Posted by Steve Price on April 27, 1999 at 05:46:19:
In Reply to: NW Persian-Caucasian "Mafrash" the Anomaly? posted by R. John Howe on April 27, 1999 at 05:29:06:
Dear Everyone,
As far as I know, the box-shaped bag is nearly unique to NW Persia/Caucasus, so I suppose it is the anomalous one. Saying that doesn't explain why the people who made it didn't make things more or less analogous to torbas, juvals, etc., or at least, didn't make them in very large numbers.
Some interesting suggestions for where the explanations may lie have emerged during the discussion already, though. Some mention has been made of different kinds of pack animals, different distances of migration placing different premiums on whether a bag is more useful in a tent or during a migration, and so forth. It would be very helpful to have someone with firsthand field experience involved in this. It would be even better to have a few Turkmen and Shahsevan people, preferably pre-18th century folks, with computers and internet access. But even though we ain't much, we're probably going to be all we've got to work with.
Regards,
Steve Price