1. Looms, Weaving and Cumulative Culture: a series of 3 short videos discussing how culture is transmitted, how it evolves, and how technology developed in the absence of the written word. The context is traditional weaving in East and Southeast Asia, and these videos are based on qualitative and quantitative fieldwork in this region, and on published studies. A set of background notes and references to accompany these videos can be downloaded in pdf form.

This first video introduces the subject area, and reviews the  archaeological evidence for the antiquity of weaving in East Asia and Southeast Asia, then discusses what "culture" means in this context. I discuss some difficulties with categorizing different types of culture, and share a simple plot that helps to define and characterise some of the different kinds of cultural phenomenon that exist. (23mins)

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The second video in this series discusses how complex culture is transmitted, and looks in detail at traditional weaving cultures in a group of islands in East Nusa Tenggara in Indonesia. I compare the patterns of cultural transmission in this region with similar studies in other areas, and discuss the characteristics of apprenticeships. I conclude by comparing these characteristics with fundamental work on signal transmission by Claude Shannon and co-workers. (15 mins)

The third video, "The Garden of Forking Paths", discusses a phylogenetic analysis of the looms of East and Southeast Asia, and what this tells us about the evolution of culture in general, and technologies in particular, in pre-modern societies. I show that evolution is not a linear process, but unfolds amongst multiple, branching pathways. I discuss what this tells us about "progress" and the nature of history. (18 mins)

2. Videos on Textiles and Textile culture. These videos were produced with the help of Sandra Sardjono of the Tracing Patterns Foundation

Christopher Buckley talks about a contemporary Indian saree and the type of loom that produced it. The video discusses the Indian Jacquard loom, and shows how it retains many of the features of older looms, with roots in India and in Persia.

This video traces the connection between the Kerek Batik tradition in East Java and the textile traditions of the Asian mainland. Kerek batik is an important link between Indonesian batik styles and batiks made using a similar process in northern Vietnam and south China, which share common motifs and techniques. The video also discusses the loom that Kerek batik makers use to weave cloth, which is a hybrid of an Austronesian loom and a mainland frame loom with a reed.