Ikat

In 1977 I bought a silver Ethiopian bracelet. As I looked at the quality of the workmanship and design, I thought "Ethiopia. Who ever thinks about Ethiopia?" Since then, I have used traditional crafts, primarily textiles and jewelry, to find cultures to explore and places to visit. Invariably, my destinations also have significant architectural, music and other traditions. Repeatedly I have seen that literacy is not the primary criterion by which to judge a culture's sophistication. I have also been awed by the under-appreciated art made by women in traditional cultures - "craft."

Focusing on textiles and jewelr, music and food, introduced me to the history of conquest and of trade, because this is how techniques, patterns, sounds, tastes and motifs spread.

Learning about cultures this way, and by reading novels written by foreign authors, gives me a sense of them that is more sensual and experiental than intellectual. But, then, isn't this how we learned our own culture?

I focus on the living culture and not, what my guide in Iran called "the history lesson" - hence my "nom du voyages" - Phyllis Steen. I'm probably a material anthropologist at heart.

Today I am witnessing the end of the tribal cultures of the world, as globalization and modernization outfits everyone in tee shirts, running shoes and jeans while traditional homes are torn down and replaced by glass and steel, often involuntarily. I'm out-racing time to see what is left of the public face of cultures that date back hundreds and thousands of years.

The places I've been are...

Andorra, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, China/Hong Kong/Tibet (3X), Czechoslovakia (2X), Denmark, El Salvador, Ecuador, England (3X), Egypt, France (6X), Germany (7X), Greece (3X), Guatemala, Holland (2X), Hungary (2X), India (6X), Indonesia (3X), Iran, Israel, Italy (4X), Jordan, Laos, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Martinique, Mexico (3X), Morocco (2X), Myanmar, Nepal (3X), Poland (2X), Portugal, Singapore (4X), Spain (2X), Syria, Thailand (3X), Tunisia, Turkey (3X), Vatican City (2X), Vietnam, Yugoslavia

Next on my list..."White Nights" in Helsinki, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, then maybe Sri Lanka, the "Stans". I really need to visit my "family" in Iran when things calm down.

Then, if peace and health and fate allow...

Bolivia, Peru, Columbia, Argentina, Zanzibar, Mozambique, Lapland (Northern Lights), Moscow, Bulgaria, Norway, Chile, China's minority areas, Brazil, Australia, Coptic Christmas in northern Ethiopia, Bhutan, maybe back to Laos, Camodia, Myanmar and Indonesia.

"Off the list" for this incarnation: Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan. I hope not Syria, but it will be a while.