University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings Textile Society of America 2014 Abstracts and Presenter Biographies from 14th Biennial Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf Part of the Art and Design Commons, and the Art Practice Commons "Abstracts and Presenter Biographies from 14th Biennial" (2014). Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings. 935. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/935 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Textile Society of America at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Heather J. Abdelnur nature of its denim. Since the 1960s changes to ring spinning frames and high-speed looms have improved the Women Who Kneel Not Only in Prayer: The Shifting Dynamics of Gender in Highland Guatemala, 1500-2000 smoothness and consistency of the textile. Their denim producers have perfected a more uniform, refined tex- 1 B. Social Change and Textile Innovation in Latin America tile yet the current specialty market prefers rougher qualities; favoring the weight, inconsistencies, and fading of vintage denim. Cone currently works in collaboration with several specialty brands in an effort to re-create Prior to Spanish arrival in Central America, weaving had long been an essential part of Maya women’s sphere the look and feel of denim from the early twentieth century, employing outdated looms and reinserting imper- of duties, with almost as much precious time devoted to care of family and preparation of food as for creation fections in imitation of the older coarser textiles suited to the tastes of the vintage denim aficionado. This paper of essential textiles. Soon after crushing the remaining Maya kingdoms in the 1520s, Spanish conquistadors will evaluate the divergent definitions of quality and the division of White Oak’s denim production along three introduced their European-style wooden treadle looms to the area; what emerged over the course of the next axes; its historical past, its present position as an American denim manufacturer, and the emotionally charged, 300 years was the gradual and permanent division of technological labor based not only on racial heritage nostalgic place in between. of Native American versus Iberian, but also on gender of male versus female. To be a true “man,” according to master Spanish weavers, one had to sit at the loom with the latest technology of pulleys and peddles. To be a Sonya Abrego is a PhD Candidate at the Bard Graduate Center focusing on ready to wear clothing in the United States. She is currently completing her dissertation “Westernwear and the Postwar American Lifestyle “woman” was to kneel with the inferior portable threads attached from body to post or tree. Towards the end 1945- 1965” while working as a visiting instructor at Pratt, and as an editor at Worn Fashion Journal. of the colonial era, what had emerged was the distinction of women’s textile production being relegated to the marginality of cotton back-strap loom production, however exquisite the design or quality of their traditional [email protected] Maya patterns for the family and home usage. Male production developed into woolens or foot-loomed rough cotton pieces of inferior quality for the lower classes, while those of Iberian heritage continued their guild Carolina Agüero memberships copying European styles or they imported European, East Indian, and Chinese fabrics. In the Rethinking the Tiwanaku Phenomenon in San Pedro de Atacama Through the Study of Textiles of late 19th and throughout the 20th, indigenous peoples retained both types of loom technology split along Solcor-3 and Their Associated Contexts (400-1000 AD) gender lines, whereas Ladinos moved into purchasing sewing machines and working with ready-made fabrics, Organized Session Participant: 6C. Textiles from the Southern Andes: Tiwanaku and with those of the upper classes leaving textile production altogether. More recently, Maya peoples have adapted to a globalized marketplace. This study seeks to illuminate gender adaptations in textile production From San Pedro de Atacama, Chile we examine the alleged relationship with Tiwanaku. Our investigation and consumption over five hundred years utilizing archival and field research. focuses on elaborate and plain textiles with associated ceramics and recent bio-archaeological data that allow us to question this relationship. We see a heterogeneous and unequal society in San Pedro rather than one Dr. Abdelnur, a graduate of Tulane’s Latin American Studies M.A. and TCU’s Latin American History Ph.D. that responds to a superior political entity and a culture born from a strong tension between dominant and programs, is currently Associate Professor of History at Georgia Regents University. Her ethnohistorical subordinate groups. Discussing the funeral bundles discovered in Solcor-3 we characterize individuals who research concentrates on indigenous textiles in highland Guatemala as well as women, material culture, and wear Tiwanaku textiles with their contextual associations and compare them to others who do not wear such petty theft in the Caribbean Basin periphery. Her most recent publication on the exoticism of Maya women in textiles. Solcor-3 presents contexts with textiles of the styles of both Tiwanaku Provincial and Tiwanaku where 19th century Anglo-American travel accounts appeared in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Research on Women and Gender. She teaches Pre-Modern World History, Modern U.S.History, and Latin American History stylish clothes indicate prestige goods within a local context. It appears that some individuals constitute a priv- undergraduate courses. ileged group who maintain special relationships with others who moved these objects. The conclusions have lead us to understand that San Pedro society was living with strong tension and internal conflicts that emerged [email protected] through some members who had long distance contacts and access to foreign resources. These data suggest two expressions of the same male power of shamans and caravanners, expressions that gestated for centuries Sonya Abrego creating what we know archaeologically as Culture San Pedro, but that says little about their daily lives. This Changing the Idea of Quality: A Case Study in Cone Mills’ Denim vision denied the participation of other actors, such as women and people without exceptional offerings, all 8 C. Textile Industry: Histories, Knowledge, and Change those who disappear in statistical calculations. The recognition of all actors who participated in the history of San Pedro will improve our understanding of local society and will help us to explain the change that occurred This paper examines a significant cultural shift in how quality denim is evaluated in the current international at the end of the Middle Period around 900 AD, which led to the Late Intermediate Period. market. Cone Mills’ White Oak plant has manufactured denim in Greensboro, North Carolina since 1902. White Oak supplied denim for jeans made by Levi Strauss & Co., Lee, Wrangler and others for much of the twentieth Carolina Agüero is an archaeologist of the University of Chile (1994). She holds the Master in Anthropology century. The original jeans, particularly those pre-dating the 1950s, are now highly sought after by collectors from the Universidad Católica del Norte (2006) and the Ph.D. in Archaeology (Andean Studies) in the and dealers in the vintage clothing market who evaluate design details, history, and price points online through Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru (2012). She is Academic Researcher of the Institute of Archaeological sites such as Rawr Denim, Sanforized, and RagTop Vintage. The connoisseurial knowledge and appreciation Investigations and Museum (IIAM) of the Universidad Catolica del Norte in San Pedro de Atacama (Chile) from this community has played a significant role in escalating current fashionable trends for workwear and and Editor of Books IIAM. As a researcher she has specialized in Southern Andean archaeology from the “heritage” or “vintage inspired” designs from brands such as Ralph Lauren’s RRL line and Comme des Garcons Formative (1000 b.C) to the Inka period (1450 AD) particularly working from the perspective of analysis of menswear. These designers promote a nostalgic image of the turn-of-the-century American laborer and the archaeological textiles. Her publications include: Helena Horta & Carolina Agüero 2012 Inkunas Prehisopan- icos del Norte de Chile (1100-1500 d.c) ; 2012, El Rol del Vestuario en la Sociedad Pica-Tarapacá (800-1300 rugged aesthetic of early workwear. Generations of technological progress at White Oak have altered the d.c.). 2 Textile Society of America Biennial Symposium Program [email protected] 3 Tanya Aguiñiga piece of land the size of Rhode Island, otherwise known as the Land of Five Rivers. Out of this warring chaos, Pre-Symposium Workshop Participant: Artists Studio Tour, Highland Park and Atwater Village, Los Angeles the Sikhs rose victoriously under the leadership of Maharaja Runjit Singh, who annexed Kashmir in 1819. With- in this landscape appeared a new pool of Kashmiri artists, developing an innovative vocabulary of patterns that Tanya Aguiñiga (b. 1978) is a Los Angeles based designer and artist who was raised in Tijuana, Mexico. veered radically and tangentially to traditional shawl embellishment, giving rise to a major school of artistic She holds an MFA in furniture design from Rhode Island School of Design. She created various collaborative expression both on the Subcontinent and in Europe. installations with the Border Arts Workshop, an artists’ group that engages the languages of activism and community-based public art. She founded the group, Artists Helping Artisans, through which she helps The aim of this paper is to show that during this time of Sikh ascendancy the Kashmir shawl, around 1825, spread knowledge of craft by collaborating with traditional artisans.