Emergent themes
Participants’ experiences were situated in the context of the wide range of changes evidenced in the Ri-Bhoi handloom industry since the early twentieth century, when Christian missionaries invaded the region (Dikshit and Dikshit 2014). As explained by the tribal chief, these missionaries eventually converted the majority of indigenous tribal people from their native religions to Christianity. According to the chief and selected participants, this conversion almost completely eradicated the practice of weaving from Ri-Bhoi, as woven clothing and textiles had heretofore served a religious purpose in Ri-Bhoi culture:
When we were non-Christian, we used that cloth in… some religious ritual[s] and all. But then when we became Christian, then all those who are weaving also, they stop. (F19, age 90).
Beginning around 2010, however, the tribal chief of Ri-Bhoi partnered with selected community members and the Directorate of Sericulture in Meghalaya to implement a variety of government schemes intended to revive Ri-Bhoi weaving. These schemes have effectively contributed to the evolution of the Ri-Bhoi handloom industry from a traditional industry (i.e., one that used very basic floor looms and handspun, homegrown cotton and silk yarns) to a more modernized industry (i.e., one that uses frame looms and fine, mill spun, synthetic yarns). Support offered through these schemes has included the enrollment of women weavers in “Self-Help Groups” (SHGs) that furnish weavers a yearly supply of synthetic yarns, that grant weavers funds to purchase new looms or other weaving equipment, and that provide funds to build weavers sheds for their looms.
In this modernized Ri-Bhoi weaving context, there seems to be a shared understanding that weaving is an important part of women’s lives as well as their cultural identities. Participants spoke with pride about their ability to weave traditional garments that represented who they were in the context of their social group – that is, that represented their culture:
I feel satisfied, [with my weaving] because it depicts my culture, my own culture. So, I feel proud that I know how to weave… (F1, age 43).
In addition to weaving garments that served as symbolic badges of identity, the act of weaving was regarded by participants as part of their identities, insomuch as they were revered as guardians of traditional cloth, preserving the practice of weaving for future generations. The role that Ri-Bhoi women played as guardians of traditional cloth helped to establish their cultural identities; these identities were gradually instilled in women through cultural practices as well as through shared cultural values and beliefs that privileged the role of weaving in women’s lives and that valued the place of weaving in Ri-Bhoi culture:
…I’m happy to see my children, still know [how to weave], take care, and restore their culture… that we will never forget our identity, who we are. And I’m happy that this should be done from generation to generation. (F22, age 49)
In this section, we consider the ways in which Ri-Bhoi women weavers’ cultural identities were bound to their weaving activities by certain themes and shaped by the aforementioned changes to the Ri-Bhoi cultural context. Themes identified represent value that Ri-Bhoi women weavers attached to various aspects of their weaving tradition, which in turn, supported their cultural identities and included: (a) maintaining the tradition of weaving through acquisition and exchange of knowledge, (b) securing social support from family and community, (c) maintaining the tradition of weaving through creation of textiles that symbolize tribe and culture, and (d) achieving a sense of fulfillment (i.e., joy, happiness, and pride).
Maintaining tradition of weaving through acquisition and exchange of knowledge
Exchange of weaving knowledge among weavers has played a key role in preserving weaving skills and traditions within the Ri-Bhoi cultural context. However, across time, acquisition of weaving knowledge has evolved somewhat, owing to various changes within the Ri-Bhoi cultural context and handloom industry. In particular, participants shared that, traditionally, girls learned how to weave by observing their mothers, grandmothers, and/or siblings. Young girls would sit beside their elders and watch how they wove intricate designs on textiles as F1 shared, “Yes, I watch(ed) while my mother [was] weaving… I [got] my weaving from my grandmother, from my mother, so that's how I [kept] going”. When these girls got married, they were entrusted with the duty of weaving clothes for their families. This cycle of exchanging knowledge ensured the continuity of weaving within Ri-Bhoi. F6 described her experience learning to weave,
…When I was of young age, my mother used to weave. Then…my mother[’s] thread I used to take…and then I used to weave…Just making you know, just playing… (F6, age 67).
When traditional weaving practices waned in the region under the influence of Christianity, selected weavers sought to revive these practices by passing along their knowledge to other women in the community. F19, who at age 90 was identified to be the oldest weaver among all participants and who was acknowledged as the sentinel of traditional weaving in her village, described her efforts to restore traditional weaving practices in this time of decline:
For some time, we completely stopped [weaving], then me, I am still continuing, once in a while…Then, the king [the tribal chief], he started reviving the culture…dress, and all. Everybody interested to weave, I am teaching…to help whoever is interested to do it. (F19, age 90).
Initially, after the government initiatives had been introduced, women who were interested in learning to weave taught themselves through trial and error or sought assistance from older women in the community, such as F19, as their mothers did not possess the knowledge to teach them:
I learned by myself only. I taught myself. No one taught me. (F16, age 40).
[I learned to weave by] watching others weaving and I saw and I learned from there…I see from others…My mother, she never [used to] weave. (F12, age 46).
As such, when familial socialization was not possible, teaching the self or observing others in the community became the new means of acquiring knowledge about weaving. In this way, practices of socialization were adapted to accommodate the shifting landscape of the Ri-Bhoi handloom industry. Slowly, as interest in weaving expanded across the early twenty-first century with the assistance of the SHGs, mothers again began to mentor their daughters in the traditions of weaving, sharing this key aspect of tribal culture across generational lines.
SI theory proposes that human beings make sense of their social situations by adapting their behaviors and actions to fit with the actions of the other (Blumer 1969). In the case of Ri-Bhoi women weavers, watching and interacting with other women—whether family elders or other community members—has helped to establish weaving as a socially accepted and recognized activity for women. As social interaction plays an important role in establishing an individual’s identity (Roach-Higgins and Eicher 1992), the acquisition and exchange of weaving knowledge among Ri-Bhoi women weavers through social interaction has helped to constitute and shape their cultural identities. In turn, weaving has become more culturally significant and valued.
Securing social support from family and community
Social support is conceptualized as “an individual’s perception of general support or specific supportive behavior (available or acted on) from people in [one’s] social network, which enhances [one’s] functioning…” (Malecki and Demaray 2003, p. 232). Social support can take multiple forms, including (a) emotional support, which consists of providing some form of trust and love, (b) instrumental support, which consists of practical support, such as spending time with someone in need and/or providing materials or money, and (c) informational support, which consists of providing knowledge and guidance (Malecki and Demaray 2003).
Across time, various and evolving forms of social support from family, friends, other community members, and SHGs have played an important role in sustaining the weaving activities of Ri-Bhoi weavers. Before the decline of weaving practices and the introduction of government schemes, weavers received informational support through exchange of knowledge from their family elders during the learning process. At this time, informational support was the most prominent form of support received from family elders (i.e., mothers and grandmothers) to teach and maintain weaving traditions within the family. Today, however, weavers go beyond their family ties to gain informational support (i.e., knowledge about how to weave) from friends and other community members. Additionally, weavers who were part of SHGs spoke about providing informational support to other weavers by educating non SHG weavers about the benefits of joining SHGs:
By making [non SHG weavers] understand, if you join this group [i.e., the SHG] you'll get the scheme. You will get like that [points to loom and thread]. About how to weave. You will get training and all. (F17, age 37).
Hence, today, weavers receive varying forms of informational support from not just family, but from other community members, as well.
Participants also expressed how, in the contemporary Ri-Bhoi context, family, friends, and other community members provide them with emotional support by recognizing and appreciating their work:
Yeah, my mom, she said, “Ahh, how do you know [how to weave]?” She…appreciates me. (F8, age 26).
Yes, they encourage me…someone is interest[ed] in weaving in [my] household. (F21, age 22).
Appreciation from community members sometimes also led to special orders for woven products, yielding sales and additional income for weaver households. F8 described the support and encouragement she received from her mentor, other weavers, and community members:
Out there, my teacher also, my colleagues also said "AHHHH!!! You are a very smart girl. If you get little time also…you make [clothes] for me, [and] you make [clothes] for me? (F8, age 26).
Weavers also received emotional support by joining SHGs, which helped them to “get friends—other people who can also weave” (F11, age 41), thus creating a social support system for women interested in weaving. Emotional support from others played an important role in preserving the very tradition of Ri-Bhoi weaving insomuch as such support prompted participants to continue to hone and practice their weaving skills:
They say to me that it is nice to be weaving like this, so that [weaving] will remain our tradition after long time. (F11, age 41).
Today, in addition to emotional support, weavers also receive instrumental support, mainly from family members, who buy yarns and raw materials needed for weaving. Sometimes, weavers also received help from their husbands to build the frame looms they received from government schemes (i.e., SHGs):
The SHG only give one small piece of the frame. Everything else I made by [my]self, with the help of my husband. (F7, age 38).
[My husband] used to make that one also [i.e. the shuttle loom]. He built the loom for me. I told him that I wanted a loom and he built it for me. (F10, age 28).
And, participants of diverse ages identified “time” as a key form of instrumental support provided to them by family members. F17 spoke of how her family members gave her a “chance to weave, and time to weave” (age 37). F14, one of the older participants in the sample, appreciated the instrumental support provided by her children:
They [i.e. family members] give time for me [to weave]. My daughters, they buy yarns for me, whenever I ask to buy yarns. And they give me time.. some time.. They understand, because of my age, it’s time for me to do work [i.e. weaving]. (F14, age 63).
Thus, over time, family, friends, community members, and SHGs provided varying forms of social support to weavers that, in turn, facilitated weavers’ continued participation in and functional and emotional investment in the craft of weaving, reinforcing the importance of weaving in Ri-Bhoi women’s lives, and presumably, shaping their cultural identities. Identity theorists Burke and Reitzes (1981) have argued that social interaction and validation from members in the community can help to enhance a sense of self-meaning and self-definition, thereby reinforcing an identity based on a particular role in which one is engaged. Moreover, positive reinforcement from within one’s social group, through varying forms of social support (emotional, informational, and instrumental) can protect physical and psychological well-being and nurture a sense of control, and belonging, thereby improving life satisfaction and happiness (Taylor and Stanton 2007; Thoits 2003, 2011; Turner and Lloyd 1999). In this way, social support from diverse others has the potential to bolster the role of weaving in the lives of Ri-Bhoi women and to establish for them a meaningful cultural identity in relation to this role by reinforcing the shared cultural value accorded to weaving (i.e., by those providing social support).
Maintaining tradition of weaving through creation of textiles that symbolize tribe and culture
Within the contemporary Ri-Bhoi cultural context, participants discussed the way in which traditional handwoven textiles symbolically represented various aspects of self (Eriksen 2005; Forney and Rabolt 1986; Schofield-Tomschin and Littrell 2001), serving as badges of identity. In this vein, F2 and F6 explained how motifs and colors incorporated into their traditional woven clothes were representative of the region and tribe they belonged to:
Main thing is, by this cloth, that is the identity for us. We are from whom [sic], which particular tribe, from particular kingdom [sic]. We have got our own style of weav[ing]… design, so and so. That depict[s] us, that we are from that particular area. (F2, age 28).
By [wearing] these clothes also, if we go to ShillongFootnote 3…peoples will recognize that we are from Ri- Bhoi, that we are KhasiFootnote 4, from here. (F6, age 67).
Such textiles were worn for special occasions, such as weddings, funerals, religious rituals, and other cultural celebrations. For instance, F3 mentioned a cultural celebration called ‘Sajer’, where people from different tribes in neighboring villages gathered to honor their cultural traditions, including their food, clothing, and dances:
There is some function… we call that, Sajer. We…dance once a year… in that occasion also, we…wear only this, our own cloth only. (F3, age 80).
Beyond serving as visual markers of tribe and culture, traditional handwoven textiles also were used as gifts and tokens of honor. Women who wove traditional textiles gifted them to close friends and family members. Gifting handwoven textiles was considered to be a precious offering, as F3 shared:
…I want[ed] to learn [to weave] because umm, if somebody died…the clothes I [can] give [to the family]…It's a great honor. (F3, age 80).
In their accounts, older participants also acknowledged symbolic meanings associated with traditional textiles used in religious rituals observed prior to the conversion of the Ri-Bhoi people to Christianity: F19 explained:
That kind of special cloth… non-Christian time, they put for girls in family…they want to entrust, all the religious duty to her. The one who'll take the responsibility for how to perform those religious ritual like, when to do sacrifice and all. It is empowerment to a girl….Then they put that special lungi [a type of wrap skirt] with some gathering, with all the elders, after that, they want to do some offer[ing], some sacrifice. (F19, age 90).
According to F19, when Christian Missionaries invaded Ri-Bhoi, they spurred a change in use of traditional textiles, “After converting to Christian[ity], then they don't take care” shared F19, as the same religious rituals were no longer practiced, and the traditional textiles were “thrown here and there and all.” Today, with government intervention and active participation from women in the community, women weavers are actively preserving some of these textile traditions by educating others in the craft of weaving:
…now we are weaving, and our challenge is also to teach the children. Teaching is very important because we know now [how to weave]. Before there was a break [when not as many people where weaving]. But we do not want again that break [sic]. We want weaving to continue. (F1, age 43).
Weavers from all villages expressed the importance of teaching weaving to the younger generations, noting the significance of doing so to ensuring the growth and continuity of the weaving tradition within the Ri-Bhoi community:
The main thing is to not stop weaving. We have to continue it. And for the children… we have to teach them, so that our tradition will be remain, and develop. Not to stop. (F17, age 37).
By ensuring the continuity and preservation of weaving practices in Ri-Bhoi, women weavers are providing a physical product that symbolizes Ri-Bhoi peoples’ culture and identity.
Stone (1962) proposed that appearance may sometimes take priority over communication via discourse to establish identity during social interaction. Moreover, dress has the ability to communicate identity as it can “announce social position of wearer to both wearer and observer within a particular interaction situation” (Roach-Higgins and Eicher 1992, p. 5). As such, through the creation of traditional textiles, Ri-Bhoi women weavers successfully communicate their tribe and culture to themselves and others, thereby establishing a sense of identity. Additionally, the act of weaving traditional textiles that serve as visual markers of Ri-Bhoi culture, which is linked to women’s identity, has evolved to include the act of preserving the craft of weaving, and more broadly, the Ri-Bhoi culture:
The future is… to encourage people here to weave… So, my main objective is to restore the culture, the mindset in the people that they should love to weave. (F22, age 49).
Achieving a sense of fulfillment (Joy, happiness, and pride)
Women weavers from all four villages shared a common love and passion for weaving, which encouraged and motivated them to establish weaving as a daily activity. In their eyes, weaving was not just a duty for women; rather it carried a sense of pride. Weaving established a sense of responsibility within participants, as they regarded themselves as keepers of the tradition and they contributed to society by creating textiles and garments that depicted their culture. The capacity to symbolize their culture by creating traditional textiles and clothing brought immense joy and pride to the participants:
I feel satisfied [weaving] because it depict[s] my culture, our own culture. So, I feel proud that I know how to weave. (F1, age 43).
I am very proud. They are asking, my friend and all, how [do] you know? Without nobody teaching you [sic] to weave. They appreciate me. You [have] no mother, no father, but I know how to weave. (F15, age 60).
Ri-Bhoi women shared that the sense of fulfillment related to weaving extended beyond the mere knowledge and ability to weave traditional textiles. With the introduction of modern techniques of production and easy access to raw materials, traditional textiles, which are symbolic representations and visual markers of the Ri-Bhoi culture, could now be sold to others in Ri-Bhoi who do not know how to weave. By selling their traditional textiles and having other Ri-Bhoi community members wear and appreciate their hand-woven cloth, weavers developed a sense of pride, joy, and happiness:
I feel very happy if people will wear [my woven products]. And not only happy, I will keep a good smile for what I have done [sic]… when [I am] going for wedding[s], I see people wear my clothes. So, my nose become[s] big! [i.e., she becomes proud]. I feel happy! (F22, age 49).
…when I see everybody putting and they [are] us[ing] for function and all, I feel very proud, I'm happy! (F19, age 90).
Selling their handwoven traditional textiles not only enhanced happiness and engagement in weaving, but also provided additional financial support to the weavers’ families. In turn, this motivated weavers to teach younger generations to weave, thereby ensuring the continuity of the art and the weaving community’s livelihood. A few weavers specifically noted feeling extremely happy and proud to see children weave and to continue the tradition of weaving:
I feel happy. This is our cloth. When I sees [sic] it in the market, I feel happy. I feel good….That they [i.e. young children] too know how to make the clothes. Not just the mother[s] know. All the children, they also know. That's why I feel happy. (F14, age 63).
…I am happy to see my children, still uh, knowing, tak[ing] care, [and] then…restor[ing] our culture. That we will never forget our identity, who we are. And I am [very] much happy that this should be done, generation to generation. (F22, age 49).
Joy, happiness, and pride that arose from the above activities can be linked to an underlying passion towards weaving that the women shared. Vallerand et al. (2014), who studied the effect of passion on the self, uncovered a deep connection between engaging in passionate activities and the perception of the self. In particular, the researchers discovered that individuals highly value activities they are passionate about, which prompts high investment of time and energy, and hence, supports self-concept. Moreover, engaging in passionate activities also has been linked to higher self-esteem, life- satisfaction, and over all well-being (Carpentier et al. 2012; Usborne and Taylor 2010). As symbolic interaction theory reminds us, the process of social interaction helps people define and establish meaning towards their social role to create a sense of identity (Askan et al. 2009), which in turn directs action (Blumer 1969). The perception of the self, arising from meaning negotiated during social interaction, can be strengthened through validation from other members in the social group (Roach-Higgins and Eicher, 1992; Stone 1962). This validation reinforces one’s claim to an associated social role (Solomon 1983). Ri-Bhoi women weavers received validation of their social roles as weavers from other community members who wore and bought their textiles, thereby enhancing emotions of joy, happiness, and pride, thus heightening their position within society and their identity. Moreover, validation also elevated Ri-Bhoi women weavers’ social role to “keepers of tradition,” preserving traditional clothes and culture among the tribe, further strengthening weaving as constituting to their cultural identity.