Week 4- Narayan

Pryanka Narayan

ASA 141

Week 8

            It is now week eight of the challenge, and I am having even more of a difficult time not being able to purchase anything. It is especially hard, as Mother’s Day has passed, and now my boyfriend and sister’s graduation is all in one week. I really wanted to buy things to show them all how much I appreciate them, but I have had to think of alternative ways to show my love and support. I just have to keep reminding myself that this challenge is to help save the environment and not enable exploitation of others. The article we read for class this week though, Speaking through Cloth: Teaching Hmong History and Culture through Textile Art really made me think about the power clothing and fashion can really have. For some, clothing is not just a way to remain trendy with fashion, for some fashion is a way to preserve culture. To be able to pass history to one’s descendants. As the article Hmong Embroidery expands upon this idea as they have an entire website dedicated to the history of how textile art came to be and the impact they have held throughout history. The article also states how many of these arts are the only piece of clothing one may have from their parental home as they enter their husband’s home. This reminds me that clothing is not the enemy, but the way clothing and counties are exploited are.

Citations.

“Paj Ntaub or Story Cloth.” Home, www.hmongembroidery.org/.

McCall, Ava L. "Speaking through cloth: Teaching Hmong history and culture through textile

      art." The Social Studies 90.5 (1999): 230-236.