COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Jak van geklopte boombast beschilderd met mensfiguren TMnr 1772-1131

Masi (barkcloth) from Fiji, Honolulu Museum of Art

Hawaiian kapa, 18th century, Cook-Foster Collection at Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany

Barkcloth or bark cloth is a versatile material that was once common in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Barkcloth comes primarily from trees of the family Moraceae, including ''

Broussonetia papyrifera The paper mulberry (''Broussonetia papyrifera'', syn. ''Morus papyrifera'' L.) is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae. It is native to Asia,Artocarpus altilis'', ''

Artocarpus tamaran ''Artocarpus tamaran'', also known as elephant jack in English, tarap tempunan in Malay, and more locally as timbangan, tamaran, entawa or wi yang, is a species of flowering plant, a fruit tree in the fig family, that is native to Southeast Asi ...

'', and ''

Ficus natalensis ''Ficus natalensis'' is a tree in the family Moraceae. It is commonly known as the natal fig in South Africa. In central and western Uganda, where it has an important cultural value, it is known as ''omutuba'' to the Baganda people and ''omutoma' ...

''. It is made by beating sodden strips of the fibrous inner bark of these trees into sheets, which are then finished into a variety of items. Many texts that mention "paper" clothing are actually referring to barkcloth. Some modern cotton-based fabrics are also named "barkcloth" for their resemblance to these traditional fabrics.

Traditional

Austronesia

Before the development of woven textiles, barkcloth made from trees belonging to the mulberry family (

Moraceae The Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family — are a family of flowering plants comprising about 38 genera and over 1100 species. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates; however ...

) were an important aspect of the

pre-Austronesian The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austrone ...

and Austronesian material culture during the

Neolithic period The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

. Stone barkcloth beaters, in particular, are considered part of the "Austronesian toolkit." They have been found in abundance in the

Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-a ...

basin in

Southern China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

, which is considered to be part of the homelands of the Austronesian peoples before they started migrating into islands during the

Austronesian expansion The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austron ...

(c.3000 to 1500 BC). The oldest example, found in the Dingmo Site in Guangxi, has been dated back to ~5900 BC. They were spread along with Austronesian voyagers into Island Southeast Asia,

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...

(with the notable exception of

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

), and

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. Genetic studies on the

paper mulberry The paper mulberry (''Broussonetia papyrifera'', syn. ''Morus papyrifera'' L.) is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae. It is native to Asia, Though they exist in abundance in archaeological sites in Island Southeast Asia, barkcloth have largely disappeared in the region as they were replaced by woven textiles. But they survived until around the 19th century in the outlying regions of the Austronesian expansion, particularly in

Island Melanesia Island Melanesia is a subregion of Melanesia in Oceania. It is located east of New Guinea island, from the Bismarck Archipelago to New Caledonia.Steadman, 2006. ''Extinction & biogeography of tropical Pacific birds'' See also Archaeology an ...

and

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

, as well as the interior highlands of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

. Some communities in Southeast Asia are reviving this practice. At Monbang traditional village on Alor Island, Indonesia, tourists can see members of the Kabola ethnic group wear barkcloth and dance traditional dances.

Uganda

Barkcloth has been manufactured in Buganda,

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

for centuries and is Uganda's sole representative on the

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists UNESCO established its Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage with the aim of ensuring better protection of important intangible cultural heritages worldwide and the awareness of their significance.Compare: This list is published by the Intergover ...

Vietnam

The production of barkcloth may have originated in Southeastern China, in a region adjacent to Vietnam. South East China was the origins to the ancestors of many people, including those who migrated to Vietnam. Throughout ancient Vietnam, the bark-cloth was widely made; this practice of producing barkcloth has survived in modern times in a few rural areas in Vietnam.

Modern cotton "barkcloth"

Today, what is commonly called barkcloth is a soft, thick, slightly textured fabric, so named because it has a rough surface like that of tree bark. This barkcloth is usually made of densely woven

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

fibers. Historically, the fabric has been used in home furnishings, such as curtains, drapery, upholstery, and slipcovers. It is often associated with 1940s through 1960s home fashions, particularly in tropical, abstract, "atomic" and "boomerang" prints, the last two themes being expressed by images of atoms with electrons whirling, and by the boomerang shape which was very popular in mid-century cocktail tables and fabrics and influenced by the Las Vegas "Atomic City" era. Waverly, a famed design house for textiles and wall coverings between 1923 and 2007, called their version of this fabric ''rhino cloth,'' possibly for the rough, nubbly surface. American barkcloth shot through with gold

Lurex Lurex is the registered brand name of the Lurex Company, Ltd. for a type of yarn with a metallic appearance. The yarn is made from synthetic film, onto which a metallic aluminium, silver, or gold layer has been vaporized. "Lurex" may also refer to ...

threads was called ''Las Vegas cloth'', and contained as much as 65% rayon as well, making it a softer, more flowing fabric than the stiffer all-cotton rhino cloth or standard barkcloth.Vintage Las Vegas Caprice Drapery Fabric from Waverly
Accessed June 17, 2010. File:Barkcloth-style skirt weight cotton.jpg, Barkcloth-style skirt weight cotton File:Hibiscus barkcloth Honolulu.jpg, A

hibiscus ''Hibiscus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. The genus is quite large, comprising several hundred species that are native to warm temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. Member species ...

flower pattern on barkcloth File:1950s barkcloth.jpg, 1950s barkcloth tablecloth with botanical design

References

External links

Bark Cloth − Then and Now: Amazing Discoveries
Cummings, Patricia L., Quilters' Muse Virtual Museum
Tapa: Situating Pacific Barkcloth in Time and Place Tapa: Situating Pacific Barkcloth in Time and Place
A three-year AHRC funded research project at th
for Textile Conservation Centre for Textile Conservation
that aims to transform our understanding of Pacific barkcloth manufacture using a multidisciplinary approach {{Fabric Woven fabrics 1950s fashion 1960s fashion Indigenous textiles Plant products