BC Law IPTF Blog

“Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources, Folklore and Gender was the subject that attracted some 100 participants, mainly women from local indigenous and rural communities, to a two-day seminar held in October in Río Hato, Panama. They came to analyze their problems and successes as producers of traditional handicrafts; to learn which intellectual property (IP) tools could help them protect and market their products; and to benefit from the experiences of other indigenous communities in exploiting IP. With cheap imitations undermining sales of traditional handicrafts, the seminar, organized by WIPO in cooperation with the Industrial Property Registry of Panama and with financing from the Inter-American Development Bank, proved to be a timely event…”

Panama: Empowering Indigenous Women Through a Better Protection and Marketing of Handicrafts

Female empowerment remains an important goal around the world. Education is essential to this goal. Without knowledge of what feats are possible, and how to accomplish those feats, women remain unaware of their potential and without the tools to realize it.

This article reminded me of my personal experiences in western Turkey, where I lived for two years during my early teens while my father worked for NATO. My family came to appreciate Turkish art, including copper and gold pieces, scarves, and carpets. My mother began to collect the carpets as individual pieces of art, as one would paintings, with the goal to represent as many Turkish villages as possible in her collection. The key was that each village incorporated signature characteristics into their carpets, making the work unmistakably identifiable to connaisseurs, or even to young American amateurs like me. These characteristics include particular colors, such as the deep red in a carpet from Yagcibedir; shapes, such as the ubiquitous octagon in rugs from Kars; and knot size, like the very tight knots in Hereke rugs.

My family bought carpets through two very different means. First, we could visit one of our trusted (male) dealers in Izmir, and sip our fresh chi with sugar cubes served as carpet after carpet was tossed on the floor in front of us for our appraisal. While this method was undoubtably the most efficient, we did not realize the value of the carpets and the stories behind them until we learned that we could visit the villages where the carpets were made.

Most of these carpet-weaving villages are poor. There are only dirt roads, frequented by goats, sheep and chickens; schools - if they exist - consist of one room for all ages; and villagers spend their days working in the surrounding fields or tending the sheep. When we arrive, children crowd around us visitors asking for treats they know we brought with us - candy, school supplies, and toys. Men ask us for cigarettes. The women watch from the background and say very little. They cover themselves from head to toe, with scarves arranged around their faces. The people are kind and hospitable; once after a cooking demonstration, a family gave my mother what was probably their ekmek (bread) for the week as a gift.

Although the women are quiet and interact with us very little, they are the reason we visited the villages. They are the ones whom we find hidden in houses, sitting in front of huge looms, tying and cutting off knot after knot. They know the patterns by heart, nothing is written down, and their hands work in such a blur that an observer cannot follow their movements. The trade is passed from grandmother to mother to daughter and so on, and mistakes become more infrequent as a young girl weaves more and more. At times, for very consistent designs, a mistake in a rug can even increase its value, adding a personal touch to the piece.

After introductions and the village tour, the women bring the carpets out, while the men bargain with the buyers. The women still say very little. Eventually the money goes to the men, who in the village have the power and authority to decide what it will be used for. The women do not see the money and do not have a say in how it should be used.

Often buying straight from the villages is cheaper than buying from a city store. The people in the villages do not know what their carpets might fetch in the city. Surely, they cannot imagine what their artwork would fetch in the United States. It has been estimated to my mother that the value carpets we bought in Turkey are at least tripled in the United States.

So how does intellectual property and the conference in Rio Hato fit into this piece? What makes these carpets so valuable, in addition to the fact that they are completely hand-made from start to finish, is that each carpet is unique. Each village has certain carpet signatures, and within each village, each woman adds her own personal touches. But, once the carpet is finished, the men take over. Many of these women cannot read or write, and do not understand economics or capitalism. They do not know how to manage money. They do not make the important decisions in the villages. They do not even sit in the chi houses to talk local politics with the men in the afternoon.

Of course, the obstacles to female empowerment are often cultural. Being exposed only to the world of a small village during their lifetime, these women do not know that they may be entitled to certain rights, as women and as artists. It does not occur to them that it is abnormal to lack power over their creations. On the flipside, men are not willing to give up their power, and are also unaware of means to increase the value of the women’s work. Also, the men and women in villages work together for subsistence: women weave carpets as the major source of money, but men perform many of the village construction tasks, and both sexes work side by side in the fields. Of course women also shoulder the entire burden of childcare, cooking, and other household tasks. Religion is a powerful factor in this division between the sexes: although men and women are considered equal in human dignity, men are thought to be “guardians” of women. Thus, it is unclear whether many men would ‘allow’ their wives and daughters to attend such a conference, much less provide them transportation using the only truck in the village to do so. The article I have referenced does not pay enough heed to these cultural and religious factors.

Other obstacles remain in this effort to regulate these traditional practices that have existed unregulated in the intellectual property realm (to my knowledge) for 100s of years. These include the inconsistency of the carpet quality, the sometimes seamless collaboration between women and sometimes across villages, and the lack of a system to authenticate the work. More questions lie in the nature of these women’s work. Can their designs be patented? Can particular dye colors be patented, even if they cannot be perfectly reproduced for each carpet due to the natural methods? Can a knot-tying procedure by patented, literally the motions the hands follow while tying the knot? Can a woman patent a particular yarn-cutting knife that produces a certain feel for the carpet? Would these parts of the art be patented for an entire village, an entire family, or on behalf of just one woman - or her husband? Would women still be able to collaborate as a sisterhood, sharing designs, knot styles, or dye practices? As in all areas of IP, the women should have the freedom to elaborate on and experiment with each other’s ideas, but also be able to protect their ideas and profit from them as they see fit.

I believe that it is important that these women should be educated in basic business practices in relation to their art. They should be aware of what their art is worth and how to market it. These women should have a say in how they sell their carpets, to whom they are sold, and what is done with the money they earn. While the Ria Hato article is laudable in its goals, some women have further to go than others. First we must teach these women basic skills such as reading and writing, and make them aware of the power their art wields. Education is also need to encourage men to cooperate with and support the women in their art. Then, we can take the next step to encourage these female artists to make their art their own, and preserve its value for the future.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 3rd, 2006 at 10:40 am and is filed under International, Education, IP, Copyright. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.