Crafts, entrepreneurship and gendered economic relations in southern Xinjiang in the era of 'socialist commodity economy'

Bellér-Hann, Ildikó

article

Crafts, entrepreneurship and gendered economic relations in southern Xinjiang in the era of 'socialist commodity economy'

Central Asian survey • 17 (4) • Published In 1998 • Pages: 701-718

By: Bellér-Hann, Ildikó.

Abstract
This is a study of the gendered relationships and transactions in the making and selling of the traditional embroidered Uyghur hat in the oasis town of Qäşqär (Kashgar). Because of traditional Uyghur modesty codes, women's work is primarily restricted to housekeeping and childcare in the home. Men's work is outside the home and includes agriculture, craft production, factory work, and day laborer jobs. The marketplace is also primarily a male domain. However, hat making is a traditional women's craft that has allowed them to organize both production and merchandizing outside the domestic sphere. The author describes the set of social relationships and informal exchange transactions, including women’s rotating credit associations that allow this "underground" female economy to function in an otherwise male-dominated realm.

Clothing manufacture

Borrowing and lending

Insurance

Division of labor by gender

Gender status

Visiting and hospitality

Household

Uyghur

HRAF PubDate

2023

Region

Asia