| Subject | : | Concluding Remarks |
| Author | : | Steve Price mailto:%20sprice@hsc.vcu.edu |
| Date | : | 05-31-2001 on 09:58 a.m. |
| Collecting tribal arts has many pleasures. The aesthetics, obviously.
The vicarious participation in some exotic foreign culture. And, for some
of us, the game of trying to figure out what the tribal community did with
the artifacts we now possess.
This Salon was an exercise in playing that game with Turkmen weavings. We made a little progress, particularly on the meaning and significance of the "closure marks" on many Yomud juvals and the extensions to the width of the back of some woven bags. Other items remained recalcitrant. The germech, for instance. It seems pretty unlikely that the conventional wisdom's assignment of it to being a threshold barrier to keep small children in the yurt and keep small animals out is correct. But what was it for? Sometimes just asking questions is useful. It reminds us of how little we know or, at least, on how shaky a foundation what we think we know rests. Thanks to all who participated. Steve Price |