As a new approach to textile scholarship, Women as Weavers is treated as part of a vast integrity and not as an entity separate from large systems of knowledge. Instead of dividing the subject matter according to the involvement of textiles in various domains (e.g., textiles and rituals, textiles and economic systems), a holistic presentation is used to de-emphasize the separation of lived experience into disjoint categories. Chapter 1 (Object) discusses the textiles in terms of technical and aesthetic integrities. Chapter 2 (Word) discusses the spread of textile-related vocabularies all over the archipelago to substantiate the integrities discussed in Chapter 1. Chapter 3 (Myth) integrates words and objects in myth. Chapter 4 (Ritual) finally proposes large integrated systems of knowledge as expressed in ritual.
The study ultimately validates a holistic approach to textile scholarship and shows that a taxonomy of motifs and a separation of domains are scholarly dead-ends. The language use aspect in relation to textiles is also employed as a key concept which is enlightening and indispensable as an area of knowledge. The possible relationship of reptilian figures in textiles with concepts of life, fertility, regeneration and institutions such as head-hunting is deemed most crucial.
