Spinning wool on Kihnu Island

The ecology of heritage sheep and textile crafts

Authors

  • Mathilde Frances Lind Indiana University Bloomington

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.4213

Keywords:

wool crafts, ecology of materials, practice-led research, cultural heritage, animal-human relations

Abstract

Wool crafts are an essential part of cultural heritage and daily life on Kihnu Island in Estonia, and they begin with animal husbandry and wool preparation. People and sheep cooperatively produce wool, maintain the land through conservation grazing, and facilitate heritage activities while external and internal conditions and forces, like changing economic and demographic factors, provide challenges and friction. An ecological study of wool crafts in context requires attention to creative processes, tools, materials, landscapes, and human and other-than-human animals that are engaged in complex flows of activity and meaning with one another. Both ethnographic encounters and autoethnographic reflections on craft practice provide vital insight into these entanglements.

Author Biography

Mathilde Frances Lind, Indiana University Bloomington

PhD Candidate

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Published

2021-05-10

How to Cite

Lind, M. F. . (2021). Spinning wool on Kihnu Island: The ecology of heritage sheep and textile crafts. FormAkademisk, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.4213

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