In conjunction with Spirits in the Loom: Lao-Tai Textiles, Ellison Findly, Professor of Religion and International Studies, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, examines the powerful ritual textile that emerges from the symbiotic relationship of the shaman and the weaver in northeastern Laos. As the shaman chants about visual images in his trance narrative, the weaver translates what she hears into mythic, hybrid images on the loom. Join Findly as she explores why the transformative ritual textile with its mythic, hybrid designs is so central to Lao-Tai culture. Co-sponsored by the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California, Inc.