Malia in San Diego is of Afghan descent, and wonders why crocheted blankets are referred to as afghans. There is a long, rich history of textile weaving in Afghanistan with repeated geometric designs, and the term afghan was probably borrowed to apply to the blankets consisting of lots of stitched yarn squares. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Afghan Blanket Origins”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, good morning.
Good morning. Who is this?
Malia.
Malia, and where are you?
I’m in San Diego.
Well, welcome to the show. How can we help?
I have been always curious to know why this blanket is being referred to Afghan. I come from Afghanistan, and when I was a student in the 60s, and then I returned back in the 80s, and always this blanket is being referred to as Afghan blanket. And I want to know why it’s being labeled Afghan. What is the source of this labeling?
So you’re talking about this blanket here in the United States that’s made out of yarn that is crocheted with kind of a loose pattern, right? With kind of space between the items.
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah, and there’s a long tradition in Afghanistan of creating beautiful textiles, right?
Correct.
Like rugs. And they often have those repeated squares or abstract shape, things like that. And as far as we know, from the mid-19th century on, people have referred to these crocheted blankets as the same thing, apparently inspired by that same kind of rich textile tradition.
So it’s more about the pattern than it is about the way that the blanket is made, right?
Oh, definitely. Yeah, yeah.
It’s about borrowing that motif, that repeated geometric motif.
Right.
Yes, yes.
Well, Malia, thank you so much for your call. We really appreciate it.
Thank you. I appreciate for the explanation.
All right. Take care. Bye-bye.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
I can’t help but thinking about China, how we call this thing that many of us have in our homes by the name of a country, right? The China that you might eat off of or eat your soup out of, right?
Yeah, there you go. Yes, something kind of exotic. And, of course, there’s tons of food items like this where we’ve just borrowed a country. French fries aren’t French, as we all kind of know at this point.
