Editing Flores (section)

==== Textile particularities of some areas ====

; Ilé Bura region

In the past, the whole Ilé Bura{{efn|name=lewotobi}} region was a major centre of weaving, which was an important contribution to family income. As of 2016, weaving is confined to just three villages – Lewo Tobi,{{efn|name=lewotobi}} Lewouran and Riang Baring, the latter being the most active.<ref name="lewo"/>

; Iwang Geté region

People of the Iwan geté{{efn|name="krowe"}} region produce a very distinctive ikat cloth: the widest bands (called ''ina geté'') bear such motifs as lizard (''teké''), a circular motif seen on some antique plates (''pigan uben''), spinning wheel (''jata selér'') and pineapple flower (''petan puhun'').<ref name="krowe"/>

; Ngadha region

Traditionally in the Ngadha region, everyday clothing is a plain, stark indigo sarong. But there is also a type of ikat, often called Bajawa ikat after its capital, that is decorated with primitive-type designs and using only indigo dye. One characteristic of this ikat is the very intense blue, seen nowhere else in the archipelago; this comes from the high concentration of indigo due to long and repeated steepings of the cloth into the tincture. It also means that the motifs, made by ties on the warp, should have come out white but are more often of a very pale blue because the pigment bath has had time to seep into the yarn beyond the resist of the ties.<ref name="hoopn_ikat"/> <br>
The other characteristic of Ngadha ikat is in the motifs. Horses (''jara'') are a frequent one, as they are a sign of high social rank; this ties up with the fact that decorated cloths were traditionally worn only by respected clan members.{{efn|In the Ngadha region, tradition required that younger people would wear only plain or nearly plain cloths. But advancing in age was not sufficient to be allowed more prestigious, adorned cloths; one also had to go through various levels of initiation and arrange for great feasts, notably those where buffalo would be slaughtered. Only members of the upper strata of society could afford those, and ikat adorned with narrow bands of horses was a marker of that aristocratic status.<ref>{{harvp|Hamilton|1994}}, cited in {{harvnb|Hoopen|, ''ikat.us''}}.</ref> These days, this is no longer a traditional law but there remain in some communities the sense that only people of high social standing should wear these prestigious garments, even if there is a reluctance to talk about such class distinctions.<ref name="hoopn_ikat"/>
}} The particularity here is that they are executed as stick figures, by which they resemble some prehistoric cave drawings. This gives them a strikingly 'primitive' appearance and makes them highly sought-after items.{{efn|The Ngadha, and the Manggarai to the west, have long had a legend about 'little people' who lived among them till as late as the 1500s. Add to this their primitive, cave-drawing-like images on Ngadha ikats ; and that the [[Ngadha language|Ngadha]] and Keo languages are curiously 'nude' versions of [[Malay language|Malay]], as if encountering difficulties in assimilating its full complexity. For example, the Austronesian family of languages makes an abundant use of prefixes or suffixes (which form new words by adding extensions either before or after root-words, such as [per-]form or child[-hood]), whereas the Ngadha language uses no prefixes or suffixes. This has led linguist [[John McWhorter]] to speculate that maybe these two rudimentary languages came into being through contact with the 'little people' of Flores, ''[[Homo floresiensis]]''.<ref name="hoopn_ikat"/><ref>{{cite web|last1=McWhorter|first1=John Hamilton|author-link1=John McWhorter|title=Flores Man vs. Sulawesi. A linguistic mystery in the Lesser Sunda Islands|format=audio|date=April 30, 2019|website=slate.com|series=Lexicon Valley|url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/04/john-mcwhorter-on-the-languages-of-flores-in-indonesia.html|access-date=2024-06-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=McWhorter|first1=John Hamilton|author-link1=John McWhorter|date=October 2019|title=The radically isolating languages of Flores: A challenge to diachronic theory|journal=Journal of Historical Linguistics|volume=9|issue=2|pages=177–207|doi=10.1075/jhl.16021.mcw|url=https://www.academia.edu/26566146|access-date=2024-06-10}}</ref>}}<ref name="hoopn_ikat"/> <br>
Most of the ikat on Flores is produced in villages located in the temperate, middle elevation zones – where indigo can be cultivated. The best known are Jerebuu<ref>
{{cite web|title=Jerebuu village and district, map|website=google.fr/maps|type=scroll back to see the limits of Jerebuu district|url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/Jerebuu,+Kabupaten+de+Ngada,+Nusa+Tenggara+oriental,+Indon%C3%A9sie/@-8.8977226,120.9964015,15z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x2db2dc0a59e6c4b5:0x39c158f74ac29cdb!8m2!3d-8.8964289!4d120.9972433!16s%2Fg%2F1213jbmw?entry=ttu}}
</ref> and Langa, in a valley on the east side of the [[Inierie]] volcano, and Lopijo and Toni, tucked behind the rim of mountains that surrounds [[Bajawa]], north of the same volcano. The latter are still very isolated and conservative, still using indigenous cotton and indigo only. The cloths from these localities are admired throughout the Ngadha region – and nowadays in New York and Singapore as well.<ref name="hoopn_ikat"/>