Thinking through Sheep Wool: An embodied anthropological exploration of human-material relationships through wool working

Abstract

Capitalism has alienated people from the making processes creating the products they consume, creating a loss of creative dialogue and craft knowledge. As knowledge of wool working is mostly possessed by the older generation in the Netherlands, this knowledge will over time disappearing the country with the processing industry. A network of Dutch woolworkers is rebuilding the relationship with wool as a material. This study aims to explore how human-material relationships are embodied through craft practices and transferred to others. Practice-led research, participant observation, semi-structured interviews and auto-ethnography in the Dutch wool network made it possible to explore the embodied knowledge of wool as a material, by learning the different skills part of the making process throughout the fieldwork period. Spending time learning different skills such as spinning and felting allowed the researcher to build rapport as well as gain insight in the relationship makers have with their material. As embodied knowledge of making processes are not easily articulated vocally or put into writing, building this knowledge as a researcher added a new understanding of making processes for the field of anthropology. In conclusion, wool working is a network consisting of different actants (actor-network theory), dependent on the materiality of wool. Makers build a relationship with materials through making processes, in which they embody the knowledge of the craft by makers. Therefore, this knowledge is stored in bodies, not in words. To transfer the relationship with wool, wool workers share their craft with others through practice, as well as by telling stories through the products they make.