TRADITION AND FOLKLORE
The nomadic and výllage lifestyle of the faltweaving countries has changed little over centuries, Whereas the urban centers have developed artistically and culturaliy, the nomadic and village weavers have remained close to nature. Their cycle of life is simple, and their history is told by one generation to the next, sung in song by the family elders, and by shamen's recitations of 300.000 verses of the Manas the principal kighiz story. This and others have been incorporated into the symbology of their kilims, for they have no other means of recording history visually.
For nomands there are few possesions, and their herigate is represented by their tents, Animals, cookingpots, few clothes and their tribal traditions, beliefs and supertitions, which have until recently remained the same for hundereds of years. With the settlement of people into villages and the change from a transient to a settled agrarian lifestlye, the original tribal traditions that related closely to migration dissipated and evolved into village folklore.
The changes were slow and subtle, and the role women as the weavers in these societies had a profound influence on this folklore. The secret language of beliefs, potions, signs and skills of which kilim motifs are part is handed from mother to daughter. The ancestral tales remained but were overlaid with more recent stories and superstitions. The desires and aspirations of the settled village people became more immediate, and as wealth accumulated with the possesion of goods and land, so the for continuity and the wish for good fortune and fertility increased. Kilims functioned as a form of visual commonication, and expession of hope and wishes of the weaver in the form of motifs and symbolic talisman. These symbols can be scattered at random over the field of a kilim, or disguised in repetitive motifs that from these essential pattening of borders and design. They can be found on the flatwoven textiles of the Berbers of Morocco, in the scattered motifs on qashoai kilims, and in the interlocking and repetetive patterns on Shahsavan and Balouch weavings. It is Anatolian kilims, However that are most famous for their symbols and patterns with folkloric meanings, and these may be summarized as follows:
THE SUN GOOD "S" :This was a symbol for sun wors hippers and also represent the snake which was a symbol of wisdom, though not necessary benevolence.
EYE: A motif used to keep the evil away.
BIRDS IN FLIGHT: Symbol of good news.
THE TRIANGLE: This an earth motif meaning good luck.
RAM HORN: Symbol of power.
CYPRESS:Symbol of eternity of life.
LOVEBIRD:Symbol of love.
SCORPION:Symbol of pride and liberty.
