Week 12

Context
This plan was submitted in the twelvth week of class for Made in Mexico: Zapotec Weavers and the Global Ethnic Art Market, by W. Warner Wood. The theme for this week was art markets.

Plan
1. The deliberately constructed representations that used tropes of far-away pastoral landscapes and the (non-existent) sheep herds of Zapotec weavers reminded me of the type of narratives that are typically used in gift shops and stores like Ten Thousand Villages or Global Gifts. And perhaps many of these descriptions have some kernel of truth to them, but the thought that I am directly playing a (positive) part in these people's lives by buying from them online, rather than a U.S. based company, is most likely misguided. I don't think Wood completely answered the question of why it is that these types of romanticized narratives accompany traditional or handmade goods and crafts? Is it capitalizing off a (global) collective nostalgia and yearning for "authentic" goods that aren't as "authentic" as we think they are? What are the consumers buying into?

2. I found this statement really fascinating: "These are not Navajo textiles, nor are they Zapotec textiles, but rather reproduction textiles created through a collaboration between [Michael's] company and Zapotec weavers" (p. 94). Another similar quote just a few pages later revolves around the Navajo, who "have borrowed extensively from both local New Mexican non-Native American textile traditions and from the indigenous and non-indigenous textile traditions of current-day Mexico" (p. 97). I was hoping there would be a more extended discussion of issues with intellectual/cultural property as well as perspectives from the weavers and communities mentioned, especially on the Navajo side. In class, I hope we can talk about these categories further so as to better understand the distinctions between 1) Native American (Navajo) textiles, 2) Zapotec textiles, and 3) reproduction textiles.