Table of Contents

List of Maps List of Figures List of Tables A Note on Translation Acknowledgments Introduction Methodology Apprenticeship and learning (about) chikan Summary of chapters Chapter 1 Chikan in Historical Context The field setting What is chikan? Stitches and "work" Origins and history of chikan Chapter 2 The Division of Labor The production process Knowledge and the division of labor Productive specialties Machine work Conclusion Chapter 3 Embroiderers in Social Perspective Theorizing women's work Problems with statistics Embroidery and poverty Leisure Religion Caste Purdah Embroidery and the life cycle Chapter 4 Work and. Wages Embroidery wages Work habits Agents and embroiderers Summary Is chikan embroidery "free-time" work? Chapter 5 Skill and Knowledge in Fine Chikan Embroidery Distinguishing the work of a skilled embroiderer Knowledge of chikan Learning chikan Shauq and pareshani Processes of learning The embroiderer's "design": Planning and execution Working for the market: Concessions in skill Chapter 6 Development Schemes and State Patronage Government handicraft policy Government promotion and patronage Award schemes Training schemes Exhibitions Government jobs for skilled embroiderers SEWA Lucknow Embroiderers, skilled embroiderers, the government, and SEWA Lucknow Conclusion Conclusion Appendix Notes Glossary Bibliography Index

About the Author

Clare M. Wilkinson-Weber is Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Washington State University.

Reviews

"This is a sound anthropological study exploring a well-regarded industry from a new vantage point: the women involved in embroidering, teaching embroidery, and arranging for work for the embroiderers. The book provides detailed information on the art/skill itself, and rich descriptions of all stages of the process (including laundering the cloth, stamping the cloth, etc.) Great innovative methodology is used and this enables deeper, comprehensive understanding of a range of issues. The author relates themes she discovered to larger issues of gender and work." - Anita M. Weiss, University of Oregon "From the standpoint of a general reader, the chapters on gender make a major contribution to our understanding of several gender issues. The author explores the relationship between female seclusion and the practice of embroidery, examines how 'craft' activity is integrated into the larger social life of women, and analyzes the internal differentiation of women within the industry. The book is an important addition to feminist literature on work, but is more sophisticated and nuanced than comparable scholarship on South Asia. Its discussion of the ways that female agents are themselves involved in the 'exploitation' of, and control over, female labor is novel and important. Wilkinson-Weber's argument against the standard position heard in the Lucknow area that embroidery is a 'part-time' activity done by women in their 'free time' is a compelling one that has significant implications for the study of women's work in India and elsewhere in the world." - Douglas E. Haynes, Dartmouth College