Backstrap loom

Tannungang maponco

Note: The following text is taken from a 19th-century collection catalog and, in its language and perspective, partially reflects colonial thought patterns. We present the text in its original version to make the collection's history transparent and promote a critical examination of the colonial legacy. Certain terms and formulations may be perceived as problematic today. A 2009 research project concluded that most descriptions are factually correct and still usable; only a few details were found to be inaccurate or incorrect. The results of this project were published in the following collection catalog: https://khm-wmw-tm-library.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1457155265

"527. Loom - "Tannungang maponjtjo"
This loom is nearly identical to the previous one, but has, on its lower end where the board with the wound-up yarn is fastened into the two blocks, two vertical, standing poles as tall as a man, which have a peculiar noise-apparatus of bamboo, which have been ingeniously and very simply constructed. When the weaving slat is struck, pushing the thread that has been thrown through onto the finished cloth, these "bells" make a rattling noise which can be heard from far away. Looms with such noise-makers only belong to unmarried girls and when they weave it can be heard from a distance that in this house there lives an unmarried girl. It is quite clearly a signal to attract men interested in marriage to show them where domestically adept, industrious girls can be found."

Translation of: Czurda, F. A. J. (1883). Catalog mit Erklärungen der Etnografischen Privatsammlung des Dr. F. A. J. Czurda in Postelberg (Böhmen). (p. 135). Wien, Wilhelm Braumüller