Threads of Time: Tradition and Change in Indigenous American Textiles

Browse Items (35 total)

  • Collection: Ancient Peru

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The Spanish destroyed as much Inka art and culture as possible during the invasion and colonization, melting down the precious metals and burning the royal mummies. Despite this, they admired Inka textiles, as Pizarro’s secretary Francisco de Xeres…

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It may seem odd that a textile exhibition should include several metal objects. However, this ceremonial knife with a crescent-shaped blade (known as a tumi) shows clear evidence of having been wrapped in textiles in antiquity. A later Inka…

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It may seem odd that a textile exhibition should include several metal objects. However, this ceremonial knife with a crescent-shaped blade (known as a tumi) shows clear evidence of having been wrapped in textiles in antiquity. This…

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The principle of ayni—reciprocity, dualism, interlockedness— is consummately expressed in cloth such as this, a doublecloth dating to ca. 1000–1470 AD. Its patterns play out in indigo and white, a dualistic color choice, and in the…

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This belt dates from between 1000 and 1450 AD. It represents continuity within the long tradition of finely woven belts made in warp-face techniques. It is similar, but not identical, to the complementary techniques used in the 20th and 21st century.…

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For millennia, Andean peoples have wrapped their precious objects in cloth, from mummies (the first ones in world history), to metalwork, to other cloths. Wrapping expresses the concept of ukhu, the importance of that which is hidden. Here nineteen…

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Tiny rows of birds adorn this very special, yet useable comb. The weaver used the tines as the warps. Unwoven tines go through the hair, but also simulate fringe on a textile. Here the colors feature the typical Chancay palette of soft golds, pinks,…

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It may seem odd that the distinctively Inka mode of writing in knotted threads would survive the Spanish invasion and colonization. Indeed, in 1581 the khipu was officially outlawed, although its use went underground and has not completely…

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It may seem odd that a textile exhibition should include several metal objects. However, these earspools with wide posts show clear evidence of having been wrapped in textiles in antiquity. An Inka tumi and Sicán tumi (ceremonial knives with…

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Feathers from the Amazonian rainforest were prized above all else, and must be included in the idea of qumpi, precious fiberwork. Bringing them over the mountains to the coast, where such fans as this one were preserved, also invokes another key…
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