Browse Items (254 total)

Belts of many different kinds were used throughout the Andes well before the Inka and continue to be an accessory for indigenous men and women today. Being narrower than other garments, belts are one of the first items that Andean girls learn to…

Throughout the indigenous Americas and over the millennia weavers have employed the same basic backstrap loom, much like a thousand-year-old Andean example. This one is from Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Similar ones remain in use in Guatemala as well…

Only partially finished, this thousand-year-old belt was being made on a Chancay backstrap loom. It probably was still in process when its weaver died; it was a fairly common practice in various ancient Andean cultures to include unfinished textiles…

Maya huipíles, indigenous women’s rectangular blouses, vary from one town to another in Guatemala. Weavers from the town of Chimaltenango, in north-central Guatemala, expresses their ethnicity in very skillfully brocaded pieces, with rows of bold…

This modern Maya backstrap loom has most of its original parts, except for the belt (fastened to the lower bar that goes around the weaver’s waist) and a new rope added to the top bar and affixed onto a tree branch or a house post. Tension is created…

Guna blouse panels are made from machined cloth and commercial thread first introduced by missionaries and now widely available. However, the elaborately cut and sewn patterns are only possible using the sharp scissors the missionaries also brought…

As a Maya weaver, or more often an entire traditional indigenous family, takes on more intricate designs for jaspé cloths, the planning and execution become accordingly more challenging. Even machine-made examples, such as this skirt involve…

This miniature woman’s blouse was woven for a wooden santa (female saint figure) to wear as she stood or sat on an altar in a Catholic church in San Pedro Sacatepéquez. Dressing saints in traditional Maya attire is an obvious way in which the two…

This seemingly innocuous blue cloth with animals in red and yellow embroidery is called a pisbal kotsih. It resembles many of the other general-purpose cloths used by the Maya to carry babies, food, place on the head to protect from sun and cold, and…

Beginning in the mid-20th century, Western tourists and art dealers began to arrive in Perú and Bolivia and were struck by the quality of the historic heirloom textiles still in use. As these textiles began to appear on the art market, the artistry…