“Stealing with the Eyes”: Between Learning and Appropriation in Textile Crafts
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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9726-1893
Abstract
This article examines the value attributed to looking as a way of acquiring knowledge in the learning processes of bobbin lace making, focusing on the practice of «learning by watching» among Galician lacemakers (palilleiras). Drawing on Herzfeld’s notion of «stealing with their eyes» proposed in 2004 by the author, I analyze the ambivalences of looking both as a legitimate act of accessing knowledge and as a potential form of cultural appropriation. From an ethnographic perspective, the article explores the tensions between relational forms of non-formal learning and the institutional logics of regulated instruction. It also addresses controversies surrounding the circulation of patterns, images, and designs in a context of increasing aestheticization and display of manual work. The article offers a critical reading of the moral, affective, and political economies that shape visuality in traditional craft knowledge.
How to Cite
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textile craft, lace, learning, cultural appropriation, gender
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