Elizabeth Wayland Barber
Author of Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times
About the Author
Elizabeth Wayland Barber is the author of six books, including Women's Work The First 20,000 Years and The Mummies of rmchi. A professor emerita at Occidental College and a research associate at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, she also teaches and choreographs for Occidental's Folk and show more Historical Dance Troupe, which she founded in 1971. show less
Image credit: Elizabeth Wayland Barber
Works by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times (1994) 1,380 copies, 30 reviews
The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance (2013) 80 copies, 2 reviews
Tales of modern days 1 copy
Associated Works
The Bog People; Iron Age Man Preserved (1965) — Introduction, some editions — 745 copies, 10 reviews
Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity (2014) — Contributor — 5 copies
Varia on the Indo-European Past: Papers in Memory of Marija Gimbutas (Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series No. 19) (1997) — Contributor — 4 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Barber, E. J. W.
- Birthdate
- 1940-12-02
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Yale University (PhD|Linguistics|1968)
Bryn Mawr College (BA|Archaeology|1963) - Occupations
- linguist
scholar of textiles
choreographer
archaeologist
college professor - Organizations
- Occidental College
American Costume Society - Awards and honors
- Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities, US & Canada
Millia Davenport Publication Award (2000)
Mary Lowther Ranney Distinguished Alumna Award, Westridge, School
Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award - Relationships
- Barber, Paul T. (spouse)
- Short biography
- Elizabeth is professor emerita at Occidental College and author of several books, including the award-winning, Women’s Work: The First 20,00 Years, named one of the “100 Best Science Books of the Century” by Sigma Xi and her most recent, When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth. She is the pre-eminent authority on prehistoric textiles and acclaimed in the fields of linguistics and archeology. “Betchen,” as she is known, received her Bachelor’s Degree in Archeology and Greek from Bryn Mawr College and her doctorate in Linguistics from Yale University.
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Los Angeles, California, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- California, USA
Members
Discussions
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years : Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times in One Book One Thread (February 2020)
Reviews
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
Extremely readable and still scholarly overview of women's textile work from the Stone Age through to the very early Iron Age in Eurasia. Fascinating information about all sorts of wonderful things. The nature of women's work, what textiles tell us about women's social roles in different ages and societies, the development and spread of various techniques and materials and what that spread can tell us about the movement and status of different peoples in the ancient world. The uses of cloth show more and clothing to send social signals, in religious observances, in diplomacy and trade.
The most wonderful thing about this book is that all of this information is firmly rooted in the evidence of real textiles, loom weights, texts, sculptures, account records, wall paintings, recreations of historical textiles and techniques and so on. So much of the traditional work of women doesn't precisely leave a record graven in stone. As a consequence the subject of women's work gives rise to huge temptations to speculate in advance of the evidence or even in the absence of evidence altogether.
Given some of the patronising tosh that has been said about women's work in the past I do understand how tempting it can be to make a large cake from a small bit of flour. One longs to create a different fantasy if only to combat the old ones. But understanding how tempting it can be makes me appreciate Barber even more, how she teases real information and knowledge out of such small details as the orientation of fallen loom weights, and how if she can't find evidence she doesn't make stuff up.
Its worth reading the book for her discussion of methodology alone; how to seek and organize evidence for the more ephemeral occupations like clothmaking, cooking, music, dance. I am deeply impressed by the mountain of hard thoughtful work on which this book is perched. At the same time, as I said its still very readable - another considerable achievement - when someone is so close to so many tiny details its impressive to be able to pull back and tell a coherent and interesting story about them.
My enjoyment of this book is partly due to my deep interest in the subject matter, but I highly recommend it to anyone. show less
The most wonderful thing about this book is that all of this information is firmly rooted in the evidence of real textiles, loom weights, texts, sculptures, account records, wall paintings, recreations of historical textiles and techniques and so on. So much of the traditional work of women doesn't precisely leave a record graven in stone. As a consequence the subject of women's work gives rise to huge temptations to speculate in advance of the evidence or even in the absence of evidence altogether.
Given some of the patronising tosh that has been said about women's work in the past I do understand how tempting it can be to make a large cake from a small bit of flour. One longs to create a different fantasy if only to combat the old ones. But understanding how tempting it can be makes me appreciate Barber even more, how she teases real information and knowledge out of such small details as the orientation of fallen loom weights, and how if she can't find evidence she doesn't make stuff up.
Its worth reading the book for her discussion of methodology alone; how to seek and organize evidence for the more ephemeral occupations like clothmaking, cooking, music, dance. I am deeply impressed by the mountain of hard thoughtful work on which this book is perched. At the same time, as I said its still very readable - another considerable achievement - when someone is so close to so many tiny details its impressive to be able to pull back and tell a coherent and interesting story about them.
My enjoyment of this book is partly due to my deep interest in the subject matter, but I highly recommend it to anyone. show less
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
In contemporary western society, fiber arts are practiced mostly by women. And, it turns out, that’s the way it’s been for thousands of years. But crafts like spinning and weaving were more than just hobbies. Textiles were integral to the economy as far back as paleolithic times. In this book, Elizabeth Wayland Barber describes why women came to be responsible for making cloth. Then she describes the various types of cloth, production methods, and end uses from the invention of string show more and sewing over 20,000 years ago, up to Classical Greece around 500 BCE.
Because textiles naturally degrade over time, researchers cannot rely solely on archaeological evidence. Barber found several other avenues of inquiry which she used to develop a picture of these early societies. For example, she obtained a great deal of insight from studying early language. If language included a word for cloth or a garment, then that item must have existed even if no physical remains have been found. The geographic scope is limited to what is now Europe and the Middle East, not because these were the only societies producing cloth, but for practical reasons: a broader scope would have made for a larger and possibly less accessible book.
I appreciated the way this book not only outlined the evolution of fiber arts, but validated the role of women and their contributions to society. show less
Because textiles naturally degrade over time, researchers cannot rely solely on archaeological evidence. Barber found several other avenues of inquiry which she used to develop a picture of these early societies. For example, she obtained a great deal of insight from studying early language. If language included a word for cloth or a garment, then that item must have existed even if no physical remains have been found. The geographic scope is limited to what is now Europe and the Middle East, not because these were the only societies producing cloth, but for practical reasons: a broader scope would have made for a larger and possibly less accessible book.
I appreciated the way this book not only outlined the evolution of fiber arts, but validated the role of women and their contributions to society. show less
This book takes a completely different approach to mythology than any I've read before, studying it through cognitive science rather than as literature or archetypal psychology. The Barbers' theory is that many myths describe real events and phenomena, such as volcanic eruptions, the precession of the equinoxes, or the dangers of flammable methane gas trapped in burial mounds. Myths happen when non-literate people pass a description of an event down for generations via an oral tradition, show more subject to the limitations of human memory, how well the witnesses understood the original event, if the people stayed in the area where the event happened or migrated to somewhere where the myth no longer fit, and so on.
The Barbers came up with about 40 "myth principles" that explain what processes have affected the development of these myths. The sheer number of the principles overwhelmed me, and I lost track of which one was which, but happily they're all summarized in an appendix at the end for further study. Aside from that, I thought the authors' argument was convincing and the book was fascinating. show less
The Barbers came up with about 40 "myth principles" that explain what processes have affected the development of these myths. The sheer number of the principles overwhelmed me, and I lost track of which one was which, but happily they're all summarized in an appendix at the end for further study. Aside from that, I thought the authors' argument was convincing and the book was fascinating. show less
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years : Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
The "untold" story of women, done with rigorous absence of speculation and direct application of scientific methods. Barber not only shows that "women spent most of their time raising young children and preparing the daily food and household cloth..." [294], but she shows Why and How, and Why this is important.
The author gets particular accolades for explaining her method, and then executing the work within scientific perameters so as to reveal actual facts of what people in previous times show more were doing. Not content with ignoring "work" for which there is little monumental evidence, she has found "data" in our physiology, the plants, myths, and language. With restraint on mere guesswork and speculation which is remarkable, Barber pieces together the role of women's work in the ancient communities. She is able to "explain"--objectively--why women did things that left almost no hard evidence: preparing food and weaving textiles. (For the 3 years of breast-feeding child care, it had to be work that could be interrupted and "safe"--unlike mining, carcass-rendering, stone-chipping and piling, or warfare, all of which tend to leave more obvious remains).
Barber takes us on a 20,000 year odyssey [283] to show us women working. In the Paleolithic period, the fiber crafts were connected to high social status and posed no danger to toddlers. Clothing, which became the "the next language after speech--unique in its ability to convey important information [if simple) continuously and relatively permanently".
With the advent of more settled life, the world changed. Cloth-making shifted from merely useful to essential, and finally commercial, importance as a commodity. By the start of the Late Bronze Age (2500 BC), women's textile work lost economic ground, while still busy with children.
As a scholar, Barber's work on "work" is particularly important not only for its rigor but its methodology in reconstructing what other scholars had dismissed as unreconstructable--the history of easily perishable commodities like textiles. Before Barber, apparently no one had bothered to reconstruct, and wear, a String Dress, or even a 2500 year old tartan. The woolen guide-string recovered from the caves of Lascaux is now considered part of the importance of the paintings.
The presentation is not wooden or theoretical-- it is delightful to re-read Homer and the Xenophon with Barber to re-visit the mystery of change and activity. Until recently, excavators would often throw away the remaining and scarce fiber, or assume the loom weights held little information.
Archeology did not become an investigative science until in 1898 a horrified WMF Petrie rushed in to glean from the remains of the smashing and burning ordered by Emile Amelineau at his excavation of Abydos. Known as the l'affaire Amelineau, the tomb raiders were deliberately trying to make their relics more valuable because "unique". And the world started to realize the value of SOCIAL information recovered from the Past. [288]
Ancient Texts are not only studied for the stories, the lessons, but also for the revealing etymologies. Barber is an accomplished linguist. The importance of "tunic", "shirt"[290], and "zone [zoster]" [66] not only to show the source of techniques and goods, but illustrates that Language is remarkably durable evidence even as messages perish as they are uttered [13, cf 66, 291, cautionary fn at 292].
Barber concludes with a careful examination of her methodology -- this is her great contribution. The techniques -- beginning with the technique for removal of "unwarranted assumptions"! [298] -- for finding the facts.
The INCLUSION of the facts about 1/2 the population in "history" turns out to be helpful answering virtually all the critical historical questions -- migration, source-points, influences, etc. For example, understanding the role of women--finding the artifacts of their presence, understanding their work--reveals whether migrants were "invaders" (men engaged in plunder or trade), or "colonizers" or settlers with entire families. For example, Egyptian records show "attackers" known as "PLST" settling around Gaza in 1200 BC. But the excavation of numerous crumbly clay donut weights tells us women had moved in. The sudden appearance of clay weights with little intrinsic "trade" value, far outside the early homeland of the warp-weighted loom, suggests the arrival of entire families from Europe via Anatolia. Thus, the earliest permanent settled inhabitants of the still-disputed Gaza of "Palestine" are likely to be Mycenaean Greeks.[294] {Not to say that wandering tribes, or even piratical coast-raiders, have no "territorial" legitimacy!} show less
The author gets particular accolades for explaining her method, and then executing the work within scientific perameters so as to reveal actual facts of what people in previous times show more were doing. Not content with ignoring "work" for which there is little monumental evidence, she has found "data" in our physiology, the plants, myths, and language. With restraint on mere guesswork and speculation which is remarkable, Barber pieces together the role of women's work in the ancient communities. She is able to "explain"--objectively--why women did things that left almost no hard evidence: preparing food and weaving textiles. (For the 3 years of breast-feeding child care, it had to be work that could be interrupted and "safe"--unlike mining, carcass-rendering, stone-chipping and piling, or warfare, all of which tend to leave more obvious remains).
Barber takes us on a 20,000 year odyssey [283] to show us women working. In the Paleolithic period, the fiber crafts were connected to high social status and posed no danger to toddlers. Clothing, which became the "the next language after speech--unique in its ability to convey important information [if simple) continuously and relatively permanently".
With the advent of more settled life, the world changed. Cloth-making shifted from merely useful to essential, and finally commercial, importance as a commodity. By the start of the Late Bronze Age (2500 BC), women's textile work lost economic ground, while still busy with children.
As a scholar, Barber's work on "work" is particularly important not only for its rigor but its methodology in reconstructing what other scholars had dismissed as unreconstructable--the history of easily perishable commodities like textiles. Before Barber, apparently no one had bothered to reconstruct, and wear, a String Dress, or even a 2500 year old tartan. The woolen guide-string recovered from the caves of Lascaux is now considered part of the importance of the paintings.
The presentation is not wooden or theoretical-- it is delightful to re-read Homer and the Xenophon with Barber to re-visit the mystery of change and activity. Until recently, excavators would often throw away the remaining and scarce fiber, or assume the loom weights held little information.
Archeology did not become an investigative science until in 1898 a horrified WMF Petrie rushed in to glean from the remains of the smashing and burning ordered by Emile Amelineau at his excavation of Abydos. Known as the l'affaire Amelineau, the tomb raiders were deliberately trying to make their relics more valuable because "unique". And the world started to realize the value of SOCIAL information recovered from the Past. [288]
Ancient Texts are not only studied for the stories, the lessons, but also for the revealing etymologies. Barber is an accomplished linguist. The importance of "tunic", "shirt"[290], and "zone [zoster]" [66] not only to show the source of techniques and goods, but illustrates that Language is remarkably durable evidence even as messages perish as they are uttered [13, cf 66, 291, cautionary fn at 292].
Barber concludes with a careful examination of her methodology -- this is her great contribution. The techniques -- beginning with the technique for removal of "unwarranted assumptions"! [298] -- for finding the facts.
The INCLUSION of the facts about 1/2 the population in "history" turns out to be helpful answering virtually all the critical historical questions -- migration, source-points, influences, etc. For example, understanding the role of women--finding the artifacts of their presence, understanding their work--reveals whether migrants were "invaders" (men engaged in plunder or trade), or "colonizers" or settlers with entire families. For example, Egyptian records show "attackers" known as "PLST" settling around Gaza in 1200 BC. But the excavation of numerous crumbly clay donut weights tells us women had moved in. The sudden appearance of clay weights with little intrinsic "trade" value, far outside the early homeland of the warp-weighted loom, suggests the arrival of entire families from Europe via Anatolia. Thus, the earliest permanent settled inhabitants of the still-disputed Gaza of "Palestine" are likely to be Mycenaean Greeks.[294] {Not to say that wandering tribes, or even piratical coast-raiders, have no "territorial" legitimacy!} show less
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