Textiles have been a highly valued and central part of the politics of human societies across culture divides and over millennia. The economy of textiles provides insight into the fabric of social relations, local and global politics, and diverse ideologies. Textiles are a material element of society that fosters the study of continuities and disjunctions in the economic and social realities of past and present societies. From stick-loom weaving to transnational factories, the production of cloth and its transformation into clothing and other woven goods offers a way to study the linkages between economics and politics. The volume is oriented around a number of themes: textile production, textiles as trade goods, textiles as symbols, textiles in tourism, and textiles in the transnational processes. Textile Economies appeals to a broad range of scholars interested in the intersection of material culture, political economy, and globalization, such as archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, economists, museum curators, and historians.

IntroductionPart I. Creativity and ValueChapter 1. Exchange without Brokers: Weaver-Client Relationships in SenegalLaura L. CochraneChapter 2. Heritage and Authorship Debates in Three Sumatran SongketsSusan RodgersChapter 3. Creativity, Place, and Commodities: The Making of Public Economies in Andean Apparel IndustriesRudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, Jason Antrosio, and Eric C. JonesChapter 4. Tivaivai and Value in the Cook Islands Ritual Economy: The Creation of Value, Values, and Valuables in a Diasporic CommunityJane HoranChapter 5. The Political Economy of an Art Form: The Akotifahana Cloth of MadagascarSarah FeePart II. The Power of Cloth and the Sanctity of PowerChapter 6. Textiles and Chimu Identity under Inka Hegemony on the North Coast of PeruCathy Lynne CostinChapter 7. Late Classic Maya Textile Economies: An Object History ApproachChristina T. HalperinChapter 8. Hohokam Cotton: Irrigation, Production, and Trade in PerhistoryRobert C. HuntChapter 9. Neighborly Ties and Sohbet: Global Capitalism and the Work of Weaving in Konya, TurkeyDamla IsikChapter 10. Sanctity, Social Distance, and the Price of Cloth in a Moroccan SuqJohn A. NaporaPart III. (Re)invented Traditions in Transnational ContextChapter 11. Good Hands: Silk Weaving and Transnational Artisan Partnerships in CambodiaSusan Falls and Jessica SmithChapter 12. Recommunitizing Practice, Refashionizing Capital: Artisans and Entrepreneurship in a Philippine Textile IndustryB. Lynne MilgramChapter 13. The Decline of a Weaving Cooperative in Western TurkeyKimberly HartChapter 14. Made in Italy: Metaphors for Merchandising Textiles in a Global EconomyJoan Weibel-OrlandoChapter 15. Creating Fame and Fortune from the Ruins of Handloom in Kerala, Southern IndiaLucy Norris