Talking Tapa

In this penetrating new look at the use of language in the Iliad, Hilary Mackie examines the portrayal of the opposing forces in terms not only of nationality but of linguistics. The way the Greeks and the Trojans speak, Mackie argues, reflects their disparate cultural structures and their relative positions in the Trojan War. While Achaean speech is aggressive and public, intended to preserve social order, Trojan language is more reflective, private, and introspective. Mackie identifies the differences between Greek and Trojan language by analyzing poetic formulas, usually thought to indicate a similarity of language among Homeric characters, and conversations, which are seen here to be of equal importance to the numerous speeches throughout the Iliad. Mackie concludes with analyses of the two great heroes of the Iliad, Hektor and Achilles, and the extent to which they represent their own cultures in their use of language.

"Talking TAPA: Pasifika Bark Cloth in Queensland showcases the diversity of Pacific Islander cultural practices, heritage and visual iconography through beaten bark cloth or tapa, which is mainly made from the paper mulberry tree inner bark. Tapa can be made up to a kilometre long, in a variety of shapes and smaller sizes for many different purposes. Tapa decoration includes plant and animal motifs, clan and family patterning and representations of important contemporary and historical events. Works from the Pacific Islands including: Papua New Guinea, West Papua, Samoa, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Wallis and Futuna, will be on show. Visitors can learn more about our Pacific neighbours through the wall hangings, traditional and contemporary clothing including wedding outfits, as well as the tools and implements used to make tapa that will be on display." --Publisher.

Some 40 years ago, Pacific anthropology was dominated by debates about ‘women’s wealth’. These exchanges were generated by Annette Weiner’s (1976) critical reappraisal of Bronis?aw Malinowski’s classic work on the Trobriand Islands, and her observations that women’s production of ‘wealth’ (banana leaf bundles and skirts) for elaborate transactions in mortuary rituals occupied a central role in Trobriand matrilineal cosmology and social organisation. This volume brings the debates about women’s wealth back to the fore by critically revisiting and engaging with ideas about gender and materiality, value, relationality and the social life and agency of things. The chapters, interspersed by three poems, evoke the sinuous materiality of the different objects made by women across the Pacific, and the intimate relationship between these objects of value and sensuous, gendered bodies. In the Epilogue, Professor Margaret Jolly observes how the volume also ‘trace[s] a more abstract sinuosity in the movement of these things through time and place, as they coil through different regimes of value … The eight chapters … trace winding paths across the contemporary Pacific, from the Trobriands in Milne Bay, to Maisin, Wanigela and Korafe in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, through the islands of Tonga to diasporic Tongan and Cook Islander communities in New Zealand’. This comparative perspective elucidates how women’s wealth is defined, valued and contested in current exchanges, bride-price debates, church settings, development projects and the challenges of living in diaspora. Importantly, this reveals how women themselves preserve the different values and meanings in gift-giving and exchanges, despite processes of commodification that have resulted in the decline or replacement of ‘women’s wealth’.

The wisdom of Swami Akhandananda Saraswati Ji Maharaj of Vrindavan on Gita Chapter 16.

A chief’s daughter is storm-tossed onto the strange land of Tahiti in a novel that “shows that the ancient South Pacific can be a dangerous paradise” (Publishers Weekly). In the first volume of the Ancient Tahiti series, Tepua, the daughter of a chief sails from her coral atoll home toward her planned, and ritually mandated, marriage. But she never reaches her destination because a violent storm damages her vessel and leaves her stranded on the shores of Tahiti, a land previously unknown to her. She is made unwelcome because of her foreignness and is victimized because of her weakness and innocence, but her spirit is strong and her will to survive and thrive is boundless. The world of Tahiti is very different from the one she has known, beautiful, savage, and mystical by turns. But she is determined to build herself a new life and, in the process, she will change the destiny of all for generations to come. The Ancient Tahiti series, which continues with Sister of the Sun and Child of the Dawn, is perfect reading for fans of Jean M. Auel's The Clan of the Cave Bear, Linda Lay Shuler's She Who Remembers, and other novels set among pre-historic cultures.

A lively and innovative collection of new and recent writings on the cultural contexts of textiles The study of textile culture is a dynamic field of scholarship which spans disciplines and crosses traditional academic boundaries. A Companion to Textile Culture is an expertly curated compendium of new scholarship on both the historical and contemporary cultural dimensions of textiles, bringing together the work of an interdisciplinary team of recognized experts in the field. The Companion provides an expansive examination of textiles within the broader area of visual and material culture, and addresses key issues central to the contemporary study of the subject. A wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches to the subject are explored—technological, anthropological, philosophical, and psychoanalytical, amongst others—and developments that have influenced academic writing about textiles over the past decade are discussed in detail. Uniquely, the text embraces archaeological textiles from the first millennium AD as well as contemporary art and performance work that is still ongoing. This authoritative volume: Offers a balanced presentation of writings from academics, artists, and curators Presents writings from disciplines including histories of art and design, world history, anthropology, archaeology, and literary studies Covers an exceptionally broad chronological and geographical range Provides diverse global, transnational, and narrative perspectives Included numerous images throughout the text to illustrate key concepts A Companion to Textile Culture is an essential resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, instructors, and researchers of textile history, contemporary textiles, art and design, visual and material culture, textile crafts, and museology.

A magnificent work of original research that unravels history through textiles and cloth—how we make it, use it, and what it means to us. How is a handmade fabric helping save an ancient forest? Why is a famous fabric pattern from India best known by the name of a Scottish town? How is a Chinese dragon robe a diagram of the whole universe? What is the difference between how the Greek Fates and the Viking Norns used threads to tell our destiny? In Fabric, bestselling author Victoria Finlay spins us round the globe, weaving stories of our relationship with cloth and asking how and why people through the ages have made it, worn it, invented it, and made symbols out of it. And sometimes why they have fought for it. She beats the inner bark of trees into cloth in Papua New Guinea, fails to handspin cotton in Guatemala, visits tweed weavers at their homes in Harris, and has lessons in patchwork-making in Gee's Bend, Alabama - where in the 1930s, deprived of almost everything they owned, a community of women turned quilting into an art form. She began her research just after the deaths of both her parents —and entwined in the threads she found her personal story too. Fabric is not just a material history of our world, but Finlay's own journey through grief and recovery.

Explores how linguistic differences can lead to cultural misunderstandings. For use in communication/linguistics courses and scholarship in those areas.