Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Subjectivities In-Between Early Modern Global Textiles
- Part I Unhomeliness, Mimicry, and Mockery
- Part II The Material Enunciation of Difference
- Part III Identity Effects In-Between the Local and the Global
- Part IV Material Translation and Cultural Appropriation
- Archives, Libraries, and Museums (Abbreviations)
- Select Bibliography
- Index
13 - Mediating Mediterranean Cultures: Silk Embroidery and the Design of the Self in Early Modern Algiers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 October 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Subjectivities In-Between Early Modern Global Textiles
- Part I Unhomeliness, Mimicry, and Mockery
- Part II The Material Enunciation of Difference
- Part III Identity Effects In-Between the Local and the Global
- Part IV Material Translation and Cultural Appropriation
- Archives, Libraries, and Museums (Abbreviations)
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract
This chapter examines seventeenth- till early nineteenth-century embroidery to present a thus far unknown material and gendered history of vernacular cosmopolitanism and in-between hybridity shaped by the women of early modern Algiers. Based on the analysis of textiles surviving in Algerian and French collections, as well as on ethnographic inquiries with female embroiderers in Algeria, this essay provides an anthropological recontextualisation of a multivalent gendered form of vernacular art in early modern North Africa.
Keywords: embroidery; vernacular cosmopolitanism; gender studies; Algiers; Mediterranean Studies
Introduction
As early as in the Phoenician period, the Mediterranean has been one of the most dynamic spheres of the production and trade of fibres, dyes, and fabrics in the world. Exploring the creative and material processes underlying the design and the making of clothing and textiles in North African coastal cities sheds new light on the still largely neglected study of the everyday life of communities overshadowed by the belligerent events of a predominantly male-centred conventional history. This chapter examines seventeenth- till early nineteenth-century embroidery to present a thus far unknown material and gendered history of vernacular cosmopolitanism and in-between hybridity shaped by the women of early modern Algiers. Based on the analysis of textiles surviving in Algerian and French collections, as well as on ethnographic inquiries with female embroiderers in Algeria, this essay provides an anthropological recontextualisation of a multivalent gendered form of vernacular art in early modern North Africa.
The Objectification of Gendered Histories
For centuries, Algerian tarz or tiraz embroidery embodied a quintessential expression of individual and collective identity for both rural and urban female populations. Women of all generations, who worked autonomously and never belonged to any kind of professional corporation, produced silk thread embroideries in domestic settings. These women transformed the empty undyed surfaces of a broad variety of bath wear, underwear, bedwear, curtains, hangings, and other everyday and ritual articles. Professional female embroiderers existed in Algiers and could be commissioned embroidery artefacts by wealthy families; however, the production of most of the embroidery usually happened at home. It was not meant to constitute a commercial activity, but embroidering could generate consistent incomes to women. Whether made to satisfy their personal and family needs or as commissioned work, embroidery provided conditions of self-expression and self-realisation to women in every social category.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- In-Between Textiles, 1400-1800Weaving Subjectivities and Encounters, pp. 285 - 304Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2023