Full Description
There is a rich tradition of hand-woven bands made by the nomadic pastoralists of Iran. They have a large and detailed design vocabulary, and were executed using weaving skills that were not exceeded by any other weaving tradition. No study of nomadic life and weavings in Iran is complete without them. Among Qashqa'i tribal weavers in particular, the warp-faced bands used to attach loads to pack animals were a key symbol of their nomadic life. These bands carry a large repository of motifs that may be a source of archaic design elements. Bands illustrate a connection between and among groups of nomadic pastoralists, as great distances may have separated their ancestors for hundreds of years. Although the overwhelming majority of weavers were illiterate, they possessed a different form of literacy in which they were capable of transferring an image into a woven structure. This is the first book devoted exclusively to these weavings.
Contents: Introduction; The Functions of Warp-faced Bands in Nomadic Life; Structure and Construction; Buckles & Fastening Systems on Bands; Dating Textiles; Design & Structural Changes on Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Warp-faced Bands; Imagery & Design Elements; Tribal Confederacies; Plates; Bands, Ropes, Braids, and Tassels among Qashqa'i Nomads; Glossary; Bibliography.
Contents
Part 1
Warp-faced Bands and Related Textiles, Fred Mushkat
12 Foreword: Genesis of the Collection: Iran in the 1960s and 1970s, John T. Wertime
16 Acknowledgements
18 Introduction
22 The Functions of Warp-faced Bands in Nomadic Life
28 Structure and Construction
36 Buckles and Fastening Systems on Bands
40 Dating Textiles
44 Design and Structural Changes on Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Warp-faced Bands
48 Imagery and Design Elements
56 Tribal Confederacies
68 The Plates
266 Technical Analysis
280 Glossary
282 Bibliography
284 Endnotes
289 Technical Details
289 Postscript
Part 2
Bands, Ropes, Braids, and Tassels among Qashqa'i Nomads Naheed Dareshuri and Lois Beck
294 Introduction
298 Bands, Ropes, Braids, and Tassels
316 A Special Qashqa'i Band
334 Another Qashqa'i Band
340 Living with Woven Bands and Braided Ropes
346 The Yellow Gelim
354 The Social History of a Qashqa'i Saddlebag
360 Glossary
370 Bibliography
372 Endnotes
Part 3
Shahsevän and Qaradagi Bastırıkh, Örken and Bezekh Peter Alford Andrews
390 Shahsevän and Qaradagi Bastırıkh, Örken and Bezekh
396 Endnotes
