By Dr. Simeon S. Magliveras
Textiles are an influential site where gender ideals and national, local and ethnic identities are produced and expressed. However, with the advent of tourism and consumerism of fourth world products in Laos, the tensions between quantity and quality, local markets and global markets and meaning and meaninglessness have become magnified. This photo essay will examine some of these tensions and demonstrate how the authenticity of only a few textiles and designs has been preserved.