Paper long abstract:

My paper will discuss the changing concept of time among Bamana village women as they register the impact of globalization, the importation of watches, and the possibilities of recording exact time in writing. I will examine this issue through an analysis of mud cloths whose named patterns locate the viewer in several different kinds of time. The paper will begin with Guanjò ni tile or "the time of Guanjò," a pattern located in a non-specific past time frame. It will then discuss the invention of the Gardi Cercle, a pattern that locates the viewer in the time of the "gardes de Cercle" in the early years of colonization. Finally it will examine patterns such as Bi ma da, or "the mouths of today's people," a design that makes an ironic commentary on the behavior of 'modern' people. I will suggest that the Bamana sense of time as viewed through the abstract patterns of mud cloth has undergone significant changes and has moved from mythic or non-specific time frames to a sense of time much more akin to that of the west under the increasing impact of globalization.