Spinning yarns
Prior to the advent of some automation in the 18th century, hand-spinning fibers together to make thread was a constant activity throughout all of human history—at least for the female half of the population. The word “distaff” describes a tool for holding fibers for making thread, as well as matters “of or relating to women.” It is believed that women were always twisting together fibers in their fingers to make string as an early tool for binding things together, for instance, or for making traps and nets. A range of prehistoric cultures devised drop spindles such as those above to improve the yarn-spinning process.
Virginia Postrel inspires awe at the scale of the activity in the early chapters of her 2020 book “The Fabric of Civilization” [Basic Books, 320 pages, including end notes, glossary, and index]. In contrast to skeletons, pottery shards, carved stone, and larger earthworks, not a lot of these fibrous artifacts have survived from our deep human past. We do have the spinning whorls, though, made of clay, stone, or even bone. But the archeological remnants of thread and fabric are rare.
The whorl itself, with a stick or bone shaft inserted through the hole, served as a weight to pull the fibers down as they were twisted together, fed out between the user’s fingers. A video demonstration of the basic technology is here on YouTube.
When weaving arrived, the demand for thread rose. Postrel points out that it takes some six miles of cotton thread alone to make a single pair of modern, woven denim blue jeans. Using bronze-age techniques of spindle whorls would mean some 37 days of spinning thread for eight hours a day, assuming an experienced spinner. While there is no reason to believe there was such a fabric at the time—and it would likely have been woolen rather than cotton—the amount of work required puts the problem into perspective.
At our time in history, when we are surrounded by fabrics from birth to death, it is easy to overlook such an ancient material due to its modern abundance. It is easy to miss the sheer breadth and depth of the innovations that have led to its ubiquity today, to the point that we consider it a disposable good rather than a costly, labor-intensive cultural product to be handed down (as in a family’s fine linens) or stored away only for special formal occasions (as in a person’s Sunday best).
Here’s a recent interview of Virginia Postrel about the book by Robert Bryce on YouTube:
I hope to post one or two further items informed and inspired by this wonderful book.
Marque, I was right! Jonah did have Virginia Postrel on his podcast, and it was the very same book they discussed. I only know for certain because my husband wanted to get the book so he added it to his wishlist on Amazon. Here’s the link:
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/hipster-luddites-9ce/
These comments are teeming with pun refgees.