Textiles of
Southeast Asia
Tradition, Trade and Transformation
Revised Edition
by Robyn Maxwell
Foreword by Mattiebelle Gittinger
PERIPLUS
For the other members of the Asian Textiles Advisory Committe of the Australian National Gallery-Anthony Forge, Jim Fox, John Maxwell and Jamesm Mollison-since it was their good counsel and great enthusiasm for the textiles of Southeast Asia that inspired this book.
Published by Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd
Originally published by the Australian National Gallery and Oxford University Press Australia, 1990 First Periplus edition, 2003
First edition© Australian National Gallery and Robyn Maxwell, 1990 Second edition© Australian National Gallery and Robyn Maxwell, 1994 This edition © Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd, 2003 design This edition© National Gallery of Australia and Robyn Maxwell, 2003 text
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-4629-0698-7 (ebook)
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PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS
The photographs not listed below were made available by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra (photographer Gordon Reid). All other photographs were provided by the following institutions and individuals: American Museum of Natural History, New York 69, 86, 128 Q. Kirschner), 205, 429, 432, 520, 521; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide 26, 165, 261, 282, 394, 449; Australian Museum, Sydney 166, 247, 295; Patricia Cheesman-Naenna 414; Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 33, 55, 141, 196; J. A W. Forge 103, 210; James J. Fox 130; Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Amsterdam 32, 126, 127, 129, 211, 249, 250, 302, 341, 357 (van Eerde), 362, 375, 384 (Roepke), 397, 404, 426, 428, 453, 502, 508, 509, 518; John R. Maxwell1, 2, 4, 30, 34, 35, 36, 39, 46, 56, 58, 62, 63, 67, 70, 72, 74, 78, 80, 97, 104, 114, 123, 146, 155, 157, 159, 171, 180, 197, 200, 201, 202, 215, 218, 221, 226, 227, 228, 229, 231, 232, 240, 254, 256, 265, 303, 305, 306, 320, 340, 355, 356, 358, 361, 367, 371, 385, 409, 420, 422, 423, 431, 445, 446, 454, 455, 458, 462, 465, 469, 473, 476, 478, 480, 481, 485, 497, 503, 512, 516, 526, 531, 538, 544, 549, 552, 553, 557, 561, 562, 567, 568, 569, 570, 572, 573, 574, 578, 579; Robyn J. Maxwell 208, 216, 225, 229, 347, 461, 482, 483; Musee de L'Homme, Paris 47 (Matras), 61 (Hoffet), 120, 167, 206, 212, 213, 217, 219, 230, 233, 237, 252, 253, 259, 284, 286, 288, 307, 332, 349, 352, 362, 364, 366, 388, 393, 398, 402, 427, 444, 464; Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles 31, 42, 89, 90, 154, 523, 529, 530, 532; Museum fur Volkerkunde, Basel 343; National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington 152, 353; The Newark Museum, Newark 108; Royal Anthropological Institute, London 83; Royal Commonwealth Society, London 438.
FOREWORD
Southeast Asia presents one of the richest and most varied textile regions in the world. This is true both in the realms of textile patterning techniques and in the complexity with which textiles operate in autonomous belief systems. Textiles link today's inhabitants with their ancestors and promise a continuity with future generations. They confirm pledges of alliance and, in their exchange, acknowledge kin and social obligation. Because textile making throughout the region is predominantly woman's work, textiles are considered 'female' currency in the exchange of complementary male and female goods that occurs at virtually all life crisis ceremonies. They are also a prime means of woman's creative expression. Locally crafted cloth may also suggest historical influences and ancient customs and practices that hint of continuities that once bound the entire Southeast Asian area before the advent of nation states.
Robyn Maxwell's book orders this kaleidoscope of technique, custom and history by distilling the elements that unite this diversity. She first summarizes previous work and in subsequent chapters examines in detail the fundamental historical influences that have contributed to the textiles we know today and places these in a social context. She illustrates her analysis with textiles of beauty and sometimes ones of great rarity. In addition, readers will delight in the many archival and field photographs that lend exotic and meaningful context to the cloths.
Her work draws on extensive field work in the region, acquaintance with European, American and Asian collections and the superlative Southeast Asian holding of the National Gallery of Australia. It also utilizes the scholarship of others and includes an extensive bibliography.
This is not a lightly read - or held - volume. It is, however, the most comprehensive single book to address the textiles of this region. That was true when the work first appeared in 1990 and remains so today.
Mattiebelle Gittinger
Research Associate
The Textile Museum
Washington, DC
CONTENTS
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