Browse Items (254 total)

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Indigo dye and the vivid colors of blue-to-green that it produces have been privileged through much of the Andean textile tradition. Many ancient Andean pieces attest to the long-term mastery of natural indigo dyeing (see examples of indigo in…

Among the various detailed patterns in this woman’s shoulder mantle are three sideways guitar motifs (in the patterned stripe above the shawl’s center seam). Introduced by the Spanish, guitars are now also associated with Latin American music. The…

Early 19th century Bolivian garments, such as the boy’s poncho at right, contain muted colors created entirely with natural dyes, just as they had been throughout the pre-Hispanic period. The thread itself is also identical to that in used ancient…

With the Spanish invasion in the 16th century and the establishment of their colonial empire, an array of fabrics from around the world began to be introduced into the Andes and elsewhere in the indigenous Americas. Chinese fabrics came to the…

Incuñas or sacred cloths, like the example at left, may resemble a woman’s mantle, but are made and used differently. Indigenous people in Perú and Bolivia fill them with special items and lay them on the ground during important ceremonies, such as…