So why is it that almost everyone I know is really pissed?

[sovay]

Some links which I suppose are linked.

1. Courtesy of minoanmiss: "Asian American lawmakers implore Republicans to tone down rhetoric in wake of attacks." I hadn't heard about this hearing, and I hadn't known it was the first in three decades to deal with racism against Asian Americans. Somehow I don't think that lacuna was because the problem was solved. "'Our community is bleeding. We've been in pain and for the past year we've been screaming out for help,' [Rep. Grace] Meng said."

2. Courtesy of selkie: "The ancient fabric that no one knows how to make." On the disappearance and partial, hopeful revival of Dhaka muslin, a textile tradition dating back to the classical era. "It was all going so well – then the British turned up."

3. Because partisans are never not relevant: "The Nazi-Fighting Women of the Jewish Resistance." Everybody, a round of "Shtil, di nakht."

And solidarity, or it's no use to still be here.

Comments

[sholio]

String skirts! Actually, I went back to that part of the book and it's an even greater time depth than I remembered, going all the way back to 20K-year-old Paleolithic female figures who are shown wearing skirts made of string, their purpose unclear. (Decorative? Ceremonial? They don't seem like they would provide much warmth or modesty.) Similar skirts, which may be attached to a strap, apron, or wrap, are found throughout Europe for tens of thousands of years, depicted in art and recovered intact from bogs. In the modern world, women in several parts of the Balkans wear a very similar costume associated with weddings and sometimes childbearing - it wraps around the waist with a fringe that hangs down. The author theorizes that Aphrodite's girdle is basically meant to be something like this, not a belt per se but a wide belt with a long fringe that is meant to hang down, echoing string skirts from 20,000 years earlier.

It is one of those really neat but potentially spurious theories that sounds good but doesn't have an actual, unambiguous line of archeological/anthropological basis to back it up. So, like ... grain of salt, generally, on the entire book. But there is a ton of really interesting information in there that was completely new to me about early textile production and the development of it, from an anthropological perspective, which I found very fascinating.

[sovay]

String skirts!

Ah! I have then, at the least, seen the book name-checked in the discussion of Alex Dally MacFarlane's "Thousands of Years Ago, I Made This String Skirt."

But there is a ton of really interesting information in there that was completely new to me about early textile production and the development of it, from an anthropological perspective, which I found very fascinating.

Once I have access to libraries again, I will check it out!