I recognize this topic as being somewhat tangental from Mary McFadden’s work.  Though she draws inspiration from her extensive travels around the world and study of ancient civilizations, there is no evidence of traditional Greek embroidery informing any the pieces in the Goddesses exhibition.  This research is not based on the work of Mary McFadden, but inspired by her approach to making art and her appreciation for the elaborate and painstakingly crafted textiles of other cultures.  

In my review of literature on the subjects of Greek embroidery and the Greek Dowry I came across several books and exhibition catalogues including, Greek Island Embroideries, by Susan Macmillan, Embroidery of the Greek Islands and Epirus Region, by Sumru Belger Krody, and Aegean Crossroads, by James Trilling.  These books offered a thorough qualitative examination of Greek embroidery with a primary focus on motif and technique.  Macmillain and Trilling both included brief definition of the dowry and the woman’s role in creating a dowry.  These limited explanations gave way to more questions;  Do women still create dowries? or When did the practice of creating a dowry come to an end?  Why were dowries important?  What happened if a woman didn’t have one?

An old Time Magazine article from 1957 titled, “Greece: Dowries of the Destitute,” shed some light on the question regarding the issue of not having a dowry.  The first line reads, “In the mountain regions of Greece, where old traditions die hard, a girl without a dowry has about as much chance of getting a husband as a girl without a nose”(July 8, 1957).  The article goes on to report on how King Paul and Queen Frederika of Greece have created a national dowry find to provide dowries to the poor.  From my knowledge of modern Greece, it is apparent that times have certainly changed since this article was written.   This article is not a quantitative study on the Greek dowry system in 1957, but it did provide some interesting facts.  For example, 70,000 girls were born each year in Greece during that time.  Though it provided an insightful glimpse into the past, it left me wondering again, “How did they traditional dowry practice come to an end, and what is the current perception and practice of the dowry in modern Greece?”

In her paper, “Marriage, Dowry, and Women’s Early Twentieth Century Migration from Greece,” Vasiliki Demos offers some possible explanations as to how the practice came to an end.  In her qualitative study, Demos interviewed women who had migrated from Greece to the United States and Australia.  Through these stories she was able to determine a pattern “in which marriage and dowry practice played key interrelated parts”(Demos).  She explains how the dowry system was impacted by the migration of many Greeks to the United States and Australia as men left Greece to find wealth and established themselves in new countries.  Once settled, marriages would be arranged.  Demos explains that women without a dowry could marry if they were willing to migrate.  Receiving a dowry was not as important to men who had migrated because,  “they were already sufficiently established materially that they did not need a dowry to begin married life, and many had already formed a negative opinion of the dowry system after having spent years creating one for their sisters”(Demos).

While dowries in Greece are no longer observed as transfers of wealth from the wife’s family to her husband and Greek marriages in general are no longer arranged, the tradition of giving a “Proika”, or  trousseau of hand-crafted textiles and household items is still practiced in some families.  In further research, I would like to hone in on the tradition of the dowry in a contemporary Greek context.  I’m interested to know how changes in the way the traditional dowry is percieved and practiced affects the tradition of embroidered textiles.

References

Demos, V., (2008). “Marriage, Dowry, and Women’s Early Twentieth Century

       Migration from Greece”  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American  

       Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Sheraton Boston and the Boston Marriot

       Copley Place, Boston, MA Online .  2009-05-23 from  www.allacademic.com...

MacMillan, Susan L.  (1974).  Greek Island Embroideries, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts

Markrich Lilo.  (1983).  “Embroidery -- A Mirror of Social Expression.”  Pp. 51-

77 in Aegean Crossroads: Greek Island Embroideries in the Textile Museum,        

      edited by James Trilling.  Washington, D.C.: The Textile Museum. 

Krody, Sumru Belger.  2006.  Embroidery of the Greek Islands and Epirus Region,  

       Washington, D.C.:  The Textile Museum

(July 8, 1957). “Greece: Dowries for the Destitute.” Time Magazine.  Web.  9 Sept.

       2009.   www.time.com>.

Images

1.  Bridal chemise

18th or 19th century

Greek Dodecanese, Astypalia Karpathos

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Elizabeth Day McCormick Collection

42.399

2.  One face of a cushion cover

probably 18th century

Greek Islands Northern Islands, Northern Sponades Skyros

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Harry A. Hill

1970.555

3.  Sleeve of a woman’s dress

18th or 19th century

Greece Dodecanse, possibly Nisyros

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Gift of Arthur E. Davis in name of Alice Cheney Baltzell

32.332

4.  One face of a cushion cover

18th or 19th century

Crete

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Harry A. Hill

1971.437

 5.  One face on a cushion cover

possibly 18th or 19th century

Greece Epirus or Ionian Islands

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Elizabeth Day McCormick Collection

43.374