03 Social Psychological Properties of Dress

03.4 History

Barber, E.A. (1994). Women's work: The first 20,000 years: Women, cloth, and society in early times. New York: W.W. Norton and Co. IBSN 0-393-03536-0, 334 pages, $23.00.

Reviewed by Carol Anne Dickson, University of Hawaii

In this work, Barber gives us a highly readable, fascinating outgrowth of her more
academic, reference-like work titled Prehistoric Textiles (Princeton University Press, 1991). Her latest contribution examines women and their work with cloth and clothing. In the first chapter, Barber describes her purpose in writing the book with a statement and two questions: "For millennia women have sat together spinning, weaving, and sewing. Why should textiles have become their craft par excellence, rather than the work of men? Was it always thus, and if so, why?" For those who expressed concern that Barber's previous work was somewhat lacking relative to "her handling of the textile complex" (ITAA Newsletter, November 1993), those concerns will be put to rest. The major part of this work examines textile arts and the role of women in those arts from the Stone Age through the period of ancient Greece. This work, like the previous one, is obviously a labor of love.
For the researcher reading the last chapter (12) of the book first may be advisable. In this chapter, Barber describes the "methodology" employed in her research. Upon completion of the book, rereading Chapter 12 the reader may think "but, it still took an extraordinary mind to collect all these threads of history, textiles, economics, sociology, political science, linguistics, art, foods, mythology, commerce, archaeology, and a myriad other fields, and weave them together to form a comprehensive study of women and their work with cloth". Barber's ability to synthesize all this is achieved with perceptiveness, humor, and depth. She writes with an uncommon clarity and freshness that will appeal to both students and scholars, lay and professional readers.
Particular emphasis is placed on the centrality of cloth products to the social, economic and political development, and the structures of various cultures through the periods. The role of women and their dominance in segments of the industry (production) and their near absence in other parts (commerce) is explained with subtlety, leaving the reader and future researchers and students to examine their meaning for the 20th century. Some of Barber's most intriguing insights can be found in the chapters which discuss the development of string and cloth(ing) in mythology and religion.
Flexibility and focused attention are required of the reader to stay with Barber as she moves from the development of looms to weaving to symbolism to mythology and on to the bronze and iron ages, deftly exploring the work of women relative to cloth products. She does not tarry long in any one place, yet she is thorough and her work is thought-provoking.