Hmong textiles, symmetries, perception and culture

This paper examines Hmong textiles called paj ntaub. The Hmong became a transnational people due to happenstance and the Vietnam War. Despite great trials and tribulations, the Hmong people and their art and culture survived. They express themselves and their identity through oral traditions and cultural practices, one of which is their textiles. The old textile styles, known as paj ntaub, are non-representational symmetric designs. The research for this paper was done in Laos. Grounded research, textual analysis and participant observation were the methods used to produce this paper. Though their textiles are a salient part of Hmong culture, little work has been done on the ontology of paj ntaub. This paper proposes a novel perspective on examining the paj ntau by using anthropological symmetry, the gestalt theory on perception, and ethnographic analysis of the culture, meanings, and choices in design embedded in the textiles, as well as the process of making of the paj ntaub. This paper proposes that the paj daub is not merely an expression of identity but a holistic expression Hmong culture.