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December 2000 NewsletterThe Fiber Perishables Interest Group of the Society for American Archaeology is in its third year and going strong with a current tally of 439 members. Last spring at the SAA annual meeting in Philadelphia, plans were made for the FPIG sponsored symposium at next year's SAA meeting and for our own web page. Full details are given below. Also at the meeting, a membership fee to offset postage and like expenses was agreed upon, but, through mis-communication, it did not appear on this year's SAA membership renewal form. Expect it next year. Meanwhile, registering your e-mail addresses with the SAA can make communications speedier and more economical. The FPIG newsletter will be accessible to all on the SAA web site, too. Other topics included in this newsletter are reports on conferences and courses, past and future, and more items of potential interest to FPIG members. Please contact us with any questions, comments, suggestions or information to share. We'll be happy to hear from you.
Penny Drooker and Dee DeRoche
FPIG Symposium at SAA Annual MeetingTextiles and the Negotiation of Power is the topic chosen last spring for FPIG's biennial symposium at the SAA annual meeting. Co-organizers Linda Neff (Northern Arizona University) and Penny Drooker (NY State Museum) have worked hard to secure varied presentations illustrating the topic's scope. Mary W. Helms (UNC Greensboro), as discussant, will contribute her expertise on power expression. Be sure to check the annual meeting program for the time and venue of this "must attend" event. FPIG Business Meeting and Social TimeAnother not-to-be-missed event at April's SAA annual meeting in New Orleans is the gathering of FPIG members to conduct the group's business. This includes electing a co-chair for 2001-2003, as Penny Drooker's term expires this spring. This business meeting and the social time following it are also the time to find out about other FPIG activities and projects, past and future, and to exchange information with other members. Please plan to attend. The meeting is scheduled 6:00-7:00 Thursday, April 19. Check the SAA annual meeting program for the location. This year, there will be competition from evening sessions, but we do hope you will be able to attend. Another Fiber SymposiumPerishables and Prehistory is another symposium bound to interest numerous FPIG members at the annual meeting. Co-organizers Dr. Olga Soffer and Dr. J. M. Adovasio supplied the following information and urge us to check the annual meeting program for venue and time of this symposium. We have been assured by the SAA program chair that it will not conflict with the FPIG symposium! Symposium Abstract:Although reconstructions of prehistory have drawn insights primarily from the study of durable media (e.g., stone, clay, and bone), cross-cultural ethnographic data demonstrate that all societies produce and use a much larger number and broader array of items made from plant materials. The emphasis on durable media has resulted in highly biased reconstructions and an undervaluing of many prehistoric peoples and crafts. This symposium addresses these biases by focusing on perishable technologies in contexts ranging from Pleistocene Eurasia to the Holocene Americas, demonstrating that perishables in the archaeological record are far more ubiquitous and provide more crucial insights than is commonly recognized. Presentations:
Marek Zvelbil and Catherine Fowler are to be the Plants, Perishables and Prehistory symposium's discussants. The FPIG Questionnaire—a Tangled Tale, Still UnwindingEarly this year, Laurie Webster and Penny Drooker set up a questionnaire to learn more about FPIG members and their hopes for the Interest Group. Just before it was about to be sent out by the SAA main office, we learned that because it involved demographic information, it would have to be approved by the SAA's Survey Oversight Committee. Through a series of mishaps, our request to utilize it only now is being acted upon (we hope to know the results in about two weeks). Unfortunately, the questionnaire inadvertently was e-mailed to FPIG members before Committee approval was obtained. So far, 16 FPIG members have filled out and returned the questionnaire. We thank you all very much. We will process all completed questionnaires and report the results (or send out a new version of the questionnaire) after the format finally has been approved. Web ResourcesFPIG Web PageLinda Neff, known for her web wizardry, has created a web page for our Group that will be available soon through the SAA's site: http://www.saa.org. We now need a web site contact person to collect information of potential interest to FPIG members and submit it to the SAA for inclusion on our site. Any volunteers? Conference Room at Café UTNE(This section has been edited out for web publication) Hot Off the Press!!!We are pleased to announce the recent publication of Beyond Cloth and Cordage: Archaeological Textile Research in the Americas by The University of Utah Press, 2000 (Cloth, $60.00, 7 x 10, 352 pages, 135 b/w photos, ISBN 0-87480-662-3). Edited by Penelope Ballard Drooker and Laurie D. Webster, the volume presents current research on archaeological textiles from northeastern North America, the Great Basin, the American Southwest, Mesoamerica, and Andean South America. Most chapters are expanded versions of papers presented at the symposium of the same name at the 1997 SAA meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. Additions to the volume include an extensive literature review and a bibliography of archaeological textile research since the early 1980s, and a detailed glossary of textile terms. Contributing authors are J. M. Adovasio, Patricia Anawalt, Vicki Cassman, Amy J. Dansie, Penelope Ballard Drooker, Annette Ericksen, Catherine Fowler, Eugene M. Hattori, David Hyland, Kathryn Jakes, Jenna Tedrick Kuttruff, C. Jill Minar, Mary Strickland-Olsen, James B. Petersen, Amy Oakland Rodman, Lynn Teague, Laurie D. Webster, Virginia S. Wimberley, and Jack A. Wolford. The University of Utah Press will be selling copies at the April 2000 SAA meetings. If you can't wait that long, you can order from them directly at 1-800-773-6672. Archaeological Textiles NewsletterThe Archaeological Textiles Newsletter publishes information relating to all aspects of archaeological textiles, from both prehistoric and historic periods and from all parts of the world. Publication began in 1985 and Issue 31 for Autumn 2000 is ready for printing. Contributions can be in English, French, or German. ATN currently has about 200 subscribers, including institutions. It has a two-year (four issue) subscription term for 20 pounds sterling. Inquiries about subscriptions or contributions should be sent to the editor, John Peter Wild: Ancient Textile Unit Textile Society of America 2000 MeetingThe Seventh Biennial Symposium of the Textile Society of America was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from September 19-23, 2000. The conference program offered a diverse selection of papers on archaeological, ethnographic, and contemporary textiles. Three sessions highlighted recent research on archaeological textiles. "Andean Textile Analyses, Past and Present," chaired by Elayne Zorn, included a presentation by Jane Rehl on visual metaphors expressed in Wari textiles from coastal Peru. "Prehistoric Textiles," chaired by Mary Elizabeth King, included a paper by Nettie Adams on the uses of qualitative analysis in archaeological textile research, a discussion by Virginia Davis on prehistoric resist-dye textiles from North America and Mesoamerica, and a paper by FPIG co-chair Penelope B. Drooker on textile research using ceramic impressions. In the session "Textiles and Their Messages: Perspectives from the Central Andes," chaired by Catherine Julien, presenter William Conklin explored relationships between structure and "message" in Chavin textiles, Lynn A. Meisch discussed archaeological and ethnographic uses of agave fiber in Ecuador, Anne Paul considered the multiple meanings in one Paracas Necropolis textile, Elena Phipps explored the transformation of Inca garments under Spanish colonial rule, and Amy Oakland Rodman discussed woven tapestries associated with funerary bundles in the Chicama Valley of the Central Andes. Karen Olson Bruhns served as session discussant. These and other symposium papers are slated for publication in the coming year in the Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings 2000. Conferences, Courses and WorkshopsColour Congress 2002, the first international symposium on natural dyes, will be held May 19-21 at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. Co-chairs are Karen Diadick Casselman (Research Associate, Nova Scotia Museum, Halifax), Dr. Sara Kadolph (Clothing and Textiles Department, Iowa State University), and Laurann Gilbertson (Curator, Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, Decorah, Iowa). They are interested in contacting as many people as possible who have an academic, economic, and/or practical interest in dyeing, including connections to gender, ethnicity, economic initiative, history, archaeology, chemistry, etc.They plan to include formal and informal programs, exhibitions (with particular interest in ethnic textiles), and vendors. For more information, including the web site address, e-mail Karen at lucylichen@ns.sympatico.ca. (This section has been edited out for web publication) Request for Information—Bone Weaving ToolsBack in May, we received the following request from F. R. (Ric) Hauck, the principal investigator for the Archaeological Research Institute (ARI), a non-profit entity, and the Archaeological-Environmental Research Corporation (AERC), a consulting firm, in Bountiful, Utah (www.ari-aerc.org). "I have recovered three potential bone weaving tools from two separate excavations and am in the process of completing those extensive excavation reports. One tool is from a Late Archaic context at the Hanging Hearth Shelter in Colorado (Colorado Plateau). The other two are from Crazy Bird Shelter situated at the +8,000 elevation on the Wasatch Plateau of central Utah. One of these tools is from a culturally mixed context; the other from a Middle Archaic context. …I know very little about weaving or basketry tools and would appreciate learning of anyone that has worked with bone tool collections that would be interested in discussing these items." Since the last issue of the FPIG newsletter had just been sent out, we queried selected FPIG members, some of whom did provide information. However, maybe you know something that they don't! If you are interested in the tools, or have suggestions for Ric, please contact him at ari@xmission.com. (This section has been edited out for web publication) |
Last Modified: Thursday August 21 2008
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