280H:
Material Culture
Fabric is at
the heart of cultural production in African spaces.
From birth, to initiations, to weddings, to funerals,
fabric binds together communities, adorning families,
and providing the basis for personal wealth. This
course explores emerging research on the social
history of textiles and clothing, with special
reference to cases in Africa and comparative work in
South Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. It
seeks to integrate this work with ongoing debates in
the field of science and technology studies on
innovation, and technology transfer and appropriation.
Through the
lens of fabric, we will examine the meanings of
diaspora, empire, modernity, post-colonialism and
globalization for everyday people. Case material
addresses the history behind fibers, dyes, weaving,
and construction techniques, as well as issues of
industrialization, intellectual property rights,
sustainability, and workplace health. Course
participants will also learn to “read” fabrics,
clothing, and textile technologies for historical
information through museum and field visits.
(next taught Fall 2012)
(next taught Fall 2012)
Selected
Readings:
Allman, J. M. (2004). Fashioning Africa: power and the politics of dress. Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
Allman, J. M. (2004). Fashioning Africa: power and the politics of dress. Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
Boateng,
B. (2011). The copyright thing doesn't work
here: Adinkra and Kente cloth and intellectual
property in Ghana. Minneapolis, University
of Minnesota Press.
Byfield,
J. A. (2002). The bluest hands: a social and
economic history of women dyers in Abeokuta
(Nigeria),1890-1940. Portsmouth, NH,
Heinemann.
Fair,
L. (2001). Pastimes and politics: culture,
community, and identity in post-abolition urban
Zanzibar,1890-1945. Athens; Oxford
[England], Ohio University Press ; J. Currey.
Gott,
E. S. and K. Loughran (2010). Contemporary African fashion.
Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press.
Hansen,
K. T. (2000). Salaula: the world of secondhand
clothing and Zambia. Chicago, University of
Chicago Press.
Kumar,
P. (forthcoming). The Odyssey of Indigo: Plantations
and Science in Colonial India, 1700-1920,
Cambridge.
McKinley, C.E. (2011). Indigo: In Search of the Color that Seduced the World. New York, Bloomsbury.
Multi-Media:
Lemelson, D. and J. Lemelson. (1998). "Whole cloth, discovering science and technology through American textile history: an interdisciplinary curriculum intergrating science, technology, and invention with women's, African American, and labor history."
Les sapeurs du Congo-Brazza - video
Yinka Shonibare
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