Textiles and Identity in the Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean: Paradigms of Contexts and Cross-cultural Exchanges, Benaki Museum of Islamic Art, June 3–4, 2016
Textiles offer a rich opportunity to explore the projection of identity, both within and between social and cultural groups. This workshop, organised by the British School at Athens, will bring together a group of junior and senior scholars to investigate and elucidate the role of textiles in the cultures of the Medieval and early Modern Mediterranean and its periphery.
Using specific case studies, workshop participants will analyze textiles as tools for projecting identity within specific contexts. Papers will examine such topics as institutionalized practices of textile use and reuse, written and unwritten rules governing ceremonial use, the departure from standard practices, and the active reception of imports and their interpretation. The goal of the workshop is to identity parallels and points of contact between the use of textiles in various political entities and among social groups and cultures.
Panels
Medieval Islamic Textiles in the Eastern Mediterranean
Western Mediterranean Cross-cultural Encounters
The Multi-cultural Ottoman Empire
Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christian Textiles