world's oldest silk fabrics

the world's oldest silk fabrics were found within this urn coffin burial that resembles a silkworm pupae!

read more about this fascinating discovery...

ancient textiles in the news!

It's very unusual to find ancient textiles that have withstood the ravages of time. Most of them disintegrate within a few years.

Textiles and the Multi-Tiered Cosmos: Indonesian Sarita Cloths

Today I'm going to take a look at sarita cloths of the Toraja people from the upriver region of Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. I'm interested to see if I can show a connection between this textile and shamanism. Someone needs to write a dissertation on this. There's so much here!

Textiles and the Multi-Tiered Cosmos

In order to prove that Textiles are associated with shamanism, my next task is to show how they are related to the multi-tiered cosmos. So far, we've seen how weaving itself can be an induction method to altered states of consciousness (ASC) and how ASC and entoptic images are precursors to a belief in a multi-tiered cosmos (underworld/this world/world of spirits), which is the basis of shamanism and (arguably) all later spiritual practices. We've also seen that entoptic images are ubiquitous in textiles from all over the world. Some may argue that since entoptic imagery is a product of the human nervous system, this does not necessarily indicate that the weavers engaged in any type of ASC or spiritual activity. And they'd be right! Of particular contention is the link between shamanism and phosphenes/entoptics. Bednarik points out that although all humans use phosphenes daily, "that does not make us shamans!" (Bednarik 1990, 79). But if we can see depictions of a multi-tiered cosmos (the result of ASC and entoptic experience), we come that much closer to making an association between textile production and shamanism.

Tai Daeng Shaman doing his thing.