Posted by Marla Mallett on July 28, 1999 at 20:54:07:
In Reply to: Re: pile rugs and pastoral nomads posted by Wendel Swan on July 28, 1999 at 16:56:58:
: : How do you account then for all the pastoral nomads who have produced a great deal of pile rugs?
: Nomads generally don't produce a "great deal of pile rugs." People who are sedentary do. Caucasian pile rugs are neither nomadic nor tribal. Turkmen pile production is believed by most authorities I know to have likely been the products of sedentary Turkmen. The South Persian tribes produced pile rugs, but the big numbers came from village or town weavers.
: Exceptions may be found.
: Wendel
I can extend Wendel's remarks to include nomads in Anatolia. No one has yet found any hard evidence that Turkic nomads there have woven pile carpets before settling. Field researchers with far more experience than I, have all encountered the same situations I've found: among those groups who are semi-nomadic or who have recently settled, the old women do only brocading, slit-tapestry, and sometimes some band weaving, while their daughters and granddaughters are taking up pile carpet weaving because that's what they can sell. There is not a pile weaving to be found in camps of the few Turkic groups like the Sarakecili who are still year-round nomads. The situation is much less clear, however, among Kurds in Anatolia, as research among those groups has been spotty.
Marla