Textiles have long been integral to the social life and cosmology of the people of East Sumba, Indonesia. In recent decades, the people of East Sumba have entered a larger world economy as their textiles have joined the commodity flow of an international "ethnic arts" market stimulated by Indonesia's tourist trade. As Sumba's villagers respond to an immensely expanded commerce in their cloth, tensions and ironies emerge between historical and innovative forms in both cloth and lives. Such responses involve gender, ethnicity, and social rank, and are especially highlighted within global market spaces. The stories in Between the Folds vary widely and include those of animists, Christians, and Moslems; Sumbanese, Indonesian Chinese, and Westerners; inventive geniuses, master artisans, and exploited weavers; rogues, entrepreneurs, nobles, and servants.