FROM GIRL TO WOMAN: THE ROLE OF TEXTILES IN PHUTHAI SOCIETY
Speaker: Linda S. McIntosh

This paper explores the social roles of textiles in Phuthai culture. The Phuthai ethnic group is a member of the Tai ethno-linguistic sub-family and is related to Lao and Thai. The Phuthai live in northeast Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, but this talk focuses on the group in Savannakhet Province, Laos.

Similar to other Tai groups, women are the primary producers of cloth and weave for personal and household use and sometimes for commercial sales. In the past they practiced sericulture and grew cotton, but the number of women who continue to raise silkworms has decreased rapidly in the last twenty to thirty years. Most families grow cotton annually, and daughters assist their mothers in the various stages of cotton thread production. Some girls begin to spin cotton thread at the age of eight and learn to weave in their teens. Spinning cotton is an appropriate setting for courtship. Eligible bachelors court young women while they are preparing cotton thread during the evening.

Textiles also play a role in rites of passage, such as marriage, and are an important part of ceremonial occasions. Although many women do not practice sericulture, hand-woven silk and other types of textiles are available at the market. Phuthai women have ceased to make their wedding costume and parts or all of their dowry, but they can purchase or rent textiles to suit their needs. Thus, the roles of textiles remain fluid and adjust to the current state of Phuthai society.

Introducing
LINDA S. MCINTOSH

Linda S. McIntosh is a PhD Candidate at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada. Her doctoral research focuses on Phuthai textiles of Laos based on fieldwork completed in Laos in 2004. McIntosh is co-curator of the upcoming exhibition, Cosmic Connections: Shamanic and Buddhist Textiles of Laos at the Jim Thompson Centre for Textiles and the Arts. She is a consultant for the James HW Foundation and for Tilleke & Gibbins Co., Ltd. Her Masters degree research focused on hand-woven textile production and national identity in Thailand. McIntosh has published several articles on Thai, Lao, and Khmer textiles and given presentations on various topics related to Southeast Asian textiles.