Older people may often be conceived of as weak and invisible but the elder women weavers whose stories make up the body of this dissertation demonstrate counter-narratives. Becoming old can be difficult and sorrowful but is necessary and important. Euro-American culture, however, tends to idolize youth and associate youth with beauty, while tying old age to ugliness and marginalizing elderly people. Yet, elderly people are beautiful and powerful because of all of the beautiful moments of life they have accumulated as they grow older. Through their weaving practices that are deeply embedded in their everyday lives, the elder women weavers continue learning new skills and knowledge together, sharing their crafts, experiences, and stories with each other, and creating special bonds. This dissertation is an ethnography of ordinary elder women’s lives that many might view as insignificant, notwithstanding that what those women are doing is revolutionary as they forge power through their weaving practices. Drawing inspirations from feminist approaches, this study sheds light on the fortitude, resilience, and strength of the elder women weavers based on over six years (2018-2025) of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in New York State’s capital region. This study is grounded in anthropological theories of women’s everyday acts of resistance, creativity, and aging as well as the works of First Nation scholar Dian Million and Japanese photographer Miyako Ishiuchi. As a result, it enables us to feel the power and beauty of those elder women weavers through understanding how the act of being a weaver is their statements.
Kaori O Chen (Wed,) studied this question.