Nov
16
2007
The term “nomadic” is often encountered in the rug world to distinguish weavings that were produced by the nomadic peoples of Central and Western Asia as opposed to the woven productions of urban centers. This distinction operates on multiple levels. Initially it simply identifies weavings that were produced by wandering, tent-dwelling peoples with a nomadic lifestyle, economy, and social organization, as opposed to those living in settled town or urban circumstances. But this involves much more than social distinctions. Nomadic weavings were functionally different than their urban counterparts. Both utilized rugs as interior furnishings, but while urban rugs are overwhelmingly floor coverings and less frequently cushions, nomadic rugs served a much greater range of needs, functioning as woven doors, structural tent reinforcements, horse and camel trappings, and storage containers of variable size and purpose.
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In the world of nomads, rugs served as protection and insulation against the elements. Though highly decorative and aesthetic, nomadic rugs were literally part of the apparatus of survival. Rugs were therefore a far more widespread and integral feature of nomadic life than they were in the urban sphere, where they remained more an element of luxury and décor, much as they still are in the West today.Consequently the typology and development of rug weaving among nomads was far more complex and varied than it was in cities, towns, and villages.
Many scholars are in fact convinced that rug weaving was initially invented and developed by nomadic peoples, who then transmitted it to urban cultures in the course of time. The more culturally integral nature of rug weaving in the nomadic sphere also suggests that there rug designs had a greater significance and cultural function there than they did among urban peoples. Nomadic designs were cultural symbols such as tribal or clan emblems, and therefore they changed and developed slowly as highly traditional crafts. In the urban or village milieu designs were primarily decorative and more subject to changes in taste and market demand, which explains their greater variation and constant evolution of new patterns and types. All this helps to explain why nomadic weavings hold a privileged place among collectors not only for their technical quality and original designs, but above all for their cultural authenticity. |
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