From the heart and the mind: Creating paj ntaub in the context of community
Author(s):
Peterson, Sally Nina
Format:
Thesis
Degree granted:
Ph.D.
Publisher:
Ann Arbor : University of Pennsylvania, 1990.
Pages:
493
Language:
English
Abstract:
Paj ntaub (flower cloth) refers to the embroidery, applique and batik created by generations of Hmong women in the highlands of China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and now in Western countries. This dissertation explores the making and meaning of Hmong paj ntaub in its changing cultural contexts. Contemporary political and social circumstances have heightened the reflexivity of the Hmong, a group historically accustomed to articulating its ethnic consciousness through language, artifacts, and group solidarity. Speaking authoritatively about their own experience, Hmong consultants articulate the parameters of social action for which paj ntaub serves as icon, discussing both shared understandings and deeply personal meanings as they detail the role of paj ntaub in the context of daily and celebratory events in traditional Hmong communities. This expressive tradition, literally in the hands of Hmong women, is crucial to an understanding of gender relationships in Hmong society. The dissertation describes specific genres of paj ntaub, discusses how women learn and teach them, and explores the criteria of competent creation. This leads to an examination of the aesthetic principles governing the evaluation of individual performance, and an explication of a structural "grammar" governing both the repetition and the invention of designs. Residency in refugee camps and the accompanying need to generate income has encouraged the production of paj ntaub for sale to Westerners, and has led to the creation of a radically different form of paj ntaub, a pictorial embroidery called "story cloths"; an art form that both actualizes authentic Hmong experience, and shapes outsiders' perceptions of Hmong culture. A discussion of contemporary marketing of paj ntaub in the United States examines issues of economic survival, cross-cultural communication, cultural preservation and authenticity.