Had a working weekend. With the help of a friend, got garage cleaned out from moving at end of last week. Spent weekend washing lots of dishes, some of which I now do not need, just cooking for one. Luckily, found them a new home, some of them. Did laundry, extra towels and blankets were wrapped around dishes. Did beading on doll skirt until needle broke.
Does anyone get hypnotized by their coputer like I do when checking out doll sites? I've found something which might interest someone besides me. In poorer cultures, kids, especially girls, seem to have always had dolls, or doll substitutes. This isn't a surprise. If nothing else, they get to practice all of the hard work they get to do as grownups, (Oh joy.) But in those cultures dolls are Not made to last. Native american dolls in general were made of plants (buffalo grass dolls, for example) leather scraps, or other biodegradable materials. When they wore out, was it time for little girls to begin their jobs in ernest? Was it just undersstood that a fascination with dolls was so temporary that they weren't made to last?
What got me interested was looking at dolls from developing countries. These tend to be art pieces made to be sold to wealthier people, or to be non-moving figures, sometimes with their feet glued to stands.
Do any of you consider such figures dolls? I like the articulation of action figures. But figures which accurately represent the clothing and faces and hair styles of the peoples making them are also of interest to me. I cannot play with them, but I can learn from them. What do you think, are they dolls?
It seems that except in families wealthy enough to have collected porcelain dolls for generations, doll collecting is a modern luxury for the wealthy of all countries, and for the West in particular.
I called the American Girl Company and told them about the site which described Kaya, their Native American Historical Character, and her people, as "less inteligent" when Europeans came. They were very nice about it, apologizing, but since I couldn't re-locate that site to give them an exact link, I don't know if anything will be changed. I spent hours looking for it.
Someone told me their were some dolls called Something like Magic or Magic Atic dolls which were 18 inch vinyl dolls that looked similar to American Girl Dolls and were more Affordable. I know the Phily Collector site is dedicated to Barbie sized dolls. But has anyone ever looked at others??
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