Symposium Session Review: Immigrant Labor in Asiatic Silk Production

by: Tayana Fincher, Student/New Professional Award Recipient

The role of immigrant labor in silk production between West and Southeast Asia was the subject of a session during the TSA’s 17th Biennial Symposium. Given the added task of engaging attendees of the first-ever virtual symposium, session panelists provided egalitarian approaches to understanding the work of humble artisans between the 16th and 21st centuries. Since the context surrounding silk primarily focuses on its elitist and expensive connotations, usually stemming from East Asia along monopolized trade routes, the pivoted focus to working-class pan-Asian sericulturalists is profound.

The session, titled “Imported Silks: Immigrant Labor in Asiatic Silk Production from the Early Modern to Postmodern Periods” and organized by Nazanin Hedayat Munroe and Eva Labson, yielded many inclusive perspectives and compelled the audience to reconsider the definition of “immigrant.” The complex impacts of migration on rich societies were also illustrated through various methods of research, including archives, poetry, treatises, and oral histories. From historic empires in Iran and India to Southeast Asian diasporas in the US now, amalgamation emerges as a common characteristic. Yet, each marginalized culture brings its own visual language wherever socio-economic ventures take them, ensuring that local expertise and aesthetics persevere.

Sylvia Houghteling presented on immigrant artisans in 17th- and 18th-century South Asia, tracing the steps of and royal requests for migrant sericulturists. Using archival records, she redirected attention to those who allowed silkworms to safely travel and be properly cultivated. Focusing on regional trade and evidence of high pay for these skilled laborers from as far as Bengal and Oman, she provided a humanistic lens in which to see them. Nazanin Hedayat Munroe established clear connections between Safavid and Mughal figural silk textiles, centering shared iconography and weaving techniques between the two neighboring dynasties. She also noted changes in literature and poetry, mapping out how figural representations evolved and now serve as evidence of laborers in different locales. Following the movement and productions of Iranian diasporas in South Asia especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, Munroe ultimately urged nuance in the way that textile historians classify craft workers within transmutable borders.

Continuing the thread of diversifying avenues in which silk textile history is studied, Nader Sayadi delved into Sufi literature and Qur’anic text to illustrate how central sericulturalism became to collectives and societies. Starting with a treatise on silk-weaving and proven especially in 16th-century manuscript paintings, the prophet Job’s story changed according to economic value in the early modern period. Sayadi revealed that Islamic visual culture placed Job as directly involved with the mulberry tree’s sacred conception—allowing listeners into the mindset of contemporaneous artisans interested in silk’s impact on the global economy. Lastly, Magali An Berthon provided insight into the continued usage of silk textiles and their making in Cambodian refugee households. Through recent interviews, she presented findings about the process of weaving silk and substitutes, and its ability to tie resettled women back to their personal heritage and culture before the Khmer Rouge regime displaced them. Through interviews with weavers based in camps along the Thai/Cambodian borders or in the US, Berthon demonstrated how their sustained textile practice served as a healing mechanism, and how it became a community-building aspect among the diaspora and newer generations.

Although textile historians and experts are cognizant of the arduous skill required of sericulture, this session helped elucidate the specifics surrounding the makers. Whether migrating by choice or need, the artisans’ skills manifested in innumerable ways across time and geographies. Each group has left indelible marks on their new homes, temporary or permanent, and has added depth to the visual languages already present. To learn from these panelists how crucial immigrant labor was to early modern societies and global trade markets only emphasizes the need for more attention to modest makers and populations.

Tayana Fincher is the Nancy Prophet Fellow in Costume and Textiles at the RISD Museum. She received her B.A. in Art History and History from Williams College, and recently curated “It Comes in Many Forms: Islamic Art from the Collection.” Her research analyzes continuity in diaspora arts of Islamic Africa and Asia.