Walter E. Little is associate professor of Anthropology at the University at Albany, SUNY, and director of the Ethnographic Field School in Guatemala. He is the author of Mayas in the Marketplace and co-author of Mayas in Postwar Guatemala.Patricia A. McAnany is Kenan Eminent Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is the author of Ancestral Maya Economies in Archaeological Perspective and Living with the Ancestors: Kinship and Kingship in Ancient Maya Society.

Spanning every continent, and a temporal arc that begins in pre-history and takes us to the present, this edited collection demonstrates how much we can learn through textiles—among the most potent, meaningful, and desired of human creations. Privileging the artisanal domain of textile production, while at the same time acknowledging the significance of industrialism, the respective authors illuminate labor processes, societal inequality, global interactions, and the constitution of both spiritual and material value.

• Introduction Part I. Creativity and ValueChapter 1. Exchange without Brokers: Weaver-Client Relationships in SenegalLaura L. CochraneChapter 2. Heritage and Authorship Debates in Three Sumatran SongketsSusan RodgersChapter 3. Creativity, Place, and Commodities: The Making of Public Economies in Andean Apparel IndustriesRudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, Jason Antrosio, and Eric C. JonesChapter 4. Tivaivai and Value in the Cook Islands Ritual Economy: The Creation of Value, Values, and Valuables in a Diasporic CommunityJane HoranChapter 5. The Political Economy of an Art Form: The Akotifahana Cloth of MadagascarSarah FeePart II. The Power of Cloth and the Sanctity of PowerChapter 6. Textiles and Chimu Identity under Inka Hegemony on the North Coast of PeruCathy Lynne CostinChapter 7. Late Classic Maya Textile Economies: An Object History ApproachChristina T. HalperinChapter 8. Hohokam Cotton: Irrigation, Production, and Trade in PerhistoryRobert C. HuntChapter 9. Neighborly Ties and Sohbet: Global Capitalism and the Work of Weaving in Konya, TurkeyDamla IsikChapter 10. Sanctity, Social Distance, and the Price of Cloth in a Moroccan SuqJohn A. NaporaPart III. (Re)invented Traditions in Transnational ContextChapter 11. Good Hands: Silk Weaving and Transnational Artisan Partnerships in CambodiaSusan Falls and Jessica SmithChapter 12. Recommunitizing Practice, Refashionizing Capital: Artisans and Entrepreneurship in a Philippine Textile IndustryB. Lynne MilgramChapter 13. The Decline of a Weaving Cooperative in Western TurkeyKimberly HartChapter 14. Made in Italy: Metaphors for Merchandising Textiles in a Global EconomyJoan Weibel-OrlandoChapter 15. Creating Fame and Fortune from the Ruins of Handloom in Kerala, Southern IndiaLucy Norris