Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years : Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times

Rating:
Summary: original and resourceful use of evidence
Review: An artist friend gave me Women's Work. Elizabeth Wayland Barber is so resourceful in her examination of the material and literary evidence that her conclusions are fresh and very persuasive. Hers is the most fasincating book I have read on this subject.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible history of women and fiber art
Review: As a fiber artist, I am very interested in the history of fiber. Elizabeth Barber's "Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years" is fantastic, both as a history of the use of fibers and as a history of working women. I learned a great deal about women's role in society from her research, and it makes me proud to be a modern woman working with fiber, just as my ancestors did. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Incredible history of women and fiber art
Review: As a fiber artist, I am very interested in the history of fiber. Elizabeth Barber's "Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years" is fantastic, both as a history of the use of fibers and as a history of working women. I learned a great deal about women's role in society from her research, and it makes me proud to be a modern woman working with fiber, just as my ancestors did. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Thank you!!
Review: I always assumed that the sexual division of labor made sense at one time in history. Barber has researched and illuminated one aspect of the division, and through archeology and linguistics explained the importance the women's work had at one time, and what happened to it. And made it interesting, too. Thank you.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I bought this book after attending some lectures Wayland Barber gave at Grinnell College. Amazingly well-researched, well-argued, and thought provoking, this book isn't in the least bit dry or heady. Thoroughly academic, but still a pleasent read! Tracing the global connections of development and using several disciplines to gather evidence makes for an amazing work. Who would have known linguistics to be so important to textile history? Or how much textile history can tell us not only about social history, but political history as well. Read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Who knew string could be so interesting?
Review: I had the privelege of attending a lecture by the author recently, and ran out immediately after to get the book. It is clearly written and obviously well researched, and Barber has a refreshing, unique perspective in archaeology: she views her subject from more than one angle. Looking at "women's work" as an archaeologist, linguist and weaver, Barber is able to see the bigger picture, and points out gaping holes in most prehistoric civilization studies: little, if any, mention of textile production, and its sweeping impact on early society. Barber has reproduced many of these textiles herself, and in my mind, this practical experience makes her more than just another academician spouting theory. The book is a good read, and thankfully the author does not use this material to plug any revisioinist-history agenda. I look forward to her next book, possibly a study connecting language, archaeology, etc., with regard to textiles found in N.W. South America that have a stiking similarity to some Asian textiles. This was brought up as a final point in the lecture: we all await the next chapter!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting History on Women's Role with Cloth
Review: I picked up a copy of Women's Work, and found it to be an interesting and fascinating study on the roles of women as it relates to textiles over the last 20,000 years. The author goes into depth on the roles of woman as 'worker' based on historical and archaeological finds in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and other areas.

While I found myself skipping over the preface and personal anecdotes the rest of this book was quite fascinating. Especially the discussion of String Skirts, and the tomb of the Mesopotamian Queen who was buried with 73 attendants.

On the negative side, I did wish that this book was more general and not specifically focused on cloth. Women did more than weave, sew and spin. Women were warriors, seers, dancers, musicians, story-tellers, priestesses and nobility. Also, I felt the cover was a tad misleading. It says Women's Work in very large letters and then in small italic, it mentions this book's emphasis is on Cloth. I admit, if I had known this, I probably would not have picked it up.

Still, I'm glad I did. this was an interesting book, well deserving of a place on any history lover's bookshelf, or for women interested in the history of textiles.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book covers a huge amount of information without ever being dry or boring. The tone is conversational throughout and incredibly interesting. The author shows us the oldest surviving fragment of cloth (a wool plaid from 800 B.C.) and then weaves a replica herself to see how long it would have taken to make. There are examples of Greek pottery showing women weaving at warp-weighted looms, which allows the author to tell us about the migration of peoples by describing finds of loom weights in Egypt. Other pottery fragments show women walking and hand spinning at the same time, and then a drawing of the Venus de Milo, with arms drawn on, shows that her arms are in the same position and she was very likely spinning thread. It's a marvelous book that's as easy to understand as a conversation over a fence with your neighbor. In fact, there's a picture of two modern Hungarian girls doing just that while wearing their typical bell-like national costume, and beside this picture is a scene from a mid-first millennium B.C. vase found in Hungary showing a very similar costume. The author moves us back and forth through history and across the continents with ease and interest. It's a fabulous book.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: This is a scholarly yet easily read book about the history of textiles, from basic string to complex weaves, and also about the fascinating history of the social development of humanity, from hunter-gatherers on.

The author's research is thorough and includes archeological evidence, analysis and identification of artifacts, maps and descriptions of trade routes, consideration of stories and myths, photographs, letters, and even human physiology. Her theories, including why women are absent from most historical records and what the Venus de Milo was doing with her now-missing arms, are eye-opening and firmly grounded in her extensive research.

Further, this book covers a lot of ground as well as time. Geographically, areas from the Eastern reaches to Europe and down into Egypt are presented, and comparisons between ancient and modern costumes and traditions are made.

During the course of the book the author makes the cogent point that archeologists and historians m! ight do well to attempt recreation of artifacts found (using time-appropriate methods); her own experiences in making such a recreation is telling and amusing. Likewise, her observations on customs and costumes (those which have survived, those which have not, and possible reasons why) suggest that sociology has much to add to our understanding of history, of the hows and whys humans have lived and developed.

I found this book to be suprising, thought-provoking, entertaining, and a good reference source. I have presented copies to two of my friends (they kept borrowing my copy!), and will it serve as a gift to three more (who keep trying to borrow mine, but I've learned my lesson).