Session 4 summary
Material Culture Dependencies: Munda Tribe
- The cotton weaving tradition in Jharkhand which is based in the Khunti district which is central to the Munda community.
- The Mundas, in the past invited the Swansi, an artisan community, to create fabrics for their use from the cotton provided by them.
- The rudimentary forms as motifs embedded in the fabric are inspired from everyday lives. The garments produced from fabric signify Munda rituals like the use of female garment Mae Sari and the male garment Tolong.
- The significance of the details in the fabric have been lost but they are still being embedded to keep the originality and true meaning of the fabric alive.
- In the current market, the fabric is circulated by creating bags, waistcoats and other stitched products out of the entire fabric.
- In the present time the enthusiasm of the weavers has decreased in creating the product as they pay more attention to the economics of the craft and have gradually found out that farming has proven to be more economically beneficial than the craft. However, they still continue weaving as they have a soft spot for the craft.
- The artisans view of the craft is different from how a designer views the craft. The artisan focuses on the economics of the craft but the designer gives value to the history and legacy of the craft.
- This product was originally created for the Munda community but currently it represents the entire tribal community in Jharkhand. The changes in the product has expanded the market of the product and the visibility of the craft has increased.
About the Speaker
Kanishtha Kujur
San Salvador
El Salvador
Maya and Pipil Tribes
Kanishtha Kujur, a design graduate from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, shares her research on the cotton-weaving tradition of Jharkhand and the relation between the Munda tribe and the textiles woven for them by Swansi, an artisan community.
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