Posted by Steve Price on April 01, 1999 at 14:09:35:
In Reply to: Re: Wise thought(?): Clothes are woven bags for people posted by Erol Abit on April 01, 1999 at 13:56:13:
Dear Erol,
Baby carriers and cradles are, of course, containers for little people. And in the Kaitag district of Daghestan, the cradles had an embroidered cloth around the head end for the purpose of distracting the evil eye.
But I had something a bit broader in mind. We are all wearing clothes (at least, most of us are when we're in public), and our clothes have some things in common with bags.
1. They are woven containers, the contents being us.
2. Their functions include concealing the contents.
3. Their functions are at least partly decorative and to offer physical protection to the contents.
Baby carriers are an interesting, seldom discussed group of weavings. Cargo bags (the mafrash of NW Persia and the Caucasus) used to be thought of as cradles, then the idea that they served that purpose was more or less abandoned in the west. However, a few years ago I was told by an Armenian rug merchant in Toronto that he had seen them used as cradles.
Regards,
Steve Price