Traditional Textile Production in the Market Economy : an Example of a Tai Dam Village in Vietnam(<Special Theme>Cloth and Anthropology)

Abstract

This article is a study about a Tai Dam village society in northwestern Vietnam and the influences of the recent government introduction of a market economy. In most of Tai Dam villages of northwestern Vietnam, every household is nearly self-sufficient in food, combining the cultivation of rice, swidden farming and vegetable gardens. These days, factory-made cloth is also popular in Tai Dam villages. Nonetheless, cotton spinning, textile weaving and indigo dyeing is still performed in the village. I focus in particular on traditional textile production, especially that of the pieu, a headscarf worn by Tai Dam women. Although the pieu is an item of daily wear, it sometimes also functions as an object of gift exchange with symbolic meanings. As a result, many ethnographers have studied the pieu, concentrating mainly on its style and design rather than socioeconomic factors such as the division of labor in the production process or the relationship between pieu production and other production activities in their village life. Additionally, many ethnographers have essentialized Tai Dam material culture, disregarding historical changes in style, materials and the production process itself. In this article I will analyze the present situation of pieu production in a Tai Dam village in relation to the Vietnamese government introduction of a market economy system since 1986, the so-called Doi Moi policy, and consider the village's socioeconomic situation. Through this analysis, I will clarify in concrete terms the influence of the market economy on the village's socioeconomic life. In this article, I reconstruct the traditional pieu production process that involves cotton spinning, textile weaving, indigo dyeing and decoration. I clarify issues of contemporary uses of style and materials in pieu production in relation to the recent government introduction of a market economy and recent changes in the ecological environment of northwestern Vietnam. The once common sight of women fluffing up cotton in Tai Dam villages has declined in recent times due to the introduction of the fluffing machine (powered by a hydraulic turbine). Village women have been freed from this strenuous preparatory work through the use of cash payments to the owner of the machine. Furthermore, there are now fewer households raising silkworms. This decline is connected with the change in materials used to produce the pieu. Silk thread produced with natural dyes has been vanishing as factory-made cotton thread has come into popular use for pieu embroidery, and for factory-made red cloth that has been used to make the frills. These changes are tied to the influence of the government introduction of a market economy and the change of northwestern Vietnam's ecology. The population has increased rapidly since the end of the Vietnam War. This has led to an expansion in swidden farming and encouraged the demand for timber. Additionally, the lifting of commercial activities restrictions legislated in the Doi Moi policy has also contributed to deforestation. The resulting shortage of uncultivated land, as well as soil infertility caused by deforestation has led to an expansion of manioc cultivation and a reduction of cotton farming. The use of new materials in pieu production is having an impact on style and design. Colors have become brighter because of the availability of colored commercial cotton thread and artificial dyes. This thread is these days used more for pieu decoration than it was prior to the 1990s. This means an increase in the use of cash has become necessary in pieu production. The purpose of this article, however, is not merely to clarify changes in pieu style, materials, or the production process. It is very important to recognize that these changes are tied up with an increase in the use of cash in pieu production. In order to determine present pieu production conditions, I investigated

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