Weaving Metaphors, Weaving Cosmos
Weaving Metaphors, Weaving Cosmos

Author: Jane Rehl

Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing

Published: 2010-11

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 9783843372435

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Weaving Metaphors, Weaving Cosmos is a history of ancient Peruvian textiles created between 300 BCE and 1540 CE with discontinuous warps and wefts (DWW), as well as an interpretation of their meaning. DWW technology, not developed at any other time in the history of weaving world wide, produces a patterned plain-weave cloth in which the warps and wefts are equal, visible partners, a visual metaphor for the paired principles of balance and reciprocity, "ayni" in Quechua, the language of the Inka and traditional present-day highlanders. In general, DWW textiles appear to have been reserved for ritual use, funerary rites in particular in which case they were part of a mummy bundle, placed in the tomb independent of the body, or hung on the walls of the tomb. In ritual contexts, DWW textiles can be seen as derived from shamanic practices, most notably transformation rites and visionary experiences. It is the contention of this study that ancient Peruvian principles, viewed as essential to the health of the cosmos, and concepts, such as the interconnectedness of all in the universe, can be read in all aspects of DWW textiles and are a shamanic understanding of the order of things.

Aztec Philosophy
Aztec Philosophy

Author: James Maffie

Publisher: University Press of Colorado

Published: 2014-03-15

Total Pages: 609

ISBN-13: 1607322234

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In Aztec Philosophy, James Maffie shows the Aztecs advanced a highly sophisticated and internally coherent systematic philosophy worthy of consideration alongside other philosophies from around the world. Bringing together the fields of comparative world philosophy and Mesoamerican studies, Maffie excavates the distinctly philosophical aspects of Aztec thought. Aztec Philosophy focuses on the ways Aztec metaphysics—the Aztecs’ understanding of the nature, structure and constitution of reality—underpinned Aztec thinking about wisdom, ethics, politics,\ and aesthetics, and served as a backdrop for Aztec religious practices as well as everyday activities such as weaving, farming, and warfare. Aztec metaphysicians conceived reality and cosmos as a grand, ongoing process of weaving—theirs was a world in motion. Drawing upon linguistic, ethnohistorical, archaeological, historical, and contemporary ethnographic evidence, Maffie argues that Aztec metaphysics maintained a processive, transformational, and non-hierarchical view of reality, time, and existence along with a pantheistic theology. Aztec Philosophy will be of great interest to Mesoamericanists, philosophers, religionists, folklorists, and Latin Americanists as well as students of indigenous philosophy, religion, and art of the Americas.

Knots
Knots

Author: David Lipset

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-05-31

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1000840212

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Knots are well known as symbols of moral relationships. This book develops an exciting new view of this otherwise taken-for-granted image and considers their metaphoric value in and for moral order. In chapters that focus on Japan, China, Europe, South America and in several Pacific Island societies, granular ethnography depicts how knots are deployed to express unity in daily and ritual embodiment, political authority and the cosmos, as well as in social thought. The volume will be of interest to anthropologists and other scholars concerned with metaphor and symbolism, material culture and technology.

Weaving the Word
Weaving the Word

Author: Kathryn Sullivan Kruger

Publisher: Susquehanna University Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 9781575910529

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"Through an analysis of specific weaving stories, the difference between a text and a textile becomes blurred. Such stories portray women weavers transforming their domestic activity of making textiles into one of making texts by inscribing their cloth with both personal and political messages."--BOOK JACKET.

Textile Design Theory in the Making
Textile Design Theory in the Making

Author: Elaine Igoe

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-07-15

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 1350061581

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Textile design inhabits a liminal space spanning art, design and craft. This book explores how textile design bridges the decorative and the functional, and takes us from handcrafting to industrial manufacture. In doing so, it distinguishes textiles as a distinctive design discipline, against the backdrop of today's emerging design issues. With commentaries from a range of international design scholars, the book demonstrates how design theory is now being employed in diverse scenarios to encourage innovation beyond the field of design itself. Positioning textiles within contemporary design research, Textile Design Theory in the Making reveals how the theory and practice of textile design exist in a synergistic, creative relationship. Drawing on qualitative research methods, including auto-ethnography and feminist critique, the book provides a theoretical underpinning for textile designers working in interdisciplinary scenarios, uniting theory and texts from the fields of anthropology, philosophy, literature and material design.

The Cosmos in Cosmopolitanism
The Cosmos in Cosmopolitanism

Author: Nikos Papastergiadis

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2023-12-08

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 1509559337

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Cosmopolitanism is commonly associated today with the idea that the forces of globalization could be tempered by new forms of cosmopolitan governance, an idea that was popular among some political theorists in the late twentieth century but seems increasingly unrealistic today. Rather than discarding the idea of cosmopolitanism, Nikos Papastergiadis seeks to reinvigorate it by examining the ways in which visual artists have explored themes associated with the cosmos. Kant regarded cosmopolitanism as the goal for humanity, but he turned his attention away from the connection to the cosmos and directed it toward the practical rules for peaceful co-existence. However, these two concerns are not in conflict. Today a new vision of the cosmos is being developed by artists, among others – one that brings together the cosmos and the polis. Scholars from the South are decolonizing the mindset which divided the world and split us from our common connections, while others are using art to highlight the existential threats we now face as a species. By developing a distinctive form of aesthetic cosmopolitanism, this book shows that the idea of the cosmos is more important than ever today, and vital for our attempts to rethink our place as one species among others in a universe that extends far beyond our world.