ARTH 6855 - Threads of Consequence: Textiles in South and Southeast Asia

(crosslisted) ASIAN 6644, VISST 6855

Spring. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Permission of instructor required. Co-meets with ARTH 4855/ASIAN 4487/VISST 4855.

K. McGowan.

This seminar explores how patterned cloths serve as a symbolic medium, functioning on multiple levels of understanding and communication. As spun, dyed, and woven threads of consequence, textiles can be seen to enter into all phases of social, economic, political, religious, and performance processes, often assuming unusual properties and attributes. As bearers of talismanic messages, signifiers of rank, and as the recipients of influences from maritime trade and touristic demand, textiles are read between the folds of complex exchange mechanisms in South and Southeast Asia.