Mycenean textiles, central planning, and alienated labor

[mindstalk]

From Women's Work

Minoan women had worn elaborate dresses fashioned from densely patterned textiles ( figs. 4.5-7 and 6.3), while the men sported only skimpy loincloths with cinch belts and ornate footwear. With the advent of the Greeks, the tables turned. In Crete we suddenly see men wearing the intricate patterns formerly associated with women, but in the form of an ample kilt rather than a brief loin‐ cloth—a new form of dress worn also by the Hittites, the Indo‐ European cousins of the Greeks, next door in Anatolia. We also observe the cloth of the women's dresses suddenly becoming plain, with at most a decorative edging, as though the men had preempted for themselves the use of the fancy Minoan cloth. Soon the men's cloth becomes plain again, too, although still with fancy edgings sometimes.

the Mycenaeans were organization men. Upon entering Crete, they quickly marshaled the defeated local populace into labor groups to produce quotas of cloth for the central palace at Knossos; the Linear B records list not only how many pieces of cloth a team of weavers finished but also how many they fell short of their quota. Apparently these conquerors requisitioned the existing supply of handsome local fabrics for their own clothing. But clothing soon wears out, and the new labor system was not geared to manufacturing such fancy cloth. So very soon the men's clothing became as plain as the disenfranchised women's.

Working within a quota system of production is not like weaving for oneself. It is no longer fun, nor does the weaver get the benefit of extra effort put in. Mass production is not at all like making single pieces at will; there isn't time to do a careful job. This economic principle is illustrated many times in history. For instance, in Mesopotamia, when people first figured out how to make pottery, they painted it with truly exquisite designs, but when the potter's wheel was invented and it suddenly became possible to mass-produce the pots, the designs rapidly degenerated into a quick swish of the brush for a little color. The same effect is visible in Cretan textiles made for the central palaces, under Mycenaean rule, as they rapidly became plain with at most a fancy edging. Elsewhere on Crete, however, in remote areas that the Mycenaeans failed to subjugate, the Minoan women continued to make their elaborate fabrics all the way down into the Iron Age.

Comments

[elusiveat]

I really appreciate that last paragraph, especially because I've started to do more of my own sewing.

[mtbc]

On a smaller timescale: This reminds me that I have the sense that craftsmen many decades ago were more likely to pay more attention to detail, in various subtle ways to make higher quality items. (Even with early software too.) I suspect there's some process of commoditization that depresses the workmanship of the median product. This is partly why I've always bought houses that were constructed well before I was born, I suspect everything is so metered now, margins so tight that, even if people would like to be building better, their job doesn't give them that room. However, at least with not-houses, my sample of historical comparison artefacts may well be considerably biased by what's survived for long enough for me to encounter it.