if my teachers knew about the art and artists of other cultures or if they too had not known where to find adequate information to present to their students. This issue surfaced again as a result of an experience I had as a high school art teacher. During the 1980s, when American hostages were being held in Tehran, I was appalled to realize how little was known of the culture of Iran and how easily negative stereotypes were being assigned to that entire population by my students. This hostage situation was a clear example of how one incident in a single city had the potential to impact on the lives of persons all over the world. Because of the two years I had lived in Iran, I was able to address the situation with my class in a unique way. I taught my students Arabic calligraphy, an art form indigenous to the Middle East (see Appendix A for lesson plan). I also exposed them to the cultural context of the art form 3 through personal narratives and multiple slides I had taken while there. By the end of the four-week unit, the students had become quite adept at rendering the calligraphic forms of Arabic. I was pleased to observe that a noticeable growth had also taken place in their ability to personalize what they were learning in terms of recognizing Iranians as individuals, rather than the stereotypical Iranian who with clenched fist they frequently saw on television angrily shouting epithets against America. I eventually utilized my experiences in Iran to design curricula which focused on other aesthetic products of that culture (see Appendix B for unit plan). I have since taught those lessons many times over the years both in my own classes, and as a visiting lecturer in other art classes, social studies classes, and even math classes, and for various local organizations such as women's clubs. I have also shared and/or exchanged them with fellow teachers.
Statement of the Problem
As art education evolves as a field of study, art educators are constantly redefining the goals and objectives of their curriculum. According to /Arthur Efiand'’ (in Neperud, 1995), the role played by aesthetic theories and philosophies of art at any point in time determines the choice of teaching methods and curriculum content. For example, an art curriculum grounded in an aesthetic theory of pragmatism contains an implied agenda for social 4
^In keeping with feminist postmodern theory which supports gender recognition, I have chosen to favor the practice of abandoning the impersonal use of surnames only, in favor of using full names whenever possible, the first time they appear. reconstruction. As he explains it, Knowledge, including art knowledge, is experience having instrumental
value that enables individuals and social groups to adapt to a changing environment. The learning task involves intellectual reconstruction of social reality, and the ideology of social reconstruction is one that
would accomodate to change (p. 29). The promotion of a multicultural approach in art is one example of an aesthetic theory of pragmatism. A global perspective is another. The importance of a multicultural approach to education within the
United States is recognized and addressed (McFee & Degge, 1977; Banks, 1987; Stuhr, 1987). However, as interdependency and relatedness increase in so many areas of service and information, the need for multicultural art education to be extended to include not just those cultures within the United States, but all cultures of the world is becoming markedly more obvious. Edna St. Vincint Millay (1967) stated the situation succinctly when she said, "There are no islands anymore" (p. 34). Many educators have concerned themselves with the urgency to strengthen that relationship (McFee, 1996, Anderson, 1991; Ramier, 1991; Bennett, 1990; and Elder and Carr, 1987). It has also been acknowledged by individuals outside education such as Martin Luther King (in Cohen, 1972) and Marshall McLuhan (1964) who respectively coined the terms "world house" and "global village" to describe our planet, and physicist Fritof Capra (1990) who has frequently addressed the need for a fundamental shift toward a world view. The overarching problem being addressed In this study is the sparcity of a world view within education in general and art education in particular. There is a need for a more holistic perspective which includes the art and artists of cultures outside the United States. My primary point of contention is
that although many students are patently ignorant about cultures other than their own and subsequently are also emphatically ethnocentric and elitist, many art teachers, unless their educational background includes international studies, do not take advantage of the opportunity to use their subject area to
promote international awareness except on a superficial level, if at all. As Americans, we need to change the narrow paradigm of how we view
ourselves from one in which we are participants in American society only, to a broader view in which we see ourselves as being participants in a world society; to recognize that, as noted author Ali Mazrui (1986) says, 'The human race is indeed a family" (p. 7). This concept is supported by evidence of the expansion of political, economic, cultural, technological, ecological, and humanitarian concerns which connect peoples, cultures, civilizations and regions (Anderson, 1991). As educators, we need to actively address diversity outside the United States so that we do not contribute to ethnocentricism through omission. I am not alone in believing that the art classroom is an excellent place for this to take place. Individuals in education, art education, and anthropology (Gollnick & Chinn, 1990; McFee & Degge, 1977; Geertz, 1973) have repeatedly recognized the role of art as a form of communication. Graham Chalmers (1988), also acknowledging the use of art as communication, maintains that it has not been focused on adequately as a source of cultural meaning.
The Purpose and Significance of the Research
A significant point in my research is that the loci of art is not the same in all cultures. Within western cultures it is primarily drawing, painting, and sculpture. In many middle eastern cultures it is calligraphy, filigree work, or carpets. In Ecuador it is textiles, as it has been since before recorded history. It is a gender-based art form that is important to ordinary women. Typically decorative arts, home arts, and comparable domestic activities have been relegated to a low importance and have been left out of discussions about art. The shigras made in Ecuador are aesthetic cultural forms that have importance for women, ordinary women, in much the same way as quilting does in the United States, as knitting and crocheting do in Iran. They provide opportunities for aesthetic outlets as well as social gathering, for women to bond and build community, for stories to be passed down, and for culture to be learned. Another important element of this study lies in its promotion of an international perspective. Its purpose is to present a rationale for expanding the current practice of multiculturalism in which only cultures represented within the United States are addressed, to one that includes the recognition of the commonalities and unique qualities of cultures which exist outside the United States. It investigates how individual cross-cultural learning experiences can assist in that application and in making the connection between the two areas. 7 experiences can assist in that application and in making the connection between the two areas. It also discusses the Eurocentric bias that often exists in education and maintains that including contextual information along with the traditional process/product approach typically utilized in curriculum design often affords
insights not commonly understood. By presenting the process by which a particular type of basket is made, along with various aspects of the basketmakers' cultural and biographical background, I show that the difference in value systems affects the perception of aesthetic products of other cultures. It also affects how educators present those products in their classrooms. Still another aspect of my study is the encouragment and demonstration of the possibility of art teachers, whether they be in public or private schools or at a university, of engaging in their own research outside the boundaries of the United States. I demonstrate this by describing in some detail my own field research experiences in South America. The importance of recognizing and addressing potential bias inherent in the practice of observing cultures other than ones own is included within the discussion. This research also provides other possible sources for the knowledge base needed to design curricula based on the aesthetic products of cultures outside the United States.
The Research In the following chapters of this qualitative study I describe my field research in the Ecuadorian Sierra where I investigated the lives and cultural 8 milieu of six indigenous women and the process by which they make a
particular type of basket, a shigra. Throughout the text I have interspersed
narratives relating some of my personal experiences as well as some photographs that I took during the time I was there. Because sketches were an integral part of my methodology, many of them are also included within the study. Chapter 2 is a review of the literature which influenced the formulation of this study and demonstrates the integration of multiple disciplines to develop a core of knowledge. It covers the areas of anthropology, sociology, global education, art education, and Ecuadorian history and geography. The anthropology and sociology literature provide a background for socio-anthropological research. The critical theory views of various sociologists are espoused in concern for assessing inequalities without interference of Western bias. The global education literature looks beyond the goals of multiculturalism as it is commonly viewed and presents justification for expanding its practice to incorporate an international perspective. The art education literature lends support for understanding cultures by studying their arts in context. Attention then turns to the problem area of critical analysis of art in general and art of another culture in particular. In Chapter 3 I discuss the difference between approaches to research and explain why a qualitative model was deemed suitable for my investigation. I describe the methodologies and procedures for investigative fieldwork when applying the social anthropological paradigm and deliniate the considerations which precipitated choosing ethnography for my research 9 purposes. Attention then turns to a discussion of how I determined the location of a social situation and how I limited the investigation to a particular
aesthetic product and its makers during my first field experience. This is followed by a description of the nature of my data collection, describing my
progression from a passive role as a limited observer to one in which there was moderate participation. In the remainder of this chapter I talk about my second field experience in Ecuador, and include some aspects of the data
collection procedures that I utilized specifically in relation to shigras and their makers. Chapter 4 is a presentation of information specifically pertinent to shigras. It begins with a brief overview of the role fiber played in the history of Inca society. This is followed by a description of the distinctive geographic environment and its relationship to the people who are indigenous to the area and finishes with an explanation of the role the geography of the Sierra has played in the formative and continuing influence of the material culture objects that are produced. The final portion of the chapter has illustrations of the sequential steps detailing the construction of shigras. Chapter 5 contains ethnographic interviews with the six women who were the focus of my research. These narratives are the product of both formal interviews and informal conversations over a period of several months They encompass personal and contextual information about the women as well as data relating to the various aspects of shigras and their production. Chapter 6 contains the interpretive analytic element of the thesis. In this chapter I summarize the accumulated findings of two field experiences and provide an interpretation of the information in terms of artist, product, and
1 0 process. I look at the practices of shigra makers to discover how their perception of art and its functions differ from those commonly accepted in the
United States. The final chapter discusses some of the implications this research has
for the field of art education. In this chapter I suggest that the strongly-supported multicultural approach to art education should be expanded to include an international perspective. My proposal includes urging art educators to engage in their own research. In the event that this is out of the question, I give suggestions for alternative means of obtaining valid cultural information.
By utilizing observations and interviews of some shigra makers, this study illustrates that in order to avoid a Eurocentric bias, whenever art educators introduce an aesthetic product of another culture to their students, they must also include the value system of that culture. I further contend that investigations of that kind open the door to greater understanding of what is important to people from other countries and cultures. It also maintains that pedagogy must be sensitive to cultural diversity. In art education, that implies that educators must be aware that the students within their classroom may be vievwng and/or producing aesthetic products through their own cultural value system which may be different from that of their teacher or their fellow classmates. A concluding section relates suggestions for further research.
11 CHAPTER 2 UTERATURE REVIEW
Background for this study is found in the nexus of anthropology, sociology, global education, art education, and Ecuadorian history and geography, the literature from these various disciplines affording concomitant integration of disciplines. The conceptualization of art as cultural artifact is
supported by many years of documentation by anthropologists such as Ruth Bunzel (1938) and Jacques Maquet (1986). Curriculum theorists Michael Apple (1986) and Thomas S. Popkewitz (1981) have cautioned however, that American researchers must be careful to recognize the influence of their Western biases when investigating other cultures. In an effort to avoid such determinations, when referring to "art" I will follow the example of Janet Wolff (1984), who included "all aesthetic cultural products" in the classification of art (p. 11). According to art educators Robyn Wasson, Patricia Stuhr, and Lois Petrovich-Mwaniki (1990), the primary focal point of both anthropology and sociology is the investigation of cultures in order to better understand cultural processes. George Swinton (1978) corroborates their position saying that a deeper understanding of a culture can be achieved through greater awareness of their arts and artifacts because the art of a people expresses that people. However, such views have not been universally accepted. In order to more fully comprehend the controversy surrounding the lack of 12 consensus, it is helpful to review significant past trends. Therefore, I begin with a brief overview of the history of the social sciences in Latin America.
Throughout the first half of the 20th century, research in Latin America was carried out primarily by foreign anthropologists following the traditions of
Franz Boas and Marcel Mauss (Fishlow in Mitchell, 1988). Most of the research undertaken during this time was almost exclusively written by males about males. This biased research was referred to as the male epistemological stance and defined by Carol MacKinnon (in Maynard and
Purvis, 1994) as "men's power to create the world from their own point of view, which then becomes the truth to be described" (p. 18). Ruth Benedict, Ruth Bunzel, Margaret Mead, and Elsie Clews Parsons are notable early exceptions as women in the field of anthropological research.
When women became more commonplace as researchers, social scientists were assailed by allegations concerning the paucity of research about women. In response, during the 1970s anthropologists and sociologists
focused on increasing the visability of Latin American women in the anthropological record (Stephen in Acosta-Belen and Bose, 1993). According to a bibliography developed by K. Lynn Stoner (1989), efforts continue to address this problem. Her book lists 3,071 relatively recent works devoted to the study of women and the family in Latin America. After the end of World War II, decolonization shook the very foundation of social science. Anthropologists began to question whether their methods were an extension of colonialism, that is, the strong appropriating the voices of the weak, just as the strong had appropriated the labor and resources of the weak in an earlier time. On one end of the spectrum. Westerners were 13 accused of colonialism if they were investigating individuals in "other" cultures: on the other end were accusations of ethnocentrism if "other" cultures were not the subjects of their research. Another of the numerous issues involved in the concept of speaking for others involves who is chosen to be spoken for. A researcher wields tremendous power through the selection or omission of an individual as the focus of investigation. This decision is inherently a value judgment about the life of another person-worthwhile and exceptional or unimportant.
Investigating the lives of women who make shigras instead of women who paint on canvas is a political statement about the value of what art educator Don Krug (1995) referred to as "mainstream versus nonmainstream art." Inadvertently there is also a statement being made to the women being studied and to others within their cultural milieu concerning their significance and the importance of what they do. Stoner (1989) argued that, "Choosing to write about women is itself a political gesture, for doing so presumes that a hitherto invisible population not only deserves recognition but also that understanding major issues requires knowledge about women's historical and current roles in culture, economics & politics" (p. 7). Along this same line. Daphne Patai (1988) pointed out that in the instances when women have been the focus of research, they have typically been chosen from among only one group, the elite. Ruth Behar (1993) added another category, that of exemplary feminist heroine, for whom she maintained women from the West are always searching among "the natives"
(p. 169). Making a similar observation, Moema Viezzer says (in Barrios de 14 Chungara & Viezzer, 1978), "Written documentation concerning the experiences of ordinary and poor people is quite scarce" (p. 10). This practice is gradually changing, as recent works have begun to
investigate the lives of nonelite women (las de abajo) (Lavrin in Acosta-Belen & Bose, 1993). One of the few early examples is Let Me Speak (Barrios de
Chungara & Viezzer, 1978). At the time this book was written, however, the importance of its informant was based on her visibility in political rebellions as an exemplary feminist heroine; being a woman near the bottom of the social hierarchy was simply fortuitous. A more relevant contemporary example is Brazilian Women Speak, in which Patai (1988) explicitly chose to write life histories of only ordinary women. Another is Translated Woman, the life story of a street peddler "from
the margins of the other America" (Behar, 1993, p. 270). How language is used and understood is another relevant concern which is fraught with complexity. Uncertainty is inherent in determining whether questions are being correctly understood or if the answers are being correctly interpreted. Language is not an objective, intractable given. It is fluid and malleable, shaping the reality that is perceived and projected. Del Martin and Phillis Lyon (1992, in Reinharz) have said, "It is impossible to be definitive or objective. . but it is possible to be knowledgeable" (p. 261 ) Feminist linguist Deborah Cameron (1985) asserting that this is not a new debate said, 'The question of language and its political implications has exercised writers, philosophers and social theorists throughout the intellectual history of western civilization" (p. 1). Brenda Marshall (in Neperud, 1995) elucidates the pivotal role of language in postmodernism by saying, 15 Postmodernism is about language. About how it controls, how it determines meaning, and how we try to exert control through language. About how language restricts, closes down, insists that it stands for some thing. Postmodernism is about how "we" are defined within that language, and within specific historical, social, cultural matrices. It's about race, class, gender, erotic identity and practice, nationality, age, ethnicity. It's about difference. It's about power and powerlessness, about empowerment, and about all the stages in between and beyond and unthought of (p. 6). Also problematic in understanding language is that the meanings of
words are not static but vary across time and space. Australian scholar Dale Spender (1981 ) used the word tart as an example of this phenomenon. She explained that when first used, it meant a desirable pastry, then changed to mean a sexually-desirable woman, and finally to mean a woman of loose morals. Another example is the poor young lady who is referred to as homely, a term she recognizes as an unflattering reference to her appearance. In our not so distant past, however, homely was a complimentary adjective, referring instead to homemaking activities. Several decades ago, anthropologists, Edward T. Hall (1959) and Hortense Powdermaker (1966) began to stress the important role that nonverbal language played in communication. They claimed that even when both researcher and subject knew the spoken language there could be misunderstandings due to insufficient knowledge of the nonverbal language. They went on to point out that subtle nuances of behavior such as facial expression, vocal intonation, and gesticulation often convey meanings of which the speaker is not overtly aware. According to Hall, even though there is constant communication through this unspoken language, few are aware of the effect it has on understanding.
16 To Americans a nod of the head usually means agreement or acknowledgment. That movement does not, however, have universal understanding. In most countries of the Middle East, nodding the head upward is a negative response, as is raising the eyebrows, a movement which in the United States is recognized as an indication of surprise. A failure to understand a seemingly inconsequential gesture such as this can obviously have a significant impact on communication. Suzanne Langer emphasized that the way a question is formed determines in part the answer that can be given (in Spender, 1976). The way in which queries are shaped depends on the frame of reference of the investigator and the context in which they are asked. Linda Jean Shepherd (1993) warned, "It does little good to collect reams of data if we are asking the wrong question or if the question is out of context" (p. 105). Because of the different ways that males and females comunicate and interpret language, it is no surprise that feminists focus much of their effort on research concerning language and gender relationships. In Gender Issues in Field Research, Carol Warren (1988) presented some noteworthy observations regarding the impact of gender on language. She contended that the participants of a study would react differently to males than they would to females, thus affecting what the researchers will learn about the cultures they investigate. She drew upon examples from anthropology and sociology to support her belief that until recently investigators-primarily male—were unaware of the impact their gender had on their data. They believed that what they saw, heard, and wrote during their fieldwork could be duplicated by other investigators. 17 Cameron (1985) adds to the general issue of language the problematic
area of accomodation to the interviewer. She reports that people speak differently when they are in formal situations than they do when they are in casual situations. Examples of the latter type of language used, vernacular, is often difficult to obtain because in unusual situations people are more likely to be monitoring their behavior and inadvertently their language. This problem would be exacerbated by the necessity of utilizing the services of a translator. According to Paul Simon (1980), past Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and author of numerous books on international relations, the establishment of trust is rendered more difficult when a translator is required because of the semblance of cultural arrogance in assuming that learning the subject's language is unnecessary. An additional problem often encountered is that translation is seldom exact. Literal translations can result in inaccuracies that range from insignificant to profound. In Tongue-Tied American. Simon (1980) lists such examples as "Body by Fisher", describing a car made by General Motors, which in Flemish literally translates as "Corpse by Fisher" and a similar translation error that Chevrolet made in South America when introducing their
"Nova." It was an economic fiasco until it was pointed out to them that nova in Spanish means "does not or will not go." They subsequently changed the name of the car to Canbe, thereby affecting an immediate sales reversal. Hall (1984) has pointed out that the failure of computer translation is not because of vocabulary and syntax but because words have different meanings depending on the frame of reference in which they are embedded.
The difficulties are intensified by the necessity of translating a second 18 language into a third, such as in the Andes where some indigenes speak exclusively in Quichua, a dialect of Quechua (see Appendix C for some characteristics of the Quechua language). There can still be problems even when the researcher has native fluency in the participant's language. Translating words is only one step in translating a life story. For example, Behar (1993) said when she wrote the life story of "Esperanza", it was neither English nor Spanish but rather, "the language of a translated woman" (p. 19). A third aspect of the issue of "speaking for others" is the personal nature of information participants are asked to reveal. Anthropologist Renato Rosaldo (1993) told about a frustrating effort to incorporate "a revelation of the dark and hidden depths of his intimate and private being" into a life history he was constructing, only to realize later that the concept of a life story is a social construct that differs from culture to culture (in Behar, p. 272). Behar (1993) gained a similar epiphany and consequent disappointment when she was writing the life history of "Esperanza", who refused to speak about the intimate details of her life because such disrobing did not fit within the parameters of what she and most rural Mexicans found to be socially acceptable. To her, the American idea of "letting it all hang out" seemed vulgar (p. 273). Buddhist nun Pema Chodron (1964) incorporates a philosophy of compassion in the research of women of other cultures. She maintains that inherent within all research is a responsibility to maintain the utmost degree of cultural sensitivity. Art educators Anthony Scott, Patricia Stuhr, and Don
Krug (1995) take this stance further, asserting that, for ethical reasons, there 19 are times wtien a choice should be made to resist the impulse to reveal all that has been heard. The mere act of attempting to address the struggles of women without producing generalizations is fraught with difficulties. Feminist ethnographer Kamala Visweswaren (1994), found it a perceptual fiasco to even attempt to
discuss women as a category. There are others (Clifford & Marcus, 1986; Minh-ha, 1989) who raised questions of ethics and presumption. They described the research conducted on women of other cultures by white Western women as nothing more than "a continuation of Western colonialism" (p. 7). They hold that such investigations exhibit tremendous arrogance, taking for granted that women share a common form of oppression regardless of race or culture. Art educator, Laurie Hicks (1991) remarked that feminist theory is "increasingly concerned with articulating the issue of differences among women" (p. 12). Sociologist Laurel Richardson (1990) wrote, "The question is not whether we will write the lives of people—as social scientists that is what we do—but how and for whom" (p. 9). Essential to the ethnographic process is the necessity of being open to unforseen possibilities rather than searching for verification of an assumption. Generalizations about women sharing a common form of oppression restrict the scope of ideation. Refusing to accept the existence of any commonalities, however, is equally limiting. Sociologist Shulamit Reinharz (1992) does not believe that researchers must deny the existence of commonalities in order to see-^fferences listing one of the guiding principles of feminist cross-cultural research as being that women from quite different cultures have much in commop. She explained, 20 "Feminism acknowledges the paradox that women are all alike in some ways and dissimilar in others" (p. 252). Cross-cultural researcher Robin Morgan
(1989) writes about the text of Sisterhood is Global. "Article after article attempts valiantly to not minimize the differences but to identify the similarities between and among women" (p. 19). Still other feminist researchers, such as
Edna Acosta-Belen & Christine Bose (1993) and Leonore Adler (1991 ), also argued for the importance of understanding both commonalities and differences among women. Although not without criticism (Patai, 1988), the manner in which the authors of Women's Ways of Knowing (Belenky. Clinchy, Goldberger, Tarule, 1986) acknowledged the importance of connection and relatedness when they suggested that women should emphasize "connection over separation,
understanding and acceptance over assessment, and collaboration over debate" (p. 229). The following paragraph, which was taken from the preface of their text. Is a description of how they arrived at that position:
Not that we denied our individual convictions or squelched our objections to one another's points of view—we argued, tried to persuade, even cried at times when we reached an impasse of understanding-but we learned to listen to each other, to build on each other's insights, and eventually to arrive at a way of communicating as a collective of what we believe (p. xi). Feminists Epstein, Golden, Lather, Reiner and Unger maintained that women have an obligation to actively address oppression (in Reinharz, 1992). Power, however, is dialectical and subject to negotiation in the lives of the oppressed (Apple, 1986; Foucault in Rabinow, 1984). A cogent example of this is the obligatory veil worn by Moslem women, a custom that has been
21 said to produce a sense of empowerment (Abu-Lughod in Reinharz, 1992). Although to outsiders the veil is seen as a symbol of oppression, to some (personal experience) there is a feeling of power inherent in maintaining a modicum of privacy from unwelcome gawking. Chandra Mohanty (in Reinharz, 1992), asserts that women's oppression, especially in cultures other than one's own, is not necessarily the only analytical category on which one can or should attend. Therefore, this review of literature focuses on the confluence of issues raised by the impact of globalization on the shifting perspectives of art and aesthetics. According to Jerome Hausman, "For art teachers, it is no longer sufficient to dwell upon hand-eye coordination or formal elements of two- and three-dimensional forms as if these are the central concerns for our teaching"
(Hausman in Neperud, 1995, p. ix). In the last few years it has become apparent that a traditional art curriculum no longer meets the needs of students. As an art teacher, I am interested in the changing views of how art and aesthetics can be defined and implemented in the classroom using a global perspective.
2 2 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY Introduction
There are several different research models or approaches to research
which generate knowledge appropriate to the sciences. Within each of the different paradigms there is a characteristic implicit way of understanding, analyzing, and describing. The adequacy of each of the paradigms is greatly dependent on the types of questions being examined and the particular framework of the study. As researchers we should be viewing each of the research approaches as equally useful rather than choosing only one approach for all questions. Each paradigm should be examined for specific applicability. Different problems will generally call for different methodologies. There is value in each of the research choices and applicability at one time or another, therefore, Popkowitz tells us that none of them should be judged against the other. The determination to employ one research model over another should be made according to its suitability for the particular subject being studied. For many years the status of methodologies was largely unquestioned, the only acceptable research methods being quantitative. Recently however, qualitative research methods have been experiencing not only a growing acceptance, but an active advocacy, especially in the context of the 23 social-behavioral sciences (Patton, 1975; Degge, 1976; Sevigny, 1978; Guba
& Lincoln, 1981; Richardson, 1996). The first segment of this chapter contains a description of the methods I used in this study and my reasons for selecting ethnography for my
investigation. This is followed by an explanation of the process I went through in choosing Ecuador as the site and the process I went through in
choosing a few women who make shigras as my topic. Attention then turns to the preparations in which I engaged before my first field experience. The final section of Chapter 3 consists of a description of my second field experience in Ecuador. It begins with an explanation of how I located key informants and the assistance they rendered in locating other informants and developing interview questions. This is followed by a description of my data collection procedures, along with some personal narratives describing various aspects of the process. I then provide an explanation of the choice of participants along with an abbreviated portrayal of each of them. The last few paragraphs focus on the manner in which the interviews were conducted.
Design of the Study The modus operandi of this study is modeled after the methodologies and procedures for investigative fieldwork which employs the social anthropological paradigm. This model recommends a way of looking at indigenous aesthetic products and their producers within the context of culture rather than as isolated subject matter. The original decision to conduct a field study in order to learn about these artists was based on the assertion by Spradley (1979), Popkewitz (1981), and Stuhr (1987) that field 24 methodologies are especially useful in answering questions that concern cultural production/reproduction and George and Louise Spindler's (1973) position that the interpretation of a group's culture was best accomplished through ethnography and field research. They advised that in order to substantially explain specific situations, all description should be extremely detailed and cover many categories. There is a Latin American proverb that
says, "La gente hablando se entiende" (People undersand each other by talking). According to Spradley (1979), "Rather than studying people,
ethnography m eans learning from people" (p. 3). It is concerned with the observation and description of othr cultures.
Locating a Site
The original criteria involved in the selection of a site for my field study were; its location outside the United States, affordability, and personal safety. Making these determinations was the result of a rather complex decision-making process. There were many considerations to be taken into account, such as the need to address the issue of ethnocentrism. In order to make contrasts with cultures within the United States more obvious, I wanted to concentrate on one culture that would be significantly "foreign" to my students. Step one in determining a topic was, therefore, simply that my research would concentrate on a culture outside the United States and preferably one in which the first language was not English. Barbara VanOss Marin and Gerardo Marin (1991) state that between 1950 and 1980, the size of the Hispanic population living in the United States increased 265% and could be expected to continue growing by approximately 25 4.3% per year (p. vii). It is believed that soon the most capacious minority in the United States will be Latinos (Shorris, 1992). The lack of attention given
to this rapidly-growing segment of the population helped me to narrow my choice of a culture to a country within Latin American boundaries, that is,
either Central or South America. While searching the literature on aesthetic products in Latin America, it was readily evident to me that most research was confined to technique or history. Few investigations included more than cursory information about the individuals who created the objects. This was especially true concerning
Hispanic individuals living and working outside the United States. Within the United States, three notable exceptions to this practice are studies by Rosemary Joyce (1989), A Bearer of Tradition. Dwight Stump. Basketmaker:
John Michael Vlach (1981), Charleston Blacksmith: The Work of Philip Simmons: and R. Gerald Alvey (1984), Dulcimer Maker: The Craft of Homer Ledford. Because women and the aesthetic products they produce are customarily ignored, I decided to make female artists and their products the focus of my investigation. When given recognition, women are commonly relegated to a lesser status than that of men (Price, 1984; Apple, 1988). Although societies are made up of both women and men, in most studies of human behavior the primary focus has been on men (Eisler, 1990). Even when the focus has been on women, the researchers have, for the most part, been male. What exists here is a research version of an old nursery rhyme, "The House that Jack Built." History has been predominantly written by men.
26 They looked for that with which they were familiar. What they looked for was what they found. What they found was what they wrote about. The "study of man" has, therefore, resulted in an incomplete data base. The study of man did not include a comparative study of women. One of my goals was to offer new data and thoughts in order to expand recognition
of the importance of women and their aesthetic products. The resulting criteria for choosing a particular site for my investigation were: interest in female artists of Latin America and their aesthetic products, affordability, and safety. Unlike many Latin American countries, Ecuador did
not have a recent history of volatile political unrest and was also a comparatively inexpensive country in which to live. When my friend and mentor, past Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn, who having been an ambassador twice in South America, added that Ecuador was "a country full of gentle souls," I decided that it would indeed be the site of my investigation
(personal communication, 1989).
First Trip to Ecuador Preparations The impetus of the impending journey as a lone female, into a country totally unknown to me, lent tremendous urgency to preparations throughout the coming year. I began by voraciously reviewing germane literature, where I discovered an art heritage of which Ecuadorians are justifiably proud. Over the years, many villages have come to be known for particular art forms (see Appendix D)T I enjoyed learning about them and the particular aesthetic
products for which they w ere known. 27 Attending a Spanish class at a local university allowed me to hone skills in written Spanish but did little to make me comfortable with
conversational Spanish. It was for this reason that I, although not Catholic, began attending a Catholic Church that had a Spanish mass. This turned out to be one of the wisest moves I made in preparation for my trip. Although I
did not have much opportunity to use words like "transgression" or "temptation," by following along in my misalette when the priest was speaking I became accustomed to hearing the unfamiliar sounds of the Spanish language. My ears were bombarded with those same sounds in a more useful context before and after services as friends and family interacted. Everyone was warm and accepting of my attendance, often including me in their conversations, unaware of my lack of facility with their language.
My vocabulary was inadequate for any but the most simple conversation but I have a good "ear" so my pronunciation was misleading. This was demonstrated to me when I put a simple message on my answering machine in Spanish. Later, when I played my messages back, one was totally in Spanish—and totally uncomprehended. Although I was always concerned that I had not just smiled at hearing that a pet had been run over or agreed to sponsor an indigent cousin who wanted to immigrate, my typical responses were simply a smile and a nod. Another thing I learned by attending masses was the difference between Latin American time and North American time. Although the time for church to begin was listed as 12 noon, when I arrived for the first time at 12:05 p.m., I thought the sign must have been an old one because the church
28 was totally empty. At 12:10 p.m. parishioners began to arrive and continued to saunter in well after 12:15 p.m. They wondered why I had arrived so early.
Choice of Aesthetic Product When I finally arrived in Ecuador, I rushed through customs, rushed to
get money changed, then rushed right back out so I could see as much as possible before it got dark. By morning I was not rushing anywhere. Instead,
I was remembering what I had read about soroche (altitude sickness). When unaccustomed to extreme altitudes, it is recommended that the body be allowed to acclimate slowly without undue stress caused by exercise. Failing to follow such precautions usually results in such discomforts as fatigue, headache, and heart palpitations or possibly more serious health problems. I
chastised myself for not heeding my own instructions while at the sam e time recognizing how fortunate I was that I had not been forced to seek medical attention. I spent that day and the next sitting quietly in the hotel lobby watching television with the owner’s children. We watched The Lone Ranger. dubbed over in Spanish of course.
Breakfasts were wonderful affairs at the little hotel where I was staying. My first one, at least, was an experience to be remembered. I began the
morning by interchanging the words hombre and hambre, indicating not my intended statement of hunger (literally hunger in my stomach), but rather that I had a man in my stomach. The sounds that escaped from bowed heads and covered mouths was not so subtle that I wasn't rightfully humiliated.
The menu was verbal and being appropriately insecure about my translation abilities, I said yes to everything offered. If I hesitated at all, other 29 guests would hold up their own plates and point to the item that had been mentioned. My waiter was also eager to assist me. When I did not know the terms for methods for preparing eggs, for instance, he obligingly mimed "scrambled" by wildly stirring the air with his hand. Once I had acquired altitude tolerance, I began to explore Quito. I visited historical museums, archaeology museums, anthropology museums, and art museums (see Appendix E). I also browsed through handicraft shops, making notes about where different items had been produced, their designs, colors, and construction. Later I compared the new information with what I had learned before leaving the States. After a few weeks I began to make day trips, forging further away from Quito each time. When my destinations were too far away to go and return the same day I made arrangements with the hotel to store my luggage for $1.00 a day. For another $.50 a day they guaranteed that I would always have a room when I returned even if they had
to find me one in a diffrent hotel. My "uniform" on forays outside the hotel was a long skirt (gathered for ease in walking and print so it would not show wrinkles), a simple blouse with sleeves (to protect myself from the sun and for modesty), a sweater tied over my shoulders (for cool mornings and evenings), and sturdy walking shoes. At the hotel I had a suit and a cocktail dress but I had no need for those outside large cities, and only rarely then. Each time I left I carried fewer articles. I quickly learned that nylon clothing could be washed with toilet soap and would dry overnight, eliminating the need for packing clothing changes. Everything I needed for up to a week, including toilet articles and research materials, I could fit into a book bag which I hung over my shoulder. 30 Everything else stayed at the hotel. Eventually, in response to repeated suggestions by concerned Ecuadorians, I added a Panama hat^. The objects in my bag that I used the most often were my drawing books and pencils. Quite often they were filled with sketches of children. I only kept a few (see Figure 1 ). I gave most of them to the children. I personally like being around children-listening to the sounds of their play,
watching them, talking to them, and especially drawing them. I like the added challenge of their continued state of motion. I also like their sense of humor. During informal "sittings" they would often tease the model that his/her inability to remain totally still might very well result in two noses or no ears. Once, just for fun, I did leave the ears off. Amid much giggling (seemingly a typical response of children in Ecuador) I finally proceeded to add them, explaining that I just had not been finished. Inadvertently the children were often an excellent route to entree with adults. Oftentimes a parent or other family member would join already congregated children to see what they were
watching. This gave me the opportunity to engage in superficial conversations. I told them I was a teacher and I wanted to learn about different art forms of Ecuador so I could tell my students about them. The first such experience was in Otavalo, a town about two or three hours north of Quito. The people there are known for their weaving. I had seen several references to them before I left and had talked with Otavaleno street merchants in Quito.
31
^Lightweight hat plaited of jipijapa fiber. Although indigenous to southern Ecuador, they are referred to as "Panama" hats from the time when foreign construction workers bought them on the way to the country of Panama. '1
Figure 1. Three-minute sketches of Ecuadorian children. 32 Their market is the most famous in Ecuador. It is held all day Saturday so I took a seventy-five cent bus trip there the day before. During the three-hour trip I witnessed an example of the gentility I had been told to expect. The road through the mountains was incredibly tortuous, the bus almost constantly being forced to make a hairpin turn to the right or to the left. Passengers in such a situation would ordinarily be forced to lean against each other as the turns were made, even more so because the bus had once been a school bus so the seats were very narrow. I was sitting next to an elderly
Indigina man, however, who either held on to the side of the seat or put his hand on the ceiling to avoid touching me. I saw the same behavior in other seats that were shared by an unrelated man and woman. I arrived too late to go out so after dinner I played with some young children in the hotel. They did not speak Spanish so I played a version of a game with them that I used to play with my children in church to keep them quiet. I made simple sketches of common objects and cartoon figures and in Quichua or Spanish the children told me what I had left off, such as one wing of an airplane or one of the wheels of a car (see Figure 2). Saturday I was up early enough to watch the vendors set up for a busy day of selling-primarily to tourists. Having taken the trouble to learn a
greeting in Quichua the night before {AH je chu kapanji), may have helped me get some good prices or maybe I was so cold that any price seemed good. At any rate, I found that visiting a market high in the Andes, early in the morning during winter is analogous to going grocery shopping on an empty stomach. I bought a heavy wool sweater, then another, and then a shawl and donned them all-quite comfortably.
33 I decided it would be presumptious of me to attempt conversations during a time when they were "at work" so I made arrangements to stay a second night, planning to talk with them after their day of business. However, then they were busy getting ready to walk back to their homes, sometimes four or five miles away.
34 Figure 2. Sketches for game played with Ecuadorian children. 35 I went to church Sunday and after lunch walked around town for about an hour and then sat down in the central plaza. During this time I had my second experience with Quichua. I tried to repeat to children what I had heard adults say to each other the day before in the market. Unlike adults who seldom corrected my attempts at speaking their language, the children had no qualms at all about laughing uproariously at my mistakes and pushing me to repeat phrases over and over until they w ere right. By the end of the day the family of one of my "teachers" had invited me to visit their home to watch them weaving. I was elated at such good fortune, hardly sleeping that night in anticipation of my visit. After breakfast the next morning I prepared to embark on the short trip to their home. I had been told there were no busses that went there so I would have to hire a taxi. That was not an easy task. It was only after my third try that a driver agreed to take me, and only if I was willing to pay approximately $5.00. Even though it seemed exorbitant after coming all the way from Quito for only $.75, I agreed. Within fifteen minutes I understood why the trip was expensive. The road was so rutted, it hardly resembled a road. It took almost two hours to go approximately two miles. Although once was worth it just for the experience, when I returned to town, I walked. The family was already busy at work when I arrived. I say family because everyone had a task. Their four-year old was helping two other siblings card the wool and make rolags; the girls and women were spinning the wool into yam and the two adult males were spinning at large floor looms. On display were numerous woven hangings with traditional Inca designs woven into them (see Figure 3). Especially interesting, however, were the 36 Figure 3. Traditional Inca design on woven hanging. 37 one with variations of M.C. Escher designs woven into them (see Figure 4). They explained that in the 70s a Peace Corps Volunteer had given them the designs and suggested that they would sell well to European tourists. They had indeed and continued to be a popular design among weavers. For two months I traveled throughout the country having similar experiences observing and talking with the producers of a number of other
aesthetic products such as ceramicware, leather items, clothing, and basketry. After two months I decided that however interesting, many would have to be eliminated because they were not constructed by women, one of my priorities. Weaving and ceramics, for instance, are considered to be
primarily men's work, as is carving on tagua nuts (seeds from a type of jungle palm) and balsa wood sculpture. Those were all discounted. After taking into account all the above elements, my choice was
narrowed to include shigras, guagua pan (small bread dough sculptures), and embroidered fabrics, all "women's work." Although all three held interest for me, as a basket maker myself and because basketmaking was a highschool
class I had taught for years, shigras seem ed to fc)e a likely choice. I felt that I could more easily develop rapport with persons whose work I held some
prior understanding. I was pleased to discover that the shigra makers were friendly and seemed amenable to my initial inquiries. This and the idea that baskets had been so necessary in everyday life for hundreds of years and continued to be important helped me to decide that the women in the
Ecuadorian Andes who were making shigras, fully satisfied all my predetermined criteria for participants.
38 saesW SW
Figure 4. Variation on M.C. Escher design on woven hanging. 39 At the end of my allotted time I reluctantly left a site and a culture I had come to love. As I boarded Ecuatoriana Airline, the only thing that kept me
from crying was knowing that I would return.
Second Trip to Ecuador Bteparations During the two years between that trip and my second stay in Ecuador, I worked on strengthening my language skills. I took more Spanish classes,
subscribed to Perspectiva: World News in Intermediate Spanish for
Language Learning and the Spanish version of Readers Digest and Cosmopolitan I also resumed attendance at the small Catholic Church that had masses in Spanish.
I also reread the literature that had played a significant role in preparations for my first trip to Ecuador, adding more current information to my studies. Reviewing the data that I had collected during that trip helped me formulate more concise directions for the next stage of the investigation, such as finding a "home base," how I would locate participants, and formulating questions for the interviews.
By the time I left the United States I had been given several letters of introduction which helped me establish various contacts throughout Ecuador. At the time they were given to me, I naively thought I was doing my friends a favor. By delivering the letters and packages in person I thought I would be helping to insure that the letters were not lost, a relatively common occurrence in international mail. I did not realize the full extent of the assistance they offered until later. 40 Location of Key Informants
Locating key informants was surrounded by so many coincidences that synchronicity seemed to be a more apt determination. To begin with, one of the letters I had been given in Columbus, along with photographs from home, local newspapers, and cookies, was for a Peace Corps volunteer. While delivering the package to Peace Corps Headquarters, I asked if anyone there
could help me find a family to live with. Subsequently, the third morning I was in Ecuador I moved in with a woman and her husband who had an extra room they were willing to rent for the time I would be there. The husband spoke English, his sister-in-law, currently out of a job, was a teacher who would be eager to tutor me in Spanish, and, as I learned later, their maid could make
shigras.
A second letter was to the sister of a friend. I called her soon after I arrived in Quito to make arrangements to deliver the package from the States.
Elena initially invited me for lunch and then invited me to return another time for dinner. In the process of getting to know her, I learned that she was a cultural anthropologist. Besides writing me letters of introduction to several people who worked in museums in Quito, she gave me invaluable advice on the kinds of behavior that were appropriate or inappropriate. She described the stereotypical North American as being rich, haughty, demanding and always in a hurry. She suggested that I should avoid expensive clothing and jewelry and act like people were more important than time. In Latin America, she explained, a typical greeting, unlike the North American one of, "Hello. Let's get down to business," must, for instance, always include queries concerning the well-being of members of one's respective families. 41 Development of Interview Questions My interview questions were designed according to the advice of the Spindlers (1973) and Spradley (1979). I followed their suggestions that the interviewer take a naive stance about the subject being researched, asking for the informant's expert, knowledgeable instruction. The questions covered personal information such as socioeconomic status, marital status, and education. The informants were also asked questions concerning shigra design and construction, how and when they had learned, from whom, and the purposes for which shigras were constructed. An obvious weakness of interviews is the reliance on language. Not being a native speaker of Spanish, the questions I wrote were of necessity quite structured in the beginning. To preclude any naive mistakes, I asked Elena to check them for errors in grammar and for cultural appropriateness. She helped me make them respectful without being "haughty " and friendly without being too personal (see Appendix E for interview questions). We then role-played with various possible answers that might be given.
Collection of Data Data was collected through interviews with individuals and on-site observations. The initial nature of the research was nonparticipatory. I begad as a limited observer, that is, a spectator. Mechanical pencils and small sketchbooks (25 page, 4x6 inch) were used for notes and sketches. The small size was not only less obtrusive, but also easier to use and carry. Three or four of these were filled each day.
42 Although western scholarship has been characterized by the use of text as a source of information, drawing as a means of recording data is not unknown. George Catlin was not an anthropologist, yet his drawings and paintings are valuable sources of ethnographic information. They are primary sources for different aspects of Native American live and dress. He believed, and rightly so in many instances, that documentation was necessary because advancing civilization would eventually eradicate them. In a similar vein, Guaman Poma de Ayala, the son of an Inca princess and a conquistador, included numerous sketches of life and costumes of the Inca along with his history of Spanish colonization. From his drawings we can learn much about the beliefs and traditions of the time. My drawings served two purposes. They greatly facilitated entree. The process itself was much like pollen to bees. I had discovered accidentally on my first trip to Ecuador that children especially could be counted on to approach me and talk to me about my sketches no matter where I was or what I was drawing. Eventually, adults would wander over to see what the children were doing. The other reason I sketched was because although it was not as technologically glamorous as all my camera equipment, it was also not as intrusive. I would never take a picture of a person without their permission (which of course means I missed some great pictures) but ethically, I believe it just should not be done. Most of the time when I asked, I was told no. Some were just uncomfortable. Others feared the camera. It was not uncommon for women to place themselves between their children and tourists' cameras or to rush out of perceived range. 43 For the times when photography was acceptable, I carried three used Nikon camera bodies, all of which could use a Sigma 75-300 mm zoom lens
and a 50mm lens. I kept each camera body filled with only one type of film; color slide, color print, or black and white print. Knowing that the film would not be developed until I was back in the States, I made notations concerning every photograph taken. When the roll of film was finished, the notes were enclosed with it in an envelope which was then sealed and labeled with the date and location. I also carried a 4 x 6 inch Sony audio tape recorder with automatic reverse, along with extra blank tapes and batteries. Separate tapes were used for each interview. When an interview was finished, I immediately labeled the tapes with the informant's name, the date, and the location. I tried to be up early every morning and I had the sun to help me.
Because Ecuador straddles the Equator, the sun rises at approximately six o'clock every morning and is on its way down by six o'clock every evening. I also prided myself on my "inner clock." I eventually learned, however, that it was not always accurate. One morning, after hearing noises outside my room and seeing a bit of light at the edge of the curtains, I jumped up and prepared myself for the day. When I opened the door, packed and ready to go, I discovered that the noises were being made by frolicking cats and the light was a safety light over the courtyard. I broke down and bought an alarm clock that day and ceased bragging obout my "inner clock." After a few days, the role of passive participant was expanded to include moderate participation (Spradley, 1980), making possible the construction of a more complete and complex ethnographic record. This was accomplished through such actions as beginning each morning with breakfast 44 at the hotel, then reading the morning paper over cafe con leche (drink composed of a little coffee and lots of steamed milk and sugar) at an outdoor
restaurant. After coffee I usually went to the local market. Before the sun was fully up, most areas had been prepared for business. Sometimes it would be protected from the sun and/or rain by a sheet of plastic or a blanket. There
might also be tables used for display. Other vendors might have nothing but one or more burlap bags on the ground on which to lay their wares. No matter how simple the accoutrements, however, the presentation of whatever was being sold would always have been given great attention. Papayas, for instance, might be stacked in groups of four or five, then three, with one balanced on top or carrots might be laid out to form the shape of a starburst. The market was a common area for friends and/or families to socialize. At any time during the day, one could see not only business transactions taking place but also groups having coffee together. I spent most of each morning there, taking notes in shorthand and sketching what I saw around me. At this stage, I was totally open to every object and every person with whom I came into contact. This included information as mundane as the temperature, the state of the roads and sidewalks (construction material, upkeep, width), buildings (style, construction materials, and the degree of openness, such as whether the door was open or locked, whether it opened into a courtyard, and whether it was closed with a solid door or with a curtain). Notes about individuals concerned their physical characteristics; interactions with family members, peers, and others with whom they came into 45 contact (incidentally or planned); and how receptive they were to strangers in general and me in particular. The notes also included routines that were common to various groups, that is, students meeting in the park on their way to school, men, and sometimes women, having early morning coffee together in an outside restaurant, and vendors opening their shops or setting up their wares on the street. Specific areas I observed included all sights that had been suggested in guidebooks as interesting to tourists, as well as any sights local residents had verbally recommended as noteworthy. Though quite often those sights had not warranted as much as a sentence in any guidebook, they often seemed to be more significant than those chosen to be listed. The recommendations always included churches. Each building had at least one particular aspect that its parish members thought was important such as a stained-glass window or in Riobamba, for instance, a church that had been built of stone salvaged from volcanic destruction. The population of Ecuador is 90% Catholic, therefore, I considered the church architecture and items within the churches to be of great importance. Perhaps even more important however, were those persons visiting or using the churches. I spent many hours in daily and Sunday masses and Cathechism classes. Even when there was nothing scheduled, I often observed individuals stopping by only long enough to light a candle, say a prayer, or leave flowers. Other times they were there for ten or fifteen minutes just sitting in a pew. Although my role was passive and relatively unot)trusive, as a tall blond in a sea of small-statured, dark-skinned people I could not avoid being 46 conspicuous. However, after their initial curiosity was satisfied, the effect of my presence decreased to the point that I was, for the most part, ignored. In the beginning of my writing, there was a great deal of nonessential material within the journal. Over time it became progressively easier to shut out totally insignificant information. Once written, however, all notes, whatévêr their potential value might be, were retained in their entirety to be
analyzed again after all fieldwork had been completed. In complying with the proper social behavior of a single woman, after the sun went down I always remained in the hotel. It was during these evenings that I transcribed my notes, compared them with journal notes from the previous day, and added my overall impressions. Finally, new situations or locations were mapped out for observation on the following day and plans were made to further explore some areas that had previously only been observed in a cursory manner. This exploratory and open-ended phase of the field study made possible a more conceptualized direction for continuation of the research.
Choice of Informants Any adult who was a scout probably remembers having individual weakness versus group strength demonstrated by being shown how a single thread would break easily but how several entwned together would be almost impossible to break. That particular analogy works very well in research. No single type of data collection is perfect or strong enough to stand on its own. Each has its relevant idiosyncratic weaknesses. The use of more than one method of investigation minimizes those weaknesses, resulting in a stronger 47 study. This multi-instrument approach, or triangulation, greatly strengthens the validity of the data collected (van Mannen, 1982; Patton, 1980; Denzen,
1978; Pelto & Pelto, 1978). Thus, after using several forms of observation, I extended this method of investigation to include ethnographic interviewing. Because ethnography attempts to learn from people (Spradley, 1979),
it follows that knowledgeable subjects are a useful source of information. John and Linda Lofland (1984) went a step further, asserting; "If you are an outside researcher, then the cultivation of informants is virtually imperative" (p. 43). All of the participants for this study were chosen because of their understanding of basketmaking and because of their willingness to share that information. Initially I was hesitant about requesting individuals to assist me in my
research because I thought the women would, at the worst, consider my questions a gross intrusion into their lives and at the best, still a bother. The first person I asked was one with whom I had developed a comfortable rapport, Gabriela. She was the maid and cook for the family with whom I was living. One day I asked her if she would help me with my interview questions because I wanted to be well prepared for some of the different possible answers I might receive. When we finished, she told me that she knew how to
make shigras and would be glad to teach me how to make one. We subsequently spent many pleasant hours together engaged in shopping for materials and looping our little bags together. We usually worked in the evening, when her dinner chores were over, and were typically joined by two or three other family members and another maid who worked on
48 their own projects, such as crocheting or knitting. They were wonderfully convivial evenings filled with news, gossip and laughter. A second participant was Beatrice, the lady who stopped by the house to sell vegetables. Gabriela made weekly purchases from her so on one of
the days that she stopped by Eugenia invited her in. After introductions and a brief explanation of what I was doing, she readily answered all my questions
and periodically stopped by thereafter to see if I had any new questions for
her and to show me the progress she had made on her shigra since the last
time she had been there. Later Gabriela invited me to accompany her on a visit to her family's home several hours south of Quito. Once there, she introduced me to her
mother and her sister, both of whom were shigra makers and willing to answer any questions I might have. The last two participants for this study were chosen from near Latacunga. I began by having superficial conversations with women in the
market who were either making shigras or carrying one. These conversations typically began with the weather and our mutual appreciation for the beauty of Ecuadorian landscapes. They also usually covered my nationality and vocation, and our children. I discovered that the latter subject, accompanied by photographs of my son and daughter, was a guaranteed ice breaker. Those conversations made possible the construction of a much more complete and complex ethnographic record. When I met Isabel I explained that I was not only a teacher, but also a student, and was very interested in shigras and the women who made them. I 49 further explained that there were things that I did not understand and hoped she could help me. To my great relief she seemed surprised that I felt that it was necessary to ask, and impatiently wanted to know when we were going to get started. Although the same questions were asked each time, all interviews were basically informal. I located the last participant, Julia, as a
result of Isabel's suggestion that I would find shigra makers "up the mountain."
Interviews
For several reasons, all of the interviews took place during the time
when male family members were away. Initially my intentions had been to avoid conflict with not just duties which centered around them but also simply not to intrude in their personal time together. Another concern was that the women might relate differently to me than if men were included in the
interviews. Finally, while in Quito I had become aware of the sense of feminine commuity that existed during times when there were several women
doing needlework together. The laughter and sharing of stories, both happy and sad, was an obviously important element of the experience. I wanted to see if it was unique to that setting in Quito or if it was common in other gender-related activities, such as shigra making, in other parts of Ecuador.
I had decided to audiotape interviews in order to catch incidental information such as pauses, tonality, embarrassment, etcetera that would be hard to include in written records. Though a small tape recorder was carried at all times, along with a supply of new batteries and tapes, unfortunately oftentimes the informants objected to its use. Although tape recorders were commonly used to play tapes of music, familiarity with a tape recorder did not 50 go much beyond recognition and did not include trust. When the tape recorder was used for the structured portion of one interview, the informant immediately became noticeably more relaxed and talkative after it was turned off. Even when I did use a tape recorder, fearing the possibility of some technical problem that I might not know about until too late, I also recorded all interviews in a form of shorthand called Speedwriting. I made constant inclusions of the informants' significant mannerisms during the interview.
Because Speedwriting is for the most part phonetic, it allowed the spontaneous invention of symbols for unfamiliar words in Spanish or Quichua to which I had not been previously exposed. Individuals in South America are seldom alone. It is normal to be surrounded by a group, usually made up of family members. At each interview, the names of all those present were listed, along with anything they had to say. The questions posed usually began with personal background. These formal interviews also included questions concerning the background of the shigra learning process and the construction process itself from start to finish. At the end of each interview, if the tape recorder had been used, I played it back. Otherwise I read my notes to the informant and asked if she thought I had recorded or written her answers correctly. I then asked if she had anything she would like to add.
Permission to photograph individuals was always requested but most often was denied. Photographs could be taken of ihanimate objects. Although I had several camera bodies and lenses that were powerful enough 51 to have taken photographs without being observed, ethically I could only take them when specific permission had been given. Sketching individuals, on the other hand, was always acceptable.
Gift Giving
An important aspect of ethnography is respect and consideration for the subject and the informant's culture. Scott et al. (1995) maintained, "Community and translation are about responsibility" (p. 44). They argue that ethnographic investigations should include some form of remuneration. They are in^greement with Peggy Golde (1986) who advised, "Researchers should offer services or materials in exchange for the privilege of studying and disrupting other people's lives" (in Maynard and Purvis, p. 81 ). The choice of materials offered requires considerable cultural sensitivity in order to avoid potential problems. For example, I recall during the 1960s when the United States Information Agency spent thousands of dollars preparing magazines for distribution throughout Iran. They were good quality, written in Farsi, and "free." Unfortunately, investigation of the culture had not been thorough enough to realize that not only would the Iranians question the magazines' quality because they were "free" but that they would also be insulted by what they would perceive as "handouts." Similar magazines, on the other hand, were sought after and purchased as prized possessions because they were of similar quality but "inexpensive." Beverly Skeggs (in Maynard and Purvis, 1994) suggested that reciprocation can also be in terms of enhancing self-worth. When women are chosen as the focus of study, there is a statement being made to them and 52 others within their cultural milieu that they are valued. It has also been suggested (Oakley in Maynard and Purvis, 1994; P. Stuhr, personal communication, 1996) that researchers can productively use their position to assist and contribute to informed decision making by giving information and knowledge when appropriate, that is, unobtrusively and when requested by
the participants of the research project. Before leaving the States, I asked several friends for suggestions as to what kinds of gifts I should take with me for the people whose help I would be enlisting. The North Americans friends who had spent time in Latin American, invariably suggested small bars of soap, shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes, and especially vitamins. Although I brought several bottles of such items, I felt that, no matter how needed, giving toiletry items and vitamins was denigrating. My Latin American friends, on the other hand, had suggested frivolous items such as silky scarves or blouses. Because scarves did not have to "fit," they were my final choice. I bought ten large ones, approximately 3 x 3 feet and twenty smaller ones, approximately eighteen inches across. I gave the largest scarves to the v/omen I interviewed and the smaller scarves to the other women who were always in attendance. Eventually I gave the toiletry articles and vitamins to Gabriela with the explanation that I had brought more than I needed and would have to pay a luggage surcharge if I took them back with me. I used the same explanation for leaving the clothes I had brought, asking her if she could see that those articles were given to someone who could use them.
53 Transcription and Analysis Every evening I transcribed the notes I had made in my sketchbooks onto legal-size, lined notepaper and placed them in a three-ring binder. I did the same with all audio-taped information. Although cursory analyses were undertaken at this time, they were primarily used for determining if I was overlooking any pertinent information and to give direction to further research. After returning to the States, the film was developed and the information for each role, along with the photographs, was placed in a labeled manilla envelope. Illustrations were treated in a similar manner. The data was analyzed more carefully in an attempt to determine what information was to be retained and how it would be utilized. It was divided into constantly changing categories and subcategories until the divisions seemed to have a logical order. Photographs were perused and also placed in appropriate categories and subcategories. Finally, findings were summarized in narrative form and illustrations and photographs were inserted wherever their addition aided in clarification.
54 CHAPTER 4
SHIGRAS
History of Fiber in Inca Society Textiles have played an important part in the history of South America. According to art historian, Rebecca Stone-Miller (1992), the indigenous people placed more value on their textiles than they did on precious metals such as silver and gold. Pre-Columbian peoples of the Andes also depended a great deal on textiles as a means of expression. By examining their aesthetic products, we can learn about the decisions they made in design, technique, and materials, which in turn, tells something about their position and the position of their creations within their sociocultural context.
Geographic Environment Because the geographic environment influences the development of material culture, I begin with a description of the physical features of Ecuador (see Figure 5 for a map of Ecuador). This South American country, resplendent with natural beauty, is divided into four geographic areas. Going from the east to the west, the first zone, the Oriente, includes the tropical forests of the Amazon Jungle. The tropical, lowland area along the Pacific Ocean is known as the Costa. The third area is the Galapagos Islands and the fourth is the Sierra, in the central part of the country. It is made up of the 55 Figure 5. Map of Ecuador. 56 volcanic peaks of the Andes Mountains and the basins and valleys between its two ranges. Travel throughout the Sierra is difficult and has contributed to relative isolation between populated areas. Although Ecuador straddles the equator, its climate is influenced mainly by altitude. Therefore, although the temperature of the Oriente and the Costa is hot and humid, the temperature of the Sierra, at over 9,000 feet, remains at a comfortable level all year. Today this area continues to be populated by Quichua-speaking decendents of the Inca. It is also in this area that one can still find shigras being made (see Figure 6 for example of typical, contemporary shigra). The development of material culture is often influenced by the physical environment exemplified by architectural styles that were in turn influenced by available materials and environmental needs. Early examples include teepees made of animal skins, a material abundant in the southwest and wikkiups made of saplings which were plentiful in the northwest. Common contemporary examples might include houses made of adobe in the southwest and Cape Cod frame houses in the northwest. There is an area in southern Kentucky where a heavy, gnarly vine grows relatively straight for approximately three feet then bends into an almost perfect u-shape. For many years locals have been turning these vines into one-of-a-kind canes. As the vines are unique to the area, so too are the canes that are created from them. A similar connection is seen in the Australian aborigine's paintings on bark.
57 Figures. Typical, contemporary s/7/gra. 58 The geography of Ecuador manifests great diversity with each of its ^ëographical zones exhibiting distinct categories of vegetation. In the
Amazon area, for instance, many varieties of reeds and rushes can be seen. Their various usages relate to their specific qualities. Easy access and flexibility make them especially useful in weaving room dividers and sleeping
mats. Their natural boyance makes them valuable in constructing boats. The physical environment of the Sierra is very different. The climate
here is especially conducive to the growth of the cabuya, which grows abundantly throughout the area (see Figure 7 for sketch of cabuya plant). It is a plant quite similar to the agave Americana or century plant. This same plant is also known in Mexico as the maguey. The leaves grow up to seven feet long and six to eight inches wide.
U ses
Indigenous people have discovered a plethora of uses for the cabuya, leaving no part to go to waste. Planted closely together around the circumference of a field, they become a fence. Overlapped like shingles, the fronds become a roof for a house or a lean-to for animals. V\frien dried, the fronds can be burned as fuel and the base can serve as supplementary seating. The fronds are also edible. Besides being a food source for many farm animals, the juice is valued for its medicinal properties, or fermented, as an alcoholic beverage. It can also be an emergency thirst quencher. Within the cabuya fence of many fields, one plant will often have a hole cut into its base
59 Figure 7. Sketch of cabuya, or agave Americana. 60 where liquid collects. After drinking from it, the hole is plugged with a large rock for the next thirsty passerby.
Characteristics
On the tip of cabuya fronds is a very sharp, strong thorn. Perforation of
the thorn creates an adequate needle. Art historian Raoul d'Harcourt reports finding numerous similar thorns in weavers' accessory boxes in pre-Columbian grave sites (1962). Turning cabuya into a workable fiber begins with extracting fibers from the plant in a manner similar to that of the retting process used in freeing linen fibers from the woody part of a flax stem. Large fronds are cut into strips and placed in running water to promote decay of the fleshy portion. After a couple of weeks, the fronds are beaten against a hard surface until nothing remains except fibers. The fibers, when dry, are a very light beige, almost white. They can be used in their natural state or dyed (see Figure 8 for example of both). Today only synthetic dyes are used although some women remember hearing about or watching someone else use natural dyes. Synthetic dyes are made from aniline, a coal-tar derivative. They yield bright, intense color in comparison with the muted tones derived from natural dyes. These fibers are also used, as they have been since pre-lnca days, to make shigras.
Construction Although archaeological excavations have not produced documentation of prehistoric shigras, a few quite similar single element 61 Figure 8. Dyed and natural cabuya fibers 62 constructions have been recorded, the earliest example of which could have been produced anywhere from the beginning of the common era to pre-lnca times (d'Harcourt, 1962). The technique through which single element constructions are made of loops is variously referred to as netting (d'Harcourt, 1962) or looping (Emery, 1966; Stone-Miller, 1992). This is the sam e stitch known in sewing as a "buttonhole stitch" and in knot-tying as a "half-hitch." It is also the stitch used to construct a shigra (see Figure 9 for steps in shigra construction). A needle is used to build up loops by working a continuous yam of cabuya upon itself, building row by row from left to right, bottom to top until the desired size has been reached (see Figure 10 for detail of bottom of shigra illustrating beginning stitches ). This can range anywhere from approximately 6 x 9 inches to twice that size. After binding off the top edge, it is finished with carrying straps, the number and manner in which they are attached being determined by regional tradition. Designs are created through the introduction of dyed fibers. The construction process dictates that the patterns will be composed of continuous straight and stepped lines rather than curves. The most common designs are simple geometric shapes, such as rectangles, triangles and diamonds; combinations of simple geometric shapes; or abstracted birds, insects, animals, and vegetation.
Of the many types of baskets used, shigras are particularly important. They have had and continue to have a variety of functions. As containers, they can be used for carrying or storage. Both men and women can often be seen on their way to the fields with a shigra over their shoulders or hanging on the saddle of a pack horse. As storage items, they are often hung from 63 rafters or nails on walls In lieu of furniture. Some shigra makers said that at one time the baskets were used as units of measurement for grains and vegetables (personal communication, 1992).
64 %
Figure 9. Steps in sh/gra construction. 65 m.
Figure 10. Bottom view of a shigra iJlustrating beginning stitches.
6 6 CHAPTER 5 FINDINGS
This chapter presents the ethnographic interviews of six women of the
Ecuadorian Sierra who make shigras. These narratives contain information given to me during both formal interviews and informal conversations. They include the personal and educational background of each of the women as
well as material which is germane to shigras. The latter category consists of supplies, design, and technique. The narratives are followed by a summary of the data proffered by these women. The names of all the informants have been changed in order to protect their privacy. They spoke openly with me only after a development of mutual trust had taken place between us. I believe that trust includes my efforts to keep their identity inviolate. A second area that requires a modicum of explanation relates to time. During my initial interviews, I often asked the women how long they had been married, their ages, and the ages of their children. I was invariably answered with laughter and approximations. Only when the number of years was less
than five were they able to give me an exact answer. Time w as simply irrelevant in their lives. Therefore, most references to time are approximate.
Narratives The first three informants, Gabriella, Maria, and Ana, were related. Therefore, most of the interviews with them were conducted when they were 67 all together. Periodically while I was conducting an interview, one or the other would inteqect their own responses. I also had the opportunity to speak with
Gabriela informally on many occasions because we lived in the same house when I was in Quito.
Gabriela Gabriela was surprisingly self-assured for a woman only in her early thirties. She had many disparate roles in her life and she played them all equally well. In Quito she was the live-in cook and maid of an affluent middle-aged couple. Being well educated themselves, it was important to them that she should learn to read and write. For two years they paid for her tuition, bought her school supplies, and gave her time off so that she could attend literacy classes. The lady of the house also tutored her in the evening. The house in which Gabriela lived had been divided into apartments for other family members. By dent of being the oldest of the maids and of working for the owners of the house, Gabriela was considered the head maid, a position which held a modicum of status. It also carried the responsibility of acting as a role model for the other younger maid. Gabriela was often the one who taught her such skills as cooking and shigra making, as the girl's mother or other adult member of her extended family might have had she been living at home. Gabriele's employment also entailed a total time commitment while she was in Quito. She was expected to be in the house at all times unless sent to the weekly market or on errands. Every two months she was given bus fare to visit her family, approximately three hours south of Quito. While there, she
6 8 stayed at the home of her mother and father. Gabriela's two-year-old daughter, Angelita, also lived there (see Figures 11 & 12 for sketches of Gabriela and her daughter). Gabriela said her mother would not allow her to take the little girl with her to Quito because there would no longer be any children at home and she would be lonely. Gabriela accepted the dictum as non-negotiable even though both she and Angelita sobbed at each parting. The first time I accompanied her to visit her family she stopped at a store in Quito and bought various foods to take along. We arrived near lunch time so her mother suggested we take lunch to her father and brothers. When we found them they were sitting in a small thatched hut where it was cool. They had stopped working sometime earlier and were drinking chicha (alcoholic drink made from masticated com) while waiting for their meal. After introductions I was offered chicha first by her father and then by one of her brothers. Gabriela, obviously embarrassed and a bit angry, said something in Quichua which I could not understand, then we left amid uproarious male laughter. As we were walking, she apologized for them and said derisively that men drink too much. Her mother and sisters appeared to be a little awed by her "position" in Quito and appreciative of the monetary assistance that such a job made possible. However, in many respects she continued to be a subservient female child. During the two days she was with her parents she washed their clothes, cooked for them, and quietly waited on her father and brothers, taking their lunches to them in the field and fulfilling such requests as refilling her father's plate and cup at the evening meal.
69 When daily chores at the family home were completed, she took her daughter and either visited her sisters or they came to visit her. When we first arrived at a sister's home she would dispatch her children to get the other sister. Before long there would be a little family reunion with cousins playing together or just sitting with the adults. During these visits the women of the family sat around and made shigras or did other hand work as they caught up on local gossip and what had been going on in their lives since their last visit. Toward sundown everyone returned to their homes to prepare the evening meal. By dark Gabriela's father had returned from the field. After washing his hands and face he ate dinner out in the courtyard. While he and Maria were outside, Gabriela, Angelita and I remained in the kitchen. By the time we had eaten and washed dishes, Gabriela's mother and father had gone to bed. At sunrise Gabriela and her mother began preparing breakfast. Gabriela's father ate outside again while we remained in the kitchen after which he left for the fields. He did not speak to me again or much to anyone else. We did not see much of him until Sunday. The female members of the family and most of the children went to church. When we got back he was sitting outside smoking. He agreed to allow me to take his picture after lunch. Again, no conversation took place. He posed very formally then said goodbye to Gabriella and me when we left to go back to Quito. I never saw him again. On subsequent visits when Gabriela was not with me, I arrived after he had gone to the fields and left for a hotel before he returned in the evening.
In answer to my query about her memories of learning to make shigras, she related fond childhood memories of her mother making her a tiny shigra to 70 carry. Her sister remembered that their mother had also given her a little
shigra. Gabriela said that since both she and Ana had also made child-size
shigras for their daughters, the tradition would probably continue forever. Gabriela said that as a child she had been exposed to the
shigra-making process by her mother and her aunts. She said, "At first they would not let me do anything because they said I was too young. They said that when I was older I could twist the fibers together and roll it into balls." ^he continued to ask every day until they finally relented and said they would let her try to roll a ball of cabuya twine. She recalled that because they had told her the job was a very important one, she had diligently tried to roll the ball just right—symmetrical and not too tight. She said no one actually taught tier the different steps in the construction process. It was more like she watched and tried and was told what was wrong with what she had done; then she watched and tried again. There w as an element of irony in her story as she told how hard she had worked to be allowed to make shigras along with the adults because when she was accepted as capable of constructing shigras, that recognition included an obligation to make them. Remembering those early days,
Gabriela said that when she was told she had to make shigras, she only did the minimum that would satisfy her mother. However, now that she makes shigras because she wants to, she is more painstaking in her efforts and is proud of the work she does. She enjoys making shigras and gets a real sense of satisfaction from the finished products.
The high quality of Gabriela's shigras was visibly evident. Her use of color was a little ijnusual. Instead of the typical plethora of hues, hers tended 71 toward a fluid progression from one particular hue such a s blue, to a similar one such as violet, her favorite color. The size of the shigras she constructed remained fairly constant, approximately nine inches in diameter by twelve inches in height, unless her mother or her employers asked her to make a different size for them. In such a case she would unhesitatingly comply with their wishes. However, this size she explained, indicating the 9x12 inch shigra, was a good size to use for a purse, which was the most common use anyone had for them in Quito.
I was interested in different designs and their symbolism so Gabriela described for me the shigra she had made for her boss. It had simple stripes woven into it but an "x" design stitched over the top after it had been finished. She did not believe there had ever been any symbolism involved in stripes or thq "over" design. By comparison, the shigra she was currently working on ^ird designs on it (see Figure 13,14, & 15 for the completed shigra). She thought that birds were once important in old indigenous religions but she did not know much about it. She believed that probably anything that related to the earth was connected to the old religions because people used to worship such things as trees, rocks, and water. All of those things could be used as shigra designs. She had seen trees, animals, and birds used as designs. After thinking a bit, she said she guessed she had seen water used as a design too. Between us we made simple sketches of the designs she had mentioned.
Gabriela was unique among the women I interviewed in that she lived and worked in a major city. She seldom worked on shigras when she was there because she was busy with the chores required by her employment. 72 Also, there was little need for shigras in large cities because ready-made alternatives were available. In the evening when all the chores had been completed, it was customary for everyone who lived in the house (the couple who owned it, the wife's nephew who lived with them while he attended college, the wife's mother and sister and their maid, and Gabriela) to gather in the spare room to watch television. During those occasions the women of the household usually worked on some handiwork such as mending. Gabriela and the other maid often worked on a shigra.
73 f \/\
T
Figure 11. Sketch of Gabriela and her daughter Angelita. 74 Figure 12. Sketches of Gabriela and her daughter Angelita. 75 Figure 13. S/7/gra with bird design. Made by Gabriela. 76 ê \
Figure 14. Reverse side of shigra with bird design. Made by Gabriela. 77 Figure 15. Bottom view of shigra with bird design. Made by Gabriela. 78 Bgatricfi For families without maids to do their shopping, Beatrice was a godsend because, unlike others selling their produce in the open market, when evening came she did not quit and take her unsold food home with her. Instead, she walked up and down residential streets, knocking on doors until she had sold everything with which she had begun even though that sometimes meant that she walked home in the dark. She was wonderfully picturesque (see Figure 16 for sketch of Beatrice). As she walked up what appeared to be impossibly steep street \A/ith her long black braids swinging from under her fedora-style felt hat, she was always working on a shigra. Early on Wednesday mornings, as she came down from her home in the mountains, she would be bent forward by a huge load of produce on her back. It was carried in a large shawl tied around her shoulders the same way she carried her infant grandson. Sometimes she had him with her while she w as sitting with her produce in the market. He would either be sleeping or placidly watching over her shoulder. Although I never saw her husband, she said that on occassions, when there was more produce than she could carry, he would come to town with her. Once she was settled in the market he went back to work in the fields.
Beatrice learned the technique of making shigras from her mother who had learned from her mother. "Not from her specifically teaching me the steps," she said, "but from watching her and then experimenting with the steps until I could do them myself." All the girls in the family made them in order to bring in a little extra money. Like many families in the area, they also had a small vegetable garden beside the house and raised cuys (guinea pigs) 79 in the kitchen. On Saturdays Beatrice and her mother and sisters would take
shigras, along with fresh vegetables, to the market to be sold.
When making shigras Beatrice worked with a full range of colors. I asked her if she liked any one color better than another. She said, "No, I like all colors the same. It doesn't make any difference what the color is, I like it. That is one of the reasons why I like flowers too, because they are so colorful." She said that every time she ran out of twine in a particular color range she made sure to replace it with different colors the next time. She
used different color combinations each time too. One time she made a shigra in all sun colors (red, yellow, and orange) and had liked it a lot. She also liked blue and green together. When asked about symbolism in the different designs she said,
I don't know for sure because it is only what people say but I have heard that in the old days the different designs usually had a religious meaning. Now certain designs are used just because people like them and because that is the way shigras have always been made. The moon is obvious. You don't see it very often though because curved lines are hard to stitch. I think it used to represent Pacha Mama (Earth Mother) but now it is just one of God's creations. Triangles might stand for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. There's a triangle on the cloth that hangs over where the Priest stands. It has lines going out from it. Back in the old days before Jesus, it must have meant trees or mountains because that's what it looks like.
Beatrice's shigras seldom had any design other than stripes, sometimes in variegated colors (see Figures 17 & 18 for one of her shigras with a striped pattern). She explained that traditional designs like the comb are more difficult to make and they take much longer to make than stripes. I asked her to explain a little more. She showed me that every time a different color is used, even if it is only for one stitch, it has to be changed on the 80 inside. "If a shigra is being made to sell to tourists, you might as well make it simple because they don't know the difference anyway. They will pay the same for one that is easy to make as they will for one that took a long time to make." However, if she is making one for som eone special like a family member or friend she usually makes it with a more complex design. When asked if she ever made shigras without any design at all she answered, "Oh no. That would be ugly."
81 '\\\-> >- r
Figure 16. Sketch of Beatrice and a friend.
8 2 Figure 17. Shigra with stripe design. Made by Beatrice. 83 m m
Figure 18. Bottom view of shigra with stripe design. Made by Beatrice. 84 Maria Maria was a viejita (elderly woman), approximately sixty-five years of age, whose ramrod-straight bearing belied her actual diminutive stature. One of the most noticeable things about her was her many layers of long, black skirts from which peeked bare feet callused and broadened by years of walking over unyielding surfaces (see Figure 19 for a sketch of Maria and her daughter Ana). She was the mother of three girls and four boys, all of whom were grown and had homes of their own. All but one of her children lived within a radius of five to ten miles of the family home. She had a ruddy complexion crinkled like used tissue paper and heavy, gray-streaked black hair that hung in one thick braid well past her waist. When I asked if I could take her picture she nodded her acceptance but saying, "Un momento," over her shoulder, she rushed away. I hardly had time to wonder where she had gone and if perhaps she had misunderstood what I was asking before she reappeared, her face still wet from washing, her hair combed neatly and her feet forced into ill-fitting plastic shoes. She then proceeded to strike a very formal pose in front of her house. Standing stiffly with her hands at her sides, she did not have even a hint of a smile. Her chin was held high and she appeared to be holding her breath until I took the picture. She relaxed slightly then but when I moved so I could get a different background, she stiffened again, remaining in exactly the same position. While my first picture had been a frontal view, my second picture of her was a profile.
When asked about her earliest memories of shigras she said, "I can remember looking over my mother's shoulder when she use to carry me in a 85 shawl on her back and see her working on a shigra. I do that when I go places too. Any time I am walking, I am working on a shigra." She did not remember ever actually being taught the individual steps of constructing a shigra. She guessed that at first, when she was really young, she had probably pretended she was making one and then at some point she just started to make them. Practice helped her improve her technique until eventually she was making satisfactory shigras. In response to my curiosity about designs, she brought me three shigras with what she referred to as traditional designs. She showed me one vwlh cats on it, one with monkeys on it, and one with llamas on it. She added that there were many other designs such as boxes, combs, and water. She could not think of others but felt sure there were more (see Figures 20, 21, &
22 for shigra made by Maria with geometric designs). Sometimes she changes the traditional designs a little from the way her mother taught her to make them. "Not very much," she explained, then added, "just a little bit." She said her mother had also changed designs and dyeing methods just a little bit from the way she had been taught. Maria's grandmother had used only natural dyes. Her mother only used synthetic dyes. "Everything changes," Maria said. "One of these days no one will even be making shigras anymore." She then added, with a derisive tone in her voice that was almost a sneer, "Even now, down in town, you can see girls carrying baskets that are made using shigra techniques but instead of making them out of cabuya, they have made them out of yam. "Getting back to dyes, I asked her why she and her mother used synthetic dyes instead of natural ones like her grandmother had used. She said it was because synthetic dyes 86 were so much easier to prepare. When I asked her to compare the hues produced by the two types of dyes, she said the natural dyes were not as
bright. The colors they produced were very soft. Ana, her daughter, interjected that another problem with natural dyes was that they fade and bleed so easily. Maria agreed but explained that the lack of colorfastness was because mordants were not used or that they had been used incorrectly. I told her I was not sure what that meant so she explained that before the fiber was dyed it could be soaked in a substance that would slow down fading. That substance was called a mordant. Different dyes, she explained, needed different mordants. Mordants could also alter the color derived from a particular source. For instance, marigolds with alum as the mordant yield a clear, light yellow but when a combination of alum and vinegar are used as the mordant, the color is a rich gold. Then with a twinkle in her eye, she went on to say that many of the dyes would be colorfast if the articles were first mordanted in orina. That was not a word in my meager Spanish vocabulary so they suggested—with suspiciously big smiles-that I consult my dictionary. When I did, we all had a good laugh. The translated word was "urine."
Getting back to the shigras she had brought out earlier, I noticed that there was no predominant color but rather almost an even distribution of many colors. Commenting on my observation, I asked if she ever chose certain colors to be used in combinations. At first I wasn't sure if I was making myself understood because the concept itself seemed strange to her. She finally answered that when she bought pre-dyed cabuya at the market, she bought whatever colors were available. Whatever was there was what she bought. 87 3
wms:
I
Figure 19. Sketch of Marla and her daughter Ana.
88 Figure 20. Shigra with geometric designs. Made by Maria.
89 Figure 21. Detail of shigra with geometric designs. Made by Maria.
90 Figure 22. Bottom view of shigra made by Maria. 91 Ana Ana was the daughter of Maria and the younger sister of Gabriela. Though only twenty-four years old, Ana appeared to be a woman much older (see Figure 19 for sketch of Ana). According to Gabriela, her big black eyes had seen more of the hard side of life than most people's ever do, explaining that two of Ana's children had died in infancy, one of her children was sickly, and her husband was lazy and drank too much. Despite what even Ana recognized as a hard life, Shakespeare could have been describing her when he said, "a merry heart goes all the day" (p. 362). It seemed that anything could be a source of enjoyment for her. When she was part of a family get-together, it was she that kept everyone laughing. When anyone's cabuya thread became tangled, which happened often, they complained. When Ana's thread became tangled it became the impetus for a moment of merriment.
Like Gabriela, Ana was also taught how to make shigras the traditional way, that is, by watching and copying. She too started with simple skills such as twisting the threads together and later winding it into balls. She also practiced with scraps, looking forward to the day when she would be seen as grown up enough to make shigras. She said that one day she told her mother she thought she was ready to actually construct one on her own. She was allowed to do so and the finished product must have been acceptable because from then on she was allowed to work on them along with the adults. However, even then she recalls, "No one ever seemed to think I was doing it exactly right. When an adult would see me working on one they would want to inspect it. Before I could do or say anything, they would find something
92 wrong with It and start tearing it out and tell me what I should do to make it better the next time. I thought I never would get one finished." Ana was the most Innovative of all the women I Interviewed. Every shigra she showed me had designs which showed at least a modicum of difference from those on most of the others I had seen (see Figures 23, 24, &
25 for shigra made by Ana showing combination designs of stepped boxes and diagonal bands with alternating right/left orientation). Sometimes she grouped designs instead of spacing them evenly. Sometimes the difference was something as simple as a color reversal such as a natural-colored design within a colored area. One shigra, however, which she showed me only after much prodding by her sisters, had a design that was definitely not traditional.
She had integrated the namç of her town into it. However, because shigras are built from right to left, the nam e was written backwards. Only by looking on the inside could it be read. Being illiterate themselves, no one seemed to think this was a problem. She was admired not only for being able to read and write, but for incorporating that knowledge into a traditional object.
93 * ' V
■Si'jSi^j'^ÊÊa^jÊ
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Figure 23. Shigra with combination design of stepped boxes and alternating diagonal bands. Made by Ana. 94 Figure 24. Detail of shigra with combination design of stepped boxes and alternating diagonal bands. Made by Ana.
95 Figure 25. Bottom view of shigra made by Ana. 96 Isabel When I first saw Isabel she was selling stuffed banana leaves to passersby at the Saturday market (see Figure 26 for sketches of Isabel). Her food smelled wonderful. During the times when there were no hungry customers to serve, she worked on shigras. Although I knew that her standards of cleanliness would not satisfy the concerns of most North Americans, I followed my rule that anything cooked was safe enough for me to risk eating it. That decision was rewarded with a culinary delight and eventually another shigra maker to assist me with my research. I visited with her at the market several times and twice helped her gather fresh grass for the cuys she had at home. After several days, she invited me to accompany her to her home outside of town, an honor that my friends had told me would be a rare occurrence if indeed it ever happened. Isabel and her husband lived north of Latacunga where they raised produce on a hillside plot. She could not tell me how far from town they lived nor could I discern an exact distance after my trip there. It took us about two hours and we took several short cuts. The house consisted of two separate rooms built of adobe blocks and roofed with cabuya leaves. One room was used for sleeping and one for cooking. The latter room was replete with squealing cuys running loose on the floor. Several women selling produce in the market told me that Isabel was,
"the best shigra maker in town." When I repeated that to her, she laughed but said she did not view herself that way. I could not tell whether she really did not believe that her shigras were any better than anyone else's or if she was just reticent to admit it because it sounded boastful. She said simply, 'They're 97 shigras. I make them like they're supposed to be made." When I asked her If she could be more specific she said the stitches should always be close together and all the same size. Everything else being the same, I wondered if the designs and color were taken into account but she responded that the
designs just made shigras pretty, not necessarily good (see Figures 27, 28, &
29 for shigra made by Isabel).
She had started making shigras when she was quite young. She said it was before her brother was bom so she thought she must have been around five or six years old. From her recollection, instruction was not active but rather by observation. She recalled her first basket as being a mess. Instead
of using traditional cabuya fiber, she had been given green, plyable grasses
to use. When the grasses dried, her shigra fell apart. Eventually she said
she was given prepared cabuya and proceeded to retrieve, from a nail on the
wall, the very shigra she had made as a child. It was still being used for storage. With a smile she said, "I know now that it isn't very good. It is uneven and real loose but when I made it I was so proud of it I carried it everywhere." Isabel did not have a particular favorite among the designs she stitched
into her shigras. She said that whatever she was doing at the time was her favorite. She stitched the same design over and over until she got tired of it, then she switched to a different design and repeated the process of stitching that design over and over until she got tired of it too. Among the designs from which she chose were the stripe, stepped designs, ear (also called comb or comb/ear), face, bird, cat, deer, and butterfly. "Right now," she said, "I am making butterflies. They remind me of my grandmother. I can remember her 98 making butterflies all the time. Mine are a little different though. Hers were always the same size. I make a row of little ones and then in the next row I make big ones."
There was a variety of bright colors in all the shigras she showed me, with no two appearing to be exact replicas. When I asked her if she did have favorites, she responded that when she bought her cabuya in the market, it was already colored so she just used whatever was available.
99 « ï
Figure 26. Sketches of Isabel. 100 Figure 27. Shigra with combination design of stepped boxes and chicken. Made by Isabel.
101 Figure 28. Reverse side of shigra made by Isabel.
1 0 2 Figure 29. Bottom view of shigra showing unusually tight weave. Made by Isabel. 103 Julia
I met Julia at the end of a plethora of "Amba"{s). After talking with Isabel several times I had asked her if she knew where I could find other
women who made shigras. Pointing up the mountain she said, "Arriba" (Up there). The following morning at breakfast I ordered an extra boiled egg, fruit
and a bottle of Guitig (bottled water) and by 7 o'clock a.m., was on my way up the mountain. I intended to walk as far as necessary no matter how long it took to find a woman
who made shigras. After close to an hour, when it appeared that I was going to be forced to change my mind, I was joined by two small children. In
response to my query concerning the location of someone who made shigras,
they told me, "Mas arriba" (Much higher). Periodically other children joined
us, until there were eight in my little escort, all answering my query with, "Mas
arriba." Although flattered by their interest in me I must confess, I think they were also interested in the candy I carried in my pockets. The children and I passed two homes during our climb. The same questions were met with the same responses of "Mas arriba." After a while they began to head back down the mountain. They seemed to know intuitively what I learned by looking at my watch. It was time for lunch. The
last thing they said a s they left was, "Mas arriba. Senora. Mas arriba. " Sure enough, a little further up the trail I came to a house. Sitting in its shade were three women. Two of them were cutting vegetables and one was making a shigra. I think they were more surprised to see me than I was to finally find another shigra maker. They said they had never seen a foreigner up there and were of course curious to know why I had ventured up so far.
104 After introducing myself, I explained what I was doing and Julia, the one who was making the shigra, agreed to talk with me. She qualified her assent with the understanding that there would neither be pictures taken nor a tape recorder used. She did, however, agree to allow sketches and notetaking
(see Figure 30 for a sketch of Julia).
She said she had first become interested in making shigras while she was attending the government-sponsored school in the valley. Child care, cooking, health, literacy and handicrafts classes had all been made available, free of charge, to women in the vicinity one evening a week. She signed up for the handicraft classes. It was there that she learned how to makeshigras.
When I asked her how theshigra construction was taught, she said that the students sat in a semi-circle in front of the teacher and mimicked her movements, step by step. I wanted to know more about specific instructions concerning technique, design, and color but she said there really hadn't been much, just basics. She had also learned how to sew and to knit in the classes but was not very interested in either. She had liked making shigras better, in part because she was the only one in the family who could make them. It had madë her feel special. When I asked her what her favorite design was she answered that she did not have one. She said she became bored doing a specific design all the time so sometimes she tried to change the look of a design. "Sometimes I put more than one design in the same shigra. That’s something I have never seen anyone do," she said. She went on to say, "Shigras usually just have one design-same size, same color—throughout. If the design is of steps, it is 105 called a "step shigra. " If the design is of monkeys, it is called a "monkey
shigra."
Julia was also innovative in her use of color. She said her grandmother and her mother had used natural dyes made from plant parts such as flowers or bark, or cocineal bugs from the penko cactus. However, she only used commercial dyes that she bought at the market in the valley. The next time I went to the market I asked a vender about the dyes. She said they were aniline dyes that she bought in Quito. She believed they were imported from Germany but she did not know how the Quito vender obtained them. Julia went on to say, "Making dyes from natural materials like plants is very difficult and the colors don't last very well. I like the aniline dyes better anyway because the colors are so much prettier. They are richer." She did not have particular favorites among the hues available, just that whatever color she used was well saturated with color. From the shigras she showed me, it appeared that she used a wide palette of colors within each shigra, the simple existence of color being of greater importance than specific colors or color combinations (see Figure 31, 32, & 33 for a shigra made by Julia).
106 Figure 30. Sketch of Julia. 107 - n V J ^ y %
Figure 31. Shigra with stepped triangle design. Made by Julia 108 Figure 32. Detail of shigra with stepped triangle design. Made by Julia. 109 Figure 33. Bottom view of shigra with stepped triangle design. Made by Julia.
110 Data Summary and Analysis For the following summary and analysis I was guided by Stuhr (1987) in constructing charts in which data obtained from my fieldwork had been divided into germane categories (see Appendix G, H, & I). I began with two broad groups-women and product-with sub-categories within each. Some of the sub-categories that related specifically to the women, such as gender, race, and social status, were not relevant within the specific category of women because there was no variance. The final categories for each woman were: personal information, the product, and general art information. Initial observations of the six women who were the focus of my research showed many strong similarities. Certain characteristics were immediately obvious, such as physical appearance. All of the women were small in stature with large black eyes and noticeably large feet. Equally distinctive was the manner in which they wore their hair. All of them had either one braid as big around as their wrists or two, half that thick, which hung below their waist. This tradition was documented in 1736 by two young men on a scientific expedition in Ecuador who made note of the braids of the Indian women as the prevalent hair style (Juan & Ulloa in von Hagen, 1940). This hair style has also been tied to Inca puberty rites where braids were the outward evidence of womanliness (Brundage, 1963).
Juan and Ulloa (in von Hagen, 1940) also described the women's clothing of the time. Their account correlates strongly with contemporary dress styles. Of all the women with whom I spoke, only Gabriella wore Western clothing. It is perhaps significant that her clothing and that of her daughter were given to her by her employers in Quito. All the other women in
111 my study wore several long, full skirts, one on top of the other. Their skirts were worn with a blouse and a woven shawl. The ensemble was completed with a fedora-style felt hat. Although the women had little need for multiple changes of clothing, according to Gabriela each woman owned at least one garment, besides her habitual dress, which she considered special. Sometimes it was a ruffled overskirt; other times it was a fancy shawl. For Maria, it was her shoes and a hat that was only worn on important occasions. Traditional mode of dress and hair style are distinctive characteristics of their socio-cultural group, Indigena (their preferred terminology). In Ecuador this is not a racial term but rather to a non-European way of life and social organization. It is defined by language, lifestyle and mode of dress, the latter being the most important (Beals, 1953; Meisch, 1988). An example of the historical significance of dress is evidenced by a story about Inca Yupanqui winning over most of the inhabitants of the area bordering Lake Titicaca by wearing the native garb of respective settlements because he knew that was the thing that pleased them most (Poma, 1936, p. 174). Linke (1955) pointed out just how remarkable it was that hundreds of years of Spanish rule had had such an insignificant influence on the dress of the Indians. He added that even if the Indians’ economic condition was to be improved, as long as he held on to his Indian dress and language, he would never be treated as an equal.
All of the women used the traditional cabuya fiber in their shigra construction. Except for Julia the fiber purchased by all the women had been pre-dyed with aniline pigments when they purchased it from the weekly open
112 market. Each woman remarked that the change from using traditional dyes to using commercial dyes had taken place at least one generation earlier. In each narrative, the discussion relating to dyes was followed by an inquiry into individual color preferences. During the time of the Inca, intense, bright colors were reserved for the royal family. This tradition resulted in part because such colors were only available in the plumage of birds from the jungles of the Oriente. The only colors accessible to the Indians were the soft, muted tones obtained from dyes derived from indigenous plants (Kendall, 1973). Four of the women had no particular favorite colors, being content to use whatever colored cabuya was available at the open market. One of the four stipulated that it was not the color that was important but rather the intensity of the color. She did not like pale colors. Another of the four seemed a little bewildered by the question. It had apparently never occurred to her to be selective in the colors she used. Of the remaining two, one said she liked all colors but especially combinations of blue and green and combinations of sun colors. One preferred progressive variations of color such as blue to purple, which were her favorite colors. Such control of color was a painstaking and monotonous process but she said she was not in a hurry so it did not matter; she just worked on it when she felt like it. Design was the last area of examination that related directly to construction. I found that design elements within shigras ranged from simple stripes to complex representational motifs such as indigenous animals and birds. The most commonly used of the simple designs was the stripe. The width of the stripe and the space between was varied across baskets but was consistent within individual baskets. Occasionally the stripe design was 113 altered by superimposing an "X" over the top. Another common design was called simply "boxes." It consisted of rectangular shapes superimposed on the top edge of the stripes. A variation of "boxes" was the "stepped fret." Although the comb motif was variously referred to as a "comb," "ear," or a combination of the two, "comb/ear," it was also a typical design. The more complex designs included animals such as cats, llamas, monkeys and deer; birds; insects; and natural subjects such as water and trees. The triangular motif called a "tree" by Gabriella, was called a "mountain" or the ’Trinity" by Beatrice. She alone mentioned the sun and moon as traditional motifs.
Most of the designs used on shigras can be seen on either woven textiles or pottery dating from the Inca period or earlier (Bingham, 1948, 1986). Delineating exact time frames for the inception of particular designs however, is primarily conjecture as is their original meaning. In some cases the designs are obvious, such as a cat or a tree. However, interpreting the
inherent symbolism involved cannot be ascertained with any degree of certainty. The only design that was totally new was on a shigra made by Ana in which she had incorporated the name of her village.
Beatrice was the only shigra maker I interviewed who had had any formal education. When she was a child, she and her family had lived near an elementary school so she had had the opportunity to complete the first grade and part of the second grade. When they moved into a barrio (outskirts of town) the school was too far away for her to go there alone so her formal education was discontinued. Three of the women had attended government-sponsored classes. Ana and Gabriela in literacy and Julia in 114 home arts. Gabriela, in addition, was privately tutored in reading and writing by her domestic employers. The women had not had the opportunity to obtain a formal education because there were no schools in the vicinity of their homes. Even if they had have lived near schools when they were children, I doubt if they would have attended. School was equated with reading, a skill perceived as relatively
useless since there were few books available. The employment of all the women could be characterized as semi-skilled. Only one, Gabriela, was not self-employed. As mentioned earlier, she was a live-in cook and housekeeper in Quito. Three of them worked solely in their homes, raising a garden and tending small animals. One of the three also had a milk cow. One, besides doing the above, sold her produce in an open market twice a week and one prepared and sold food in town six days a week. None of them made a living from sh/gra production although three of them considered such sales as welcome supplemental income. With the exception of Gabriela, all of the artists interviewed lived in the general area of the Sierra within ten miles, but outside the recognized boundaries of, an incorporated village or township. As mentioned earler, Gabriela lived in Quito. Only one of the artists attributed her understanding of the shigra-making process to a formal schooling situation. The other five credited the acquisition of such knowledge to a combination of experimentation and the help of an individual close to them in kinship such as a mother, aunt, or sister. When I asked the women if they were artists they consistently 115 declared that they were not. They said art was pictures or sculpture and that was not what they did. At the beginning of my research I thought that documentation of shigras and their makers was necessitated by their inevitable disappearance. However, that decision was narrowly based on two criteria, utilitarian function and economics. In questioning the significance of only these two criteria, I was also limiting the answers I might find. I now believe that shigra-making skills will not be lost, although the shigra itself will continue to change over time. Maria, in the wisdom of hindsight, recognized this in the changes she saw taking place in traditional materials. Although the early history of Ecuador attested to a respect and reverence for what is today commonly referred to as crafts, Spanish colonialism brought with it new meaning to such aesthetic products. It relegated both the objects, such as shigras, and their creators to a lower position in the hierarchical value scale and yet their production did not cease.
In order for the production of shigras to have continued for hundreds of years, there must be factors other than economics and utilitarian function involved. Based on the information gathered, it appears that in varying degrees, depending on the individual, artificially-imposed constructs of colonialization have not eliminated the importance of their role in cultural maintenance, achieving personal satisfaction, increasing beauty in their lives, and in building community. Many of the women appreciated tradition and recognized their role in its maintenance. It was apparent in Isabel's unsolicited statement that she had learned how to make shigras from her mother and from Beatrice's 116 comparable statement that she had learned from her mother whose mother had learned from her mother. The significance of tradition is seen once again in Maria's statement that one of her earliest memories had been watching her
mother working on a shigra while walking to and from their field or the market. Respect for the maintenance of culture is evident once again in Maria's
voiced disapproval of the shigras she had seen in town that had been made of
something other than cabuya, the traditional construction material. The faith in continuation of their culture is seen another time when Gabriela and Ana
reflected on the shigras given to them as children, the ones they had made for their daughters, and the assumption that their daughters would do the same. A third testament to their respect for tradition is their continued adherence to traditional hair styles and clothing.
A second factor involved in the continued existence of shigras is the sense of satisfaction derived from their production. All of the women I
interviewed stated that they produced their shigras because they derived pleasure from the process. They made statements such as, "I lose track of time" and "It's relaxing."
Another function not to be overlooked is how the shigra makers use them as a means for adding beauty to their world, what Sieber (1971) refers to as "embellishment of ordinary living" (p. 211 ). The expenditure of time and
effort necessary to add a design to a shigra does not increase its storage capacity or its durability, it simply improves its affective character, that is, the effect it has on its audience. Bingham (1948, 1986) maintained that their ancestors, the Inca, also had a great love of beauty and a "highly developed sense of the beautiful" (p. 20). 117 Economically, the expenditure of time and effort involved in
constructing a shigra negates its cost effectiveness. A purse-sized shigra of
simple design and loose construction takes a minimum of 45 hours of tedious work for an experienced artisan to complete, resulting in aching, callused fingers. It would sell for approximately the same amount of money required to
purchase a dress. Plastic mesh bags, on the other hand, are readily available
and inexpensive alternatives. Since before there was a written language, Sierranos made shigras for specific utilitarian purposes such as measuring, carrying, and storing.
Although shigras are no longer used for measuring, all the women in my study
felt that shigras continue to fulfill other necessary utilitarian functions such as
carrying and storing. Gabriela admitted that she would not carry a shigra in Quito because It was an unmistakable indication of being from the country or
a parcialidad (small village). However, I noticed that she had two shigras hanging in her bedroom that were used for storage of grooming and personal hygiene articles. Her bedroom being a private space, she was free to maintain a modicum of ethnic ties without suffering the concomitant general prejudice against the indigenous population.
One function of shigras never mentioned by the informants but which became increasingly more obvious the longer I interacted with them was the
importance of the camaraderie associated with shigras. It was evident when they shopped for the materials together and when they worked on them together.
118 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION
Introduction In this chapter I discuss the findings of my research concerning six women in the Ecuadorian Sierra who make shigras. The investigation includes both historical and contemporary information. A significant contribution of the study is the recognition and documentation of an aesthetic product which has not before been the subject of artistic or anthropological accounts. Another contribution is that it provides the information necessary for constructing a basic shigra. Acquisition of the skills required for creating shigras is discussed in terms of cultural maintenance, continuity, and change.
Implications for the Field of Art Education Throughout this dissertation, one of the major issues being presented has been that aesthetic products should not stand by themselves but instead should carry the culture with them. Including the context in which the objects are conceived and produced rather than as objects in isolation increases the opportunities for learning. In the following pages I focus on several implications that my findings hold for the field of art education. It is evident from this investigation that ethnocentric attitudes are at play before the aesthetic theories of a culture are even considered. The debate over a definition that fits all art has been ongoing since before the time 119 of Socrates. The quest for a universal theory of aesthetics continues to ask the same questions, questions that are based on a Western canon. The questions may need to be changed. Students need to be made aware of this history and encouraged to question its contemporary appropriateness.
Teachers should balance their curriculum with the aesthetic products of cultures typically ignored or only included as "token" diversity and assist students in understanding that the questions westerners might ask are not necessarily the same ones the culture of the artists themselves might ask. Students should be helped to realize that art is grounded in an individual's own cultural value system, one that might include criteria other than strictly aesthetic standards. One way to make this process easier for students is by having them work in groups in which they Invent a culture and an aesthetic product and then develop their own set of standards of judgment. This exercise could perhaps be related to a school mascot and the decorating that takes place before a major sports competition. They could discuss what questions they think the "other" school might use to judge their aesthetic efforts and in turn, what standards they would use in judging the efforts of the opposing school. A directly related consideration is what can or should be labeled art and whether the term itself is a western concept. Within the last decade some educators (Neperud & Krug, 1995) have recognized the need for a more culturally responsive approach to art, resulting in a move toward deconstructing the artificially-imposed polarities of artists and their work. These shifting perspectives have expanded to acknowledge nonmainstream artists and their work. This change in focus directly supports the 120 acknowledgment of such aesthetic products as shigras and their producers in the art curriculum. A closely related area of concern is that of gender inequities. Women tend not to be acknowledged as artists as readily as men. When they are given recognition, they are commonly relegated to a lesser status than that of men (Price, 1984; Apple, 1988). However, because culture controls the ability to structure reality, it is often difficult to be critically cognizant of this injustice. My research made me more aware of the role gender plays in valuing art in Ecuador, and subsequently, in the United States. Likewise, presenting students with an art form made only by women heightens their awareness of possible gender inequities in a third-world culture and enhances their ability to recognize similar bigotry in their own culture. One of the issues raised in this research concerns stereotyping. Presenting diversity to students is commendable but it is not enough if we then stereotype what we know. It is imperative that educators present artists as real people with different ways of doing things, as individuals within a particular culture rather than as representative of the culture as a whole. It raises the idea that producers of material culture are guided by different motivations. My dissertation demonstrates a method for exploring individuality.
Although all the people with whom I worked were female, Ecuadorian, shigra makers, they were all very different. Their individuality could be seen in terms of their reasons for producing shigras and in the shigras themselves. Their overt motivations included, solely or in combination; financial purposes, aesthetic satisfaction, social activity, and familial ties. For some, latent
121 consequences were important, such as passing on tradition from one generation to the next and developing women's spaces. Difference was also apparent in their design choices and even in the decisions they made concerning whether to use strictly traditional designs, to alter the color, size, or number of designs within a single shigra, or to create entirely new designs. Students can be helped to understand stereotyping by discussing their own commonalities and differences with peers in their culture group. Although their hair and clothing styles are similar, at least in comparison with older adults, they would see differences. They would also be quick to recognize that even their "white" skin color is not the same. Pointing out their different approaches to art assignments could also be related to the differences in the Ecuadorian women's approaches to making shigras. Teachers could make it a part of every assignment to discuss different choices being made so students could begin to understand there are different aspects of individuality. For instance, they should see that in some cases it is the materials available that affect the changes. If they were to makeshigras, they would not be able to make them of traditional cabuya fiber; they would have to choose a material that was available within their own culture such as yam or ribbon. Students who raise livestock might even make shigras from the twine on hay bales. Another implication for the field of art education concerns cultural continuity and change. Educators need to help students understand that both perpetuation and alteration are represented in cultural products. Just because Ecuador is not a commodious culture does not mean that the shigra itself is static. At the same time thatshigras are exemplifying hundreds of 122 years of continuity, they are also direct illustrations of change taking place over time. It is important to understand the aesthetic product not as an object
rigidly frozen in time and culture but rather one that changes within its own cultural context and as it relates to other cultures. For instance, the traditional
use of local, vegetal dyes has almost totally given way to commercial, chemical dyes imported from Europe and the United States. Colors that were soft and muted have been replaced by a wide range of bright, intense colors that were not previously available from natural dyes. Interactions with other cultures have also affected designs. Sometimes new ideas are acquired Incidentally through verbal or visual contact with an outside source. For instance, since Quechua did not become a written language until after Spanish colonization, early designs were either geometric or pictorial. A graphic example of the affects of the imported influence of literacy, however, can be seen in the shigra made by Ana in which she had used the nam e of the town in which she lived as its design element. Although many traditional designs continue to be used, their original symbolism has often been lost, opening the door to alterations. The story about how M.C. Escher designs came to be used on shigras in consideration of an outside market is a good illustration of this and one students easily relate to because his work has become part of teenage popular culture. As mentioned earlier, the tourist trade has affected designs and colors.
Not as apparent, however, is the effect it has had on the way shigras are used. Their function is no longer confined to individual utilitarian usage, but oftentimes becomes a talisman or carrier of Ecuadorian culture into other 123 places, other countries. In the United States decisions are often perceived as intellectually controlled and governed but that is not necessarily the case in
Ecuador. I do not believe the shigra makers connected the purchase of their
shigras by tourists with any possible impact on the culture into which they were eventually transported. In other words, the effect that shigras might have on another culture was probably not intended or even considered by the makers.
The shigra itself can be used to demonstrate changes that occur as objects of material culture are carried into other cultures by having students use the same technique to produce a bag useful to them individually. When students make shigras the function can be dependent on individual choice. They might choose to make an amulet bag to hang around their necks, evening purses made of metallic cord and ribbon, or "hackeysacks." Constructing objects that fit within their teen-age culture helps them both respect thatshigras are different while at the same time honoring what it is to know something in that context. It is also a welcome opportunity to borrow from a less commodified culture and to begin to notice how common it is for cultures to borrow from each other. The process of cultural transmission is another significant implication this research has for the field of art education. How individuals learn about aesthetic products and how to make them has meaning in their lives.
Therefore, the Ecuadorian women who learned how to make shigras at home from their families will have a different connection to it than those who learned in school. Similarly, students who learned how to make something at home
124 from a family member will have a different relationship to the object than if they had learned it in Scouts or in the art room. Aesthetic products that are made in a social context offer different connections and experiences than those constructed just in a cultural context.
In the case of the Ecuadorian shigra makers, part of the pleasure they derive from this particular process of cultural transmission is sharing sociability while at the same time generational information is being passed on. Art teachers can assist their students in understanding cultural transmission by relating it to the way they do things in their particular culture that are similar. Perhaps they could find similarities in the way their family works together in landscaping their land, makes crafts together or prepares foods together for a special holiday. Although the product might have a different function, in both cultures there is the aspect of sociability. By talking to parents and other family members they might also discover a history of similar experiences such as harvesting crops, quilting bees, bam raisings, or cooking and decorating for a family member's wedding. Another significant factor of this study lies In the implication for utilizing alternative ways of interacting with other cultures. For example, many international, national, and state organizations promote cross-cultural awareness through avenues such as literature, exchange programs, and speakers' bureaus (see Appendix K). Most address culture in general, but several of them also specifically focus on the aesthetic products of cultures.
A source often overlooked are members of local communities. A simple survey would undoubtedly reveal many individuals living in the community who have various levels of international experience and who 125 would be pleased to share their knowledge with students and teachers. Modeled after the Foxfire research (Gillespie, P.E. (Ed.), 1982; Wigginton, E. (Ed.), 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980; Wigginton, E. & Bennett, M. (Eds.), 1983, 1986), this could be teacher initiated with students doing the actual investigation. Cross-cultural interaction could also take place through various forms of telecommunication. Some areas, such as courses conducted over television or videos, are commonplace. However, newer areas such as interactive computer programs appear to hold great promise (Scott & Stuhr, 1993).
Suggestions for Further Research This study provided answers to many questions but raised far more. The possibilities for further research are numerous. It could focus on comparisons and contrasts between other culture groups within the local community, the administrative seat of a region, and the nation who make baskets. There could also be many investigations of different aesthetic products within the country and comparisons within other countries. The focus could be on change-in design, in materials, in use, and in the way the techniques are taught. There could be an investigation into the different art forms that are gender related with a comparison of those items with which gender is no longer an issue. Another suggestion relates to how such investigations could be improved through collatwration. Instead of entire investigations being the responsibility of a single art educator, there should be several educators and
126 perhaps students involved, both male and female. The findings would also be enhanced by the synergism of multiple knowledge bases from disciplines such as art history, Latin American history, sociology, psychology and anthropology. The research would be further strengthened if some of the research participants representing the above-mentioned categories were from Ecuador and other South American countries. Finally, the informants themselves could be more involved. They could play a role in determining what questions should be asked and what stories should be told. This study was only a beginning. It should be repeated at some point by the original researcher and by others. Subsequent studies would be strengthened by extended periods of time and also by the possible inclusion of video and computer technology for data documentation and pedagogical purposes. I find that Manchester’s comparison of his writing to a kaleidoscope (in Scott et al., 1995) is an apt analogy for the way women's lives are represented. Everyone who peers into its lens will discover a different image and upon returning to its spectacle, will observe a much-altered view. From the conflation of many such views, written by many researchers, will hopefully emerge a picture that is rich enough in its variety to represent them justly, honestly, and with dignity, though still only one "partial tale," at one point in time, for the reader to interpret.
127 GLOSSARY OF SPANISH & QUICHUA
WORDS RELATING TO SHIGRAS
Achiote Tropical fruit whose seeds give a red dye
Aguja Needle
Algodon Cotton
Alpaca Domesticated camelid native to the Andes with fine, lustrous hair
Amarillo Yellow
Ancash Blue
Anil Indigo
Anjas Blue
Anudarse To form knots
Apretado Tight
Arte Art (Creativity)
Artesanias Handicrafts
Artesano/a Artisan, craftsperson
Aumento Increase
Awa Quechua root for words related to weaving
Awasqua Cloth used for everyday clothing
128 Ayarosa Marigold
Azul Blue
Bano æservado Indigo
Blanco White
Balsa Bag
Borde Boundary or border
Cabo suelto Loose end
Cabuya Fiber from leaves of penko cactus
Cabuya Blanca Penko cactus from which shigras are made
Cabuya Negra Penko cactus from which cordage Is made
Campeche Logwood
Caparosa Mud used as dye
Cardar To comb
Carmesi Cochineal. Bug whose body gives a crimson dye
Cascara To peal
Catachillay Small llama
Ceniza Ash
Chantu Llama
Chaqui Foot print
Chillay LLama
Chimba To braid
129 Chimba Huatuj Braided handles on shigras
Chinua Mollis False pepper tree. Bark is source of yellow dye
Chonocholopa Bivalve. Shell from Paracas times that gives a red dye
Chantu chaqui Llama footprint
Ch'umpi Brown
Churu Snail
Churu uma Curly. Involved
Claro Pale
Coca Diamond-shaped motif
Cocha Water
Cochamama Mother of seas and lakes
Coloracion Coloration
Colorado Red
Coser Sew. Join
Cosi Coarse wool thread up to I cm. thick
Costal Bag of cabuya for carrying small produce such as coffee
Cuadro Square
Cochinilla Cochineal. Bug whose body gives a crimson dye
Crecido Increase
Crezco Increase
130 Crucer Increase
Cuerda Rope. Cord
Cultiver Cultivation
Cumbi Fine tapestry cloth woven for
Ourdi Quingu Circular pattern on bottom of
De Color Fijo Colorfast
De Gran Colorido Vivid colors
Destenirse To fade
Diagonal Diagonal
Dibujo Picture. Design. Pattern
Diseno Design. Pattern
Doblado Doubled
Dura Durable. Tight
Elaborer To build up
Empezar To begin
Espesar To make thicker
Espuelas Barberry
Espuma Thread of synthetic material
Faja Striped
Fibre Fiber
Figure Figure
Fino Thin 131 Flor Flower
Gama de colores Range of colors
Geometrico Geometric
Grueso Thick
Hilador Spinner
Hilar To spin
Hilo Thread. Yam
Hina Adjectives of quality, likeness, compai adverbs by adding hina i.e. sinchi - st sinchi-hina -powerfully
Hoja Leaf design
Holgado Loose
Huatana To rid cabuya fiber of pulp by beating
Huichi Quingu Curved or sloped design
Indigena Indigene
Intensidad de color Intense color. Strong value
Ishkaichiska Doubled
Kaupuna To ply yam
K'ello Yellow
Kiliu Yellow
Kosni Grey
Kulli Purple
132 Kururu Ball of yam
Labrada Decorated. Worked
Ladrillo Brick design
Lana Wool
Lavanderia Laundramat
Lejia Lye
Lindero Boundary
Uama-chaqui Llama footprint
Lodo Mud
Luna Moon
Madeja Skein of yam
Mariposa Butterfly
Marron Brown
Matiz Shade
Morado Purple
Mordiento Mordant
Motivo Motif
Najcha Comb
Najcha Rinri Comb-ear
Naranja Orange
Negro/a Black
133 Nogal Black walnut
Nudo Knot
Oqe Light gray
Oreja Ear. Triangular
Orina Urine
Ovillo Ball of yam
Oxido Metallic salt used as a mordant
Pacha Earth
Pajaro Bird
Paila Copper cooking pot
Pasa Pita plant or fiber
Peine Comb
Peine oreja Comb-ear
Penko Century plant
Pilatero Person in charge of dye pots
Pintado Painted or colored
Ploco Loose
Polvo Powder
Puchkai To spin
Puka Red
Puntada Stitch
134 Punto Loop. Point
Q'omer Green
Quilla Moon
Quingu Zig-zag pattern
Rama Branch design
Rectangulo Rectangular
Recto Straight
Red Net
Rihri Lip on opening of shigra
Rinri Ear
Rojo Red
Rondador Flute design
Rundaduna Flute design
Rundadur Flute design
Sangurachi Amaranth
Sauce Willow
Shigra Bag made of penko cactus fiber
Shuyo Plain. Without design
Sin Without
Sina (see hina)
Sol Sun
135 Suave Loose
Tejer To spin
Tenir To dye
Tensar To tighten
Tenso Tight
Tinaku Azul Indigo
Tinte Tint. Dye. Indigo
Tintoriado Dyed
Tinturar To dye
Tinturero One who dyes
Tiniska Dyed
Tira Stripe
Tomanyo Size
Torcer To twist or ply
Trenga Handle
Trenzar To braid
Triangula Triangular
Tujti Black walnut
Uniformidad Evenness
Urcuchillay Varicolored llama
Urgueador One who untangles yam after dying
136 Vara Unit of measurement. 33 Inches
Verde Green
Vicuna Undomesticated camelid with extremely fine hair, prized as source of yam
Violets Violet
Vuelta Loop. Bend
Wanaku Undomesticated camelid native to the Andes
Yana Color ranging from dark blue to purple to black
Yana Chahuar Black agave
Yerba Herb
Yuraj White
Yuraq White
Yuraq Chahuar White agave
137 APPENDIX A
LESSON PLAN - ARABIC CALLIGRAPHY
138 APPENDIX A
LESSON PLAN - ARABIC CALLIGRAPHY
CLASS: High school Art I
TIME: Ten 45-minute classes
LESSON OBJECTIVES: - to recognize calligraphy as an art form - to recognize diversity of writing systems - to identify some cognates in American usage from Arabic and from Arabic to English - to recognize differences and commonalities in strokes used in forming letters - to recognize that reading and writing from right to left is different (not wrong) and that initial questioning feelings are sam e for children learning English as a second language - to develop adequate facility to copy words
INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES: Books: Elwell-Sutton, L.P. (1972). Elementary Persian Grammar. Cambridge U. Press
Paper, H. H. (1955). The Writing System of Modem Persian. Wash., DC: American Council of Learned Societies
Periodical: Aramco World
139 Slides: Personal collection
Posters: Daily life in Iran Calligraphy from pages of book Calligraphy on domes of mosques
Handout: Alphabet Sample page from textbook W orksheets
Audio Tape Sitar Music of the Middle East
Presentations and exhibits Organizations or individuals with information or artifacts they are willing to share
VOCABULARY: Calligraphy Islam Persia Iran Mosque
PROCEDURE: Slide presentation to background of sitar music. (Every class begins with a few slides, pictures, or artifacts.)
Referring to illustrations on worksheets, students complete one line of each stroke, proceeding to complete letters, then complete words.
After an alphabet strip (minimum 2 x 30 inches) has been completed and displayed in middle school or high school social studies rooms, students will use
140 Arabie dictionary to find words that have meaning for them (religious or otherwise) and transcribe onto domed structure constructed in a previous lesson.
EVALUATION; Based on daily journal, effort, and individual's written rationale for requested grade.
141 o
: ojb' JlA w r
ûLf = u«^-> _«-<
^—S” *jjj Û ^ ô ljl \ 9 142 Va. LL • # # # # # 143 & m a The Alphabet • • • • e • • cr- * sin — — 1 ? altf '1 e • • • s sad b be * e^^^^e •.J 9 z lad • • • • • ^ V ##*»*# » P P‘ J a ...... ia... \> c ta L 1 A , ...... o t te ...... ; j i ...... j i... z î“ u a a a s se L 1 A • • • • • • ^ P p tin 2 ...... *- L Jim • • • • • • i • • • • • • • • •..P q qein 2 L c cin <_j&...... A... 3 2 ." t 2 f fi h he kotu wr (Iw ...... Ji...... 3 (J nM qaf >• X xa C" 2 di..^..5C ..r k kaf * # — — a d * e e * • • e. f u f g g >Thœ le a n do not join a following letter. 144 APPENDIX B UNIT OF INSTRUCTION - ART OF IRAN 145 APPENDIX B UNIT OF INSTRUCTION - ART OF IRAN UNIT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: At conclusion of unit students will be able to: - locate Iran on a map - identify the religion practiced by most Iranians - list some other countries w here Islam is practiced - cite specific examples of ways art is influenced by religion - discuss role of art in Iran - compare and contrast qualities valued in art in Iran with those in the United States LESSONS: Anatomy of Iran Geography History Religion Architecture Environmental accommodation Architectural antecedents Material Decoration Domes Zoroastrian fire temples Arabic script Strokes Function Religion Decoration Tiles Material Color Design 146 APPENDIX C CHARACTERISTICS OF QUECHUA LANGUAGE 147 APPENDIX C CHARACTERISTICS OF QUECHUA LANGUAGE Quechua is the most widely used of all Native American languages. It is spoken by over 6.5 million people in South America. It is characterized by; Phonology Consonants Glottalized, Aspirated, Uvular Word Order Switch reference Grammatical Distinctions Inclusive/exclusive "we" Verbal directional 148 APPENDIX D MAJOR LOCATIONS OF VARIOUS AESTHETIC PRODUCTS 149 APPENDIX D MAJOR LOCATIONS OF VARIOUS AESTHETIC PRODUCTS Ceramics Chordeieg Manta Embroidery Chordeieg Jewelry Silver and gold filligree Chordeieg Cuenca Saraguro Seed Lago Agrio Jungle Crafts Misahualli Playas Puerto Nape Puyo Tena Leatherwork Ambato Cotacachi Musical Instruments Cuenca 150 Panama Hats Azogues Chordeieg Cuenca Jipijapa Montecristi Rugs Ambato Sculpture Bread {Guagua Pan) Calderon Tagua Nut Carving Riobamba Woodcarving Chordeieg San Antonio de Ibarra Shigras Ambato Guaranda Latacunga Peguche Pelileo Pujili Riobamba Weaving Agato Ambato Canar Chordeieg (Ikat) Cuenca Human Otavalo Peguche Qunchuqui Salasaca 151 APPENDIX E MUSEUMS IN QUITO 152 APPENDIX E MUSEUMS IN QUITO Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana Casa de Sucre Catholic University Museo de Arte y Historia Museo de Banco Central Museo Camilo Egas Museum of Colonial Art Museum of Ethnology Museo Guayasamin Museo Jijon y Caamano Museo de Olga Fisch Museo de San Augustine Museo de San Francisco Museo de Santo Domingo Museo-Biblioteca Aureliano Polit 153 APPENDIX F INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 154 APPENDIX F INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Good morning, Senora. How are you? My name is Deanna and I am a teacher from the United States. I am very interested in women who make shigras. I would like to learn more about life and customs and ideas. I would like to learn more about what life is like for you and with your permission I have a few simple questions to ask and perhaps I will take a few photographs. Is that all right? 1. What is your name? 2. Are you married? 3. How long have you been married? 4. Do you have children? 5. What are their ages? 6. Do you have a job away from your home? 7. How long have you lived here? 8. Do you have other family members living nearby? 9. Have you attended to school? 10. Where? 11. How long? 12. Have other members of your family gone to school? 13. What did you study in school? 14. Was art taught in your school 155 15. When did you leam to make shigras? 16. How did you leam, by observing or actually being taught? 17. From whom did you leam to make shigras? 18. Do your daughters make shigras? 19. At what age did they begin to make them? 20. How did they leam? 21. Do men ever make shigras? 22. Do you use the fiber of the century plant to make shigras? 23. Do you use the white or the black variety of the century plant? 24. Do you ever make shigras from any other material? 25. Do you prepare the materials yourself or do you purchase them already prepared? 26. Where is the fiber purchased? 27. Where do you purchase the dyes? 29. Does anyone you know use them? Perhaps your mother? 30. Do you have any favorite colors or color combinations? 31. Why do you make shigras? 32. Do you make shigras to sell or for the family to use? 33. For what are shigras used? 34. W hat are the designs that are m ade? 35. Do the designs have any symbolic meaning? 36. W hen do you have time to work on shigras? 37. Are shigras art? 38. Are you an artist? 156 39. Everything that I know about shigras and their producers I have learned from books. Please describe a what a typical day would be like for your. For example, you get up when the cock crows. Then what do you do? 36. Would you please teach me how to make a shigra? 157 APPENDIX G ANALYSIS CHARTS 158 APPENDIX G ANALYSIS CHARTS Subjects Name 3 0 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS T ra d itio n a lHAIR Non-TradItlonal LOTHING Traditional N on-T rad 1 t 1 onanaj^ EDUCATION S eco n d arv Col 1 eg* EMPLOYMEN Within Home ^Cutside Home^) W ithin 10 hi 1 es lore Than :0 Miles of Parents' Home iFrom =arents' He MARITAL STATUS S ingle M a rrie d 1 v o r c e d ^ (Nr. of Y ears) (Z CHILDREN Female (age) Male (age) z . 159 subjects Name Q 1 =‘ERS0NAL CHARACTERISTICS HAIR C jraditx on^ Non-Traaitional c l o t h in g Traditional ) Non-Traditlonal EDUCATION Pr I (Tiary Secondarv Colieqs EMPLOYMENT O utside Home RESIDENCE ( Witn In 1C) Ml re?"A More Than :0 Miles of P a re n ts' Home^ From P aren ts' Home MARITAL STATUS Single M arrled D iv o r c e ( N r . a-f Y e a r s ) ^ P CHILDREN .1 . <1/ ; 1 6 0 Subjects Name 6 ^ ? SEASONAL CHARACTERISTICS HAIR Non-TradIt1 o n a l c l o t h in g TradiC ior.aL N o n - T r a d I1 to n a l EDUCATION P r I m a r y S e c o n d a r v C o l 1 e«i5 EMPLOYMENT Outside Home RESIDENCE /CTtrTn 10 Mi 1 e«V| More Than :0 Miles Xof Parents' Homey From Parents' Home MARITAL STATUS Single rMarried d iv o r c e d (Nr. 3f Years) CHILDREN F e m as l (a g e ) Z O ' ^ 161 Subjects Name ^ 4 r PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS HAIR Traditional Non-Trad itlo n a l c l o t h i n g Traditional Non-Traditional EDUCATION P r 1 ffia rv C o l I e g g EMPLOYMENT O utside Home RESIDENCE ith in 10 Mi 1 es More Than 10 M iles of Parents' Home From Parents' Home MARITAL STATUS S in g la D ivorced (Nr. of Years) CHILDREN Female (age) Male (age) '1 J 2 3 J 162 Subjects Name JSfpC, 4 C ' a j PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS HAIR (1 Traditional Non—T raditional CLOTHING Traditional N o n —T r a d i t io n a I EDUCATION P r im a r y S e c o n d a r v C ol I e g * e m p l o y m e n t W ithin Home / O ut3Ids Home RESIDENCE W ithin 10 M iles^^ More Than 10 I Mie s of Parents' Horned From Parents'Home H MARITAL STATUS S i n g l s D iv o r c e d (Nr. of Years) CHILDREN Female (age) M a le (a g e ) L ______Y 163 Subjects Name ______0 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS HAIR ^^Traditional*^^ Non-Tr«ditional CLOTHING V- Traditional 2^ Non-Tradxtional EDUCATION mary Secondarv Coilea* EMPLOYMENT C Within Home^^ Outside Home RESIDENCE (W ithin lO Miles More Than ;0 Miles Vnf Parents' Homo—y From Parents' Home MARITAL STATUS Single ^ Married' Divorced (Nr. of Years) CHILDREN Female (age) Male (age) 164 Subject's Name. A R T r e s No G uasua P an______/__ B a s k e tr y P a i n t in g Ceramicwarc N e e d 1 e w o rk S e u lD t u r e Tagua Nut Carving S h ig r a s M u s ic DEFINITION CP AR- 165 Sub.iect's Name ! A R T Y es No G uagua Pan B a s k e tr y P a in t in g C eram1Cw a re N e e d ie w o rk S e u lo t u r e agua Nut Carving C/Y I—' S h ig r a s j ' Mu s i c D E F IN IT IO N CP PP" /%-JoA jC L x ^ -Ukjuy^^ 166 Suo.iact's N*m*_ A R T Y «S NO G u«gu« Pan B a s k e t r y ^ P a i n t i n g ^ Ceramicware N e e d 1 ew o rk Sculoture 1 ^ ^ yCkaXvLO _ M Tagua Nut Carving L/y\_ ' / ^ \S C . S h i g r a s M u s ic D E F IN IT IO N OF CR" PuiüiAjjx) 167 Subject's Name, A R T Y es NO Guagua Pan t y B a a k e tr y P a i n t in g Ceramicware N e e d Ie w o rk S e u lo t u r e Tagua Nut Carving S h ig r a s M u s ic D E F IN IT IO N OF C R - 168 Subject's Nam# A R T Yes No Guagua Ran t/ B a s k e t r y y ' P a i n t i n g Ceramicware N e e d ) e w o rk S e u lo t u r e Tagua Nut Carving S h i g r a s / M u s ic d e f i n i t i o n CF i t 169 Subject's N*m*_ - f - A R T Y es No G uequa Pan B a s k e t r y P a i n t in g Ceramicware N e e d 1 ew o rk S e u lo t u r e A J L a J ^ ^ Tagua Nut Carving S h i g r a s , M u s ic D E F IN IT IO N CF c.R” . y^jO C-OLyrs. O u^ 170 Subject's N««e S H I G R A S FIBER K in d Used C abuym O th e r Where Obtained M a r k j S e l f O th e r R r e -D v e d .' Dyed cv Self DYES K in d U sed N a t u r a l COLORS N a t u r a l A n i I i n e F a v o r i t e s D E S IG N S \ *^âe t e c h n i q u e /T rad 11 1 dna other FUNCTION /'T rad i t i onaj^ Contemoorary WHO TAUGHT WHEN HOW 171 S u b je c t 's Name S H I G R A S FIBER K in d U s e e O t h e r Where Obtained Market Si1 •f Other c P r e —Dved Dyed c / Self DYES K in d U s ed COLORS N a t u r a l F a v o r i t e s oftfi- - DESIGNS U sed A®-* TECHNIQUE o t h e r FUNCTION Traditional vjdjLtla/V*m WHO TAUGHT WHEN HOW 172 Subject's Nam* * 5 H I 6 R A S FIBER K in d U s e d O th e r Where Obtained i<^Market Self Other F r e - P v e d ^ D y e d cv S e l f DYES K in d U s e d N a t u r a l ^ Ani 1 COLORS N a t u r a l F a v o r i t e s DESIGNS F a v o r i t e M e a n in g ^ r. J ÿ P ^ < Ï Ï 3 iu « . TECHNIQUE T r a d i t i o n s O th e r FUNCTION rrad itio n ai Contemoorary WHO TAUGHT WHEN HOW 173 -----^ S u b je c t '* N m « S H I G R A S FIBER K in d U sed C a b u v a O t h e r Where Obtained Market v Sel f Other Dyed cv Self DYES K in d U sed N a t u r a l A n i l i n i COLORS N a t u r a l v: : m e F a v o r i t e s DESIGNS Known Used Favorit C n^. - ' TECHNIQUE O t h e r FUNCTION d i t i o Contemoorary WHO TAUGHT WHEN ^ 174 Subject's Name S H I G R A S FIBER K in d U sed J .l O th e r Where Obtains: M a r k e t S e l f O th e r . rrrr-r— —— ^ 'P r e -D y e d Dyed c. Self DYES K in d Used N a t u r a l A n i l i n e COLORS N a t u r a l A n ; 1 in e . 1 F a v o r it e s DESIGNS Knqwn Used, . Favorite M e a n in g CeJ'OJU,\ TECHNIQUE ' Traditional O th e r FUNCTION Contemoorary WHO TAUGHT WHEN HOW 175 Subject's Name S H I G R A S FIBER K in d U s e d Other Where Obtained ^narke^/ Self Other Dyed cv Self DYES K in d U s e d N a t u r a l A m I m e COLORS N a t u r a l F a v o r i t e s DESIGNS Known Used M eanin g TECHNIQUE T r a d i t1 o n a i O th e r FUNCTION CT TraditionaL? Contemoorary - p iJ A ^ WHO TAUGHT WHEN t X < ? 0 < ^ f ^ HOW 176 APPENDIX H SAMPLING OF ORGANIZATIONS THAT PROMOTE CROSS-CULTURAL AWARENESS 177 APPENDIX H SAMPUNG OF ORGANIZATIONS THAT PROMOTE CROSS-CULTURAL AWARENESS American Friends Service Committee American Intercultural Student Exctiange Artists for Survival/Artists for Mideast Peace Children's Art Foundation/Children's Creative Response to Conflict Children's Television Workshop Columbus Council on World Affairs Council on International and Public Affairs Cultural Heritage Alliance Earthwatch Educational Tours Fulbright Program Global Options Institute of International Education International Field Studies International Service Agencies of Columbus International Visitor's Council, Inc. Lions Club International 178 Peace Corps National Council of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of the Greater Columbus Area Peace Corps Partnership Program Rotary International U.SAI.D. UNESCO. 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New York: New York University Press. 190 IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (Q A -3 ) y y. y s 1.0 m |X2 2.2 C C iM mil 2 .0 i.i 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 150mm V <9/; /1 P P L IE D A IIVMGE . Inc 1653 East Main Street ^ Roctiester. NY 14609 USA Phone; 716/482-0300 —— ------Fax: 716/288-5989 O 1993, Applied Image. Inc.. Ail Rights Reserved