The Seductive Warp Thread: An Evolutionary History of Ibanic Weaving

Table of Contents

Foreword

1. Introduction

• The Ibanic

• Plaiting and Weaving

• Vestiges of an Archaic Agricultural Past

2. The Flight from a Single God

• Ibanic Migrations

• Migration from the Kayung

• Migration along the Coast

• Dating the Migrations

• Agriculture, Warfare and Weaving

• Conclusion

3. The Establishment of Difficulty

• Women Skilled in Brocading and Knotting

• Women Skilled in the Art of Tying

• Women Who Produce Original Designs and Fold Warp Threads Accurately

• Women Skilled in Preparing Yarns for Dyeing

• Women Skilled in Singing Heads

• Women of Skill and Dexterity

• An Alternative Scenario

• The Triumph of Economy of Action

4. Memory and its Loss

5. The Triumph of Difficulty

• A Perfect Match

• Competition

• Sexual Selection

• Costly Signalling

• Symmetry

• The Indomitable Weaver

• Conclusion

6. Lyrics in the Warp Thread

• Stylistic Variation

• Settlement and Nature

• The Lowerworld

• Fertility and Agriculture

• Fertility and Warfare

• Conclusion

7. The Conservation of Memory and Sexual Selection

APPENDIX 1: The Dismembering of Memory

• Methodological Considerations in the Study of Iban Weaving

• Decoration

• Symbolic Representations

• Lower and Upperworlds

• Tree of Life

• Conserving the Record

• Conclusion

APPENDIX 2: Genealogies

• Genealogy 1. Jugah, Runggah, Chaung and Kerebau

• Genealogy 2. Randai

• Genealogy 3. Jelian and Pateh Ambau

• Genealogy 4. OKP Dana Bayang

Bibliography

Glossary

Index