Ethnographic Textiles + Weapons

[Jim McDougall]

In our careers in the airline industry, my wife and I often had great opportunities to meet many people from many cultures. My wife had a management position in which she handled certain employee affairs, and one man needed to return to his home in Africa as his mother had passed away.
When he returned, in gratitude for my wifes handling of details to help him in making this trip, he very ceremoniously presented her with a bolt of cloth very similar in some of the colors Tim has shown.
I cannot recall details on tribe or country, but what was important was that the cloth itself was offered with far more reverence than afforded simply to an everyday textile, and with extremely deep gratitude and reverence.

It seems clear that in many cultures, the reverence for material culture is often well placed in many forms, and our true understanding of these offer important dimension to learning more on the weapons they used.

All best regards,
Jim