Weaving new traditions in with old

An exhibit at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology will help visitors weave through Mayan community traditions.

Mary Beth Hermans, Public Programs director, said the exhibit displays how clothing changed dramatically over the last two generations because of entrepreneurship and mass production.

“There was a change in textiles,” she said. “They went from making clothes just for their families to more mass-produced clothes.”
“Weaving Traditions Together” focuses on Mayan women’s weaving traditions in Zinacàntan, a city in the Mexican state of Chiapas. It’s based on a book by UCLA psychology professor Patricia Greenfield. The exhibit opens today at 7 p.m. and features a lecture by Greenfield.
Greenfield traveled to Zinacantàn in 1969 and 1970 and studied how women learned to weave from prior generations.

When she returned in 1991, she observed that next-generation weavers still used knowledge from the previous generation, but
adapted their skills to match industrialized culture.

“The material they were using had changed,” Greenfield said. “
Because of the available oil, they started using acrylic instead of wool.”

Greenfield said she observed more trial and error in weaving, mainly because the materials were more accessible. She said mothers were less concerned with children making mistakes than before.

There was also an abundance of colors to make clothing, something Greenfield attributes to the cost
decrease of materials.

“Before, they used wool and color was more expensive, so you wouldn’t see children just playing around with the materials and
making mistakes,” she said.

Greenfield said television played a large role in the shift toward commerce-based economy rather than agricultural, but acknowledged other factors.

“The two big drivers of change are urbanization expansion and more formal education,” Greenfield said.”