Browse Items (254 total)

This blouse dates from around 1945 and maintains the purple and pink palette and the radiating neck embroidery seen in earlier examples. However, it also shows the beginning of the later Chichicastenango design trajectory in the adoption of large…

During the Spanish Conquest of modern-day Guatemala, missionaries formed cofradías (religious confraternities) for the indigenous people in an effort to cement the Catholic Church in every community. Cofradía members were responsible for the rituals…

Finely woven cloths covered altars in Catholic churches in Maya territory, and this example with ancient Maya animal motifs highlights the ever-present syncretism (overlap) between the two religious systems. The vibrant purple was likely achieved by…

This jaspé tzut shows the use of tie-dyed warps in weaving. Repeatedly dipped in indigo and tied off to preserve white stripes, warps were laboriously prepared before weaving. When untied and placed on the loom in the proper sequence, then the weft…

This green and blue cloth is a santo’s tzut, an all-purpose cloth often used as a male head covering. Green is commonly associated with Saint Joseph, perhaps indicating the identity of the saint it originally clothed. The machine-made lace is a…

Like Andean weavers of all periods and modern Guna textile artists (see Engaging the New), the Maya have always sought to master the most difficult fiber-working techniques. This woman’s skirt, though it is machine-made and thus reflects modern…

Unlike Maya women’s dress, men’s dress, by contrast, reflects their greater participation in the political, economic, and religious colonial world established by the European invaders. Tailoring lengths of cloth, an idea that was antithetical to…

Throughout history, what is considered “traditional” changes over time. Colonized peoples like the Maya, who still number at least six million today, retain certain items of dress from their long past, while adopting others from their colonizers, the…

As weavers learn from their elders, practice, and become highly skilled, some of the most proficient are able to tie-dye threads so that they spell words, people’s or place’s names, and sometimes even phrases. These are perhaps the most prestigious…

As weavers learn from their elders, practice, and become highly skilled, some of the most proficient are able to tie-dye threads so that they spell words, people’s or place’s names, and sometimes even phrases. These are perhaps the most prestigious…