Description:
This publication is the result of a long-term ethnographic research project carried out by Binaural Nodar between 2015 and 2017 with the Portuguese community of Várzea de Calde in order to document in detail all the stages of the linen cycle and perform several long interviews with the major protagonists of that cycle: the weavers of Várzea de Calde. The village of Várzea de Calde contains a millenarian secret that represents the theme of this book: a deep connection to the cultivation, processing and weaving of the flax (linen).
That “almost magical” plant whose properties were discovered and deepened by ancient civilizations (Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, the Roman Empire) and whose know-how reached the rural world of the western Iberian Peninsula almost intact. This is not to be dismissed as a minor feature; instead, it’s a further proof of the civilisational value that seemingly anonymous villages contain.
In this place, the geomorphologic conditions of the landscape (fertile land with plenty of water, as one can understand from its own name: “várzea” or floodplain), connected to an existing subsistence agriculture until half a century ago, with an economy based on self-cultivation and the direct exchange of goods or work, meant that their clothing also had to be produced locally instead of being purchased.
This way of life generated two distinct types of garment culture: the sheep’s wool for coats, ponchos (like the typical “capuchas” or woolen cloaks) and blankets and the linen for shirts, underwear, sheets and towels.