Patricia Marks Greenfield
National Endowment for the Humanities
Resident Scholar
1999-2000
Weaving Patterns: Ontogenetic Constraint
and Cultural Construction in the Creative Process
In 1969, when resident scholar Patricia Greenfield conducted her first study
of Mayan weavers from the Zinacantec Maya hamlet of Nabenchauk, the young girls
learning the process of the ancient backstrap looms were closely and carefully
guided—usually by their mothers—so they had little chance to make
a mistake. The resulting striped fabrics were defined by tradition had virtually
no variation in woven design.
When Greenfield returned to Zinacantan in 1991, she
found that the learning process had shifted to a more trial-and-error, discovery-oriented
one, often directed by an older sister rather than the mother, and that there
were changes in the fabrics, as well. "I found an infinite array of textile
patterns," Greenfield says. "Individual uniqueness and self-expression—what
some Western theorists call creativity—had arrived in Zinacantan." Why
did this happen? During the twenty-one year interim between Greenfield’s
research visits, the village had undergone a transition from agricultural subsistence
to an entrepreneurial cash economy. She predicted that this shift would have
significant effects not only on the way weaving is taught, but also on fabric
design and variation. "The idea is that when you have entrepreneurship,
novelty and innovation become important. Also, in a commercial, money-based economy,
people become more independent," and women are less restricted to work in
the home, says Greenfield.
Drawing on a unique set of data involving two generations
of mothers and children, Greenfield documented dramatic shifts in the learning
process. "I’m really studying the changes in models of creativity that
happen as a result of economic development," she explains. Greenfield’s
project, Weaving Patterns: Onotogenetic Constraint and Cultural Construction
in the Creative Process, explores weaving apprenticeship, pattern representation,
and textile design over two time scales: individual development and historical
change. The resulting book, accessible to a popular audience, will be generously
illustrated with color photographs taken for National Geographic by Greenfield’s
daughter, Lauren.
Affiliation at time of award: Professor of Psychology,
University of California, Los Angeles
Return to Resident Scholars
1999-2000.
