Andean textiles

Quelle est la valeur des textiles andins à l’heure actuelle ? Mon travail de thèse cherche à y répondre à partir d’une étude de terrain ethnographique de longue durée (plusieurs séjours entre 2014-2018) dans la région de Cusco (Andes péruviennes) et d’une approche auto-ethnographique et phénoménologique. Ce travail montre le caractère complexe et dynamique des multiples valeurs qu’endossent les textiles andins et qui sont variables selon l’endroit, la situation et la personne. Promus, vendus, achetés et utilisés à des occasions diverses, ils revêtent une pluralité de valeurs dans la vie de tous les jours, dont le tourisme fait partie intégrante, dans une région où il est omniprésent et où les textiles andins participent à la construction de l’expérience touristique et deviennent des souvenirs de voyage.
Loin de se limiter à la valeur d’usage des textiles au sein des communautés andines – ce qui a caractérisé une bonne partie de la littérature sur cet objet –, mon étude s’intéresse aussi aux populations urbaines et aux touristes qui les achètent et les utilisent dans leur quotidien, y compris au-delà des Andes. Elle s’intéresse également à leur valeur d’échange, notamment au sein du marché touristique. Par là, mon travail élabore une cartographie élargie des valeurs des textiles andins au XXIe siècle, à partir des différents regards des actrices et des acteurs concernés et de leurs interactions avec la matérialité textile dans divers espaces et évènements ; le terme « interaction » étant compris comme une inter-action, un acte coparticipatif entre humains et objets textiles. C’est dans ces inter-actions qu’il faut comprendre l’idée de tisser la valeur au quotidien. La valeur tissée par les personnes avec la matérialité textile prend différentes formes à travers des actions d’ordre utilitaire, esthétique, (socio-) économique, politique, patrimonial, identitaire et culturel, mais également d’ordre cognitif, sensoriel, voire émotionnel ; valeurs qui ne sont pas
nécessairement exclusives, mais peuvent être mobilisées simultanément, de façon collective ou individuelle, souvent inscrites dans des processus de « valuations ».
Par son intérêt sur la valeur et sa relation avec la matérialité et l’action, cette étude entend contribuer aux études sociologiques et anthropologiques sur la valeur et aux Valuations Studies. Elle invite aussi à voir autrement les textiles andins, d’une façon pragmatique, proche de la matérialité des objets elle-même, de manière à se distinguer des approches structuraliste et sémiotique proposées par d’autres travaux. Cette invitation comprend le fait de tenir compte des nouvelles formes matérielles des textiles andins, parfois hybrides et/ou industrielles, et de leur caractère multi-situé, dans les Andes et ailleurs.

Abstract
What is the current value of Andean textiles? My PhD work seeks to answer this question based on a longterm ethnographic field study (several stays between 2014-2018) in the Cusco region (Peruvian Andes), and an auto-ethnographic and phenomenological approach. This work shows the complex and dynamic character of the multiple values that arise from Andean textiles, and how they vary according to the place, the situation and the person. Promoted, sold, bought, and used on various occasions, these textiles have a plurality of values in everyday life, of which tourism is an integral part. This takes place in a region where tourism is omnipresent, and where Andean textiles participate in the construction of the tourist experience and become souvenirs.
This work is not only limited to the use value of Andean textiles in the Andean communities, which has characterized much of the literature on this subject. My study also focuses on the urban populations and the
tourists who buy and use textiles in their daily life, which goes beyond the Andes. My study is also interested in their exchange value, particularly within the tourist market. In this way, my work develops an enlarged mapping of the Andean textiles’ values in the 21st century, based on the different perspectives from the concerned actors and their interactions with textile materiality in various spaces and events. Here, the term “interaction” is understood as an inter-action, or a co-participatory act between humans and textile objects. It is in these inter-actions that we must understand the idea of weaving value on a daily basis. The woven value that is enacted by people with textile materiality can take different forms, and can be through
utilitarian, aesthetic, (socio) economic, political, patrimonial, identity and cultural actions, but also through cognitive, sensory, even emotional actions. These values are not necessarily exclusive, and can be
mobilized simultaneously, collectively or individually, and are often enrolled in valuation processes.
Through its interest in value and its relation to materiality and action, this study aims to contribute to sociological and anthropological works on value and Valuation Studies. It invites us to look at Andean textiles differently, in a way that is both pragmatic and close to the materiality of the objects itself, so as to distinguish itself from the structuralist and semiotic approaches proposed by other works. This invitation includes taking the new material forms of Andean textiles into account, sometimes hybrid- and/or industrial-made, and their character that can be found in multiple locations, both within and outside of the Andes.

El nuevo acercamiento para ver al tejido de forma tridimensional es verlo orgánicamente o como diría George Lukacs, dentro de su contexto de producción, que las autoras expanden aun más al situarlo dentro de la cadena operatoria para ver la materialidad, como parte de un sistema viviente y cambiante que transforma la materia viva, que es el textil. On Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/290347882
and on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMaD2U5oVl8

El período de transición hacia el "sistema" colonial en los Andes es aun muy poco estudiado debido no solamente a la orientación de los estudios históricos, sino también a las supuestas limitaciones de las fuentes. La historia material es una vía posible para indagar en la cultura andina del período colonial temprano. A través del análisis de inventarios personales hallados en la ciudad de Cuzco, este artículo se aproxima a la producción e intercambio de tejidos, objetos entre los más representativos y elocuentes de las culturas andinas. Se presentan hipótesis sobre sus usos, y sobre la continuidad y supresión de algunos colores y estilos.

To date most studies of contemporary Andean textiles have focused either on the symbolic or semiotic analysis of designs, or on the description of weaving technology and techniques. In this chapter I focus on the value attributed by the Macha of Tumaykuri (Northern Potos í , Bolivia) to the acquisition by young women of technical competence in weaving. I propose a practice-orientated approach and argue that the symbolic is located in the making of objects, and that the analysis of textile designs cannot be divorced either from weaving technologies and techniques, or from the lives of weavers. I argue that technical competence in weaving is at the heart of the construction of a female-gendered aesthetic subject, is a motor of creativity and innovation, and is a means of distinction among marriageable young women.

La tecnología textil prehispánica puede ser estudiada y entendida no solamente a través de los tejidos que se preservaron en el registro arqueológico sino y más comunmente, mediante el análisis detallado de los instrumentos textiles que sí se encuentran en mayor medida en contextos arqueológicos. En este trabajo se presentan los resultados obtenidos a partir del análisis de una muestra de instrumentos que corresponden a contextos del período Formativo en los asentamientos de Sierra Mokho y Aranjuez-Santa Lucía localizados en los valles Central y Alto de Cochabamba respectivamente. Se enfatiza la importancia de la cadena operativa del textil como proceso clave para entender la función de los instrumentos como parte de la tecnología textil durante este período temprano y dentro de un contexto social más amplio.

This paper presents textile pieces from archaeological sites in Northern Chile that were made by using the tie-dying technique. They first appear at the end of the Archaic and beginnings of the Formative periods (ca. 1500-1000 BC), their presence lasting until the first half of the Late Intermediate Period (900-1200 AD). We establish the first sequence for this technique (use of which spans over 2.700 years) by working on its cultural and chronological documentation. These textiles come from Arica (in Chile's northernmost tip), Tarapacá, the Lower and Middle river Loa, and the oases of San pedro de Atacama. Although this technique has been traditionally considered to be of Nazca and Tiwananku origin, all of the woven pieces that were revised reveal particularities that are coherent with the places where they come from, allowing us to suppose they are of local making.

This work assumes that if the Pica-Tarapacá Complex that developed during the Late Intermediate Period was a socio-political unit, a)liation to this group should somehow show in its material culture. Textiles should therefore have been produced on the basis of a shared technology, expressed in terms of a regional !yle. We explore how regional clothing exposes cultural identity, revealing the socio-political complexity put into pra&ice within the Tarapacá territory. Textile data from garments are used to consider problems related to, both, regional and inter-regional intera&ion, and its links with the rise and !rengthening of sociopolitical identities.

El estudio de la tecnología, estilo, iconografía y algunos datos del contexto de los textiles hallados en un entierro colectivo en una cueva en la localidad de Pulacayo (este del salar de Uyuni, Depto. de Potosí, Bolivia) lleva a vincular a estas prendas con estilos procedentes del centro Tiwanaku y de los oasis de Atacama. De esta manera, el hallazgo de los textiles confirma el carácter bicomponente de este entierro emplazado en el área intermedia que conecta estos oasis con los valles orientales de Cochabamba, y con el centro de Tiwanaku, proveyendo de datos para proponer una probable ruta de tráfico entre los centros de origen de estos estilos, y avalando la existencia de antiguos contactos a larga distancia durante la Fase Coyo o V del Salar (700-900 DC).

The goal of this thesis is to investigate if a single textile assemblage from one site is homogeneously produced. In order to evaluate this, I looked at a sample of textiles and cordage recovered at the site of Hualcayán in the north-central highlands of Peru (ca. 1-1000 CE). Through a technical attribute analysis of metric traits, I evaluate the degree of variability present in the overall sample. Making use of a “community of practice” approach, in which a group of individuals are engaged in participatory learning and share a common enterprise, I argue that homogeneous textiles represent a uniformity of practice. Indeed, it is through imitation and the passing on a non-discursive knowledge that certain community wide practices are reproduced. As a result, I hypothesize that a single community of weavers would produce relatively homogenous textiles, which would materialize in the form of a technologically uniform textile assemblage. Ultimately, I interpret such shared practices as connected to a specific type of group identity related to what it means to be a weaver in that particular setting. The results from Hualcayán demonstrate variability in cotton yarns, which I interpret as suggestive of interregional interaction between Hualcayán and coastal communities. Despite this, camelid yarns and overall weaving techniques are relatively uniform, which I argue points to a community of practice with regard to weaving and spinning camelid yarn.

This paper is set within the outlines of the research project “Cultural history and materiality in the archaeology of Late Intermediate and Late periods of San Pedro de Atacama and its relation with the Loa basin” which aims to analyze the Yaye, Solor and Catarpe phases. In our case, this will be achieved by means of systematic studies of textile collections in order to compare its expressions with processes detected along the Loa River, considering that both basins were part of a culturally shared territory. Through an accurate review of Le Paige’s manuscripts and the study of late funerary collections from the G. Le Paige Archaeological Museum, we propose a preliminary textile sequence for the San Pedro de Atacama oasis during the Late Intermediate and Late periods, and its integration into the regional textile sequence. As a result of these proceedings, questions about the mentioned phases were raised.

A total of 147 inkuñas originating from cemeteries in the Azapa Valley (Azapa-3, Azapa-6, Azapa-8, Azapa-71, Azapa-75 and Azapa-140), and those of the coast of Arica (Playa Miller-2, Playa Miller-3, Playa Miller-4, Playa Miller-8, Playa Miller-9 and Chacalluta-3) are analyzed and classified according to their form and function. Also, based on iconographic and stylistic analysis we propose a definition of various contemporary textile styles during the Late Intermediate Period which confirms - and is coherent with - the multiethnic occupation of the zone.

Key words: Archaeological textiles, textile styles, inkuña, tari, coca, etnographic textiles, Arica, Northern Chile, Late Intermediate Period.

El presente artículo invita a desves-tirse de los imaginarios que asocian los comuneros y comuneras-pobla-ciones indígenas de comunidades rurales andinas-a los trajes típicos. A través de un viaje a Cusco, el artículo propone un aproximación etnográfica que permite concebir el paisaje cosmopolita de la vestimenta en los Andes y ver, desde una pers-pectiva pragmática, el uso o no de los trajes típicos. Se trata así de repen-sar América andina en su compleji-dad, contemporaneidad, y carácter cosmopolita, repensarla más allá de los imaginarios. Bajo esta perspecti-va, el artículo concluye que los trajes típicos no son sólo cuestión de la «cultura material» o de la «identi-dad cultural» que alimentan dichos imaginarios.

RÉSUMÉ
Cet article nous invite à nous déta-cher des imaginaires qui associent les comuneros et les comuneras-populations indigènes des com-munautés rurales andines-aux costumes typiques. En se focalisant sur le cas d'étude du Cusco, l'article propose une approche ethnogra-phique qui permet de concevoir le paysage cosmopolite du vêtement dans les Andes et de voir, d'un point de vue pragmatique, l'utilisation ou non de costumes typiques. L'idée est de repenser l'Amérique andine dans sa complexité, sa contemporanéité et son caractère cosmopolite, de la repenser au-delà des imaginaires. De ce point de vue, l'article conclut que les costumes typiques ne sont pas seulement une question de «culture matérielle» ou d'«identité culturelle» qui nourrissent ces imaginaires. ABSTRACT This article invites you to detach yourself from the imaginaries that associate comuneros and comuneras-indigenous populations of rural Andean communities-with typical costumes. Focusing on the case-study of Cusco, the article proposes an ethnographic approach that allows us to conceive the cosmopolitan landscape of clothing in the Andes and see, from a pragmatic perspective, the use or not of typical costumes. The idea is to rethink Andean Amer-ica in its complexity, contemporane-ity and cosmopolitan character, to rethink it beyond imaginaries. From this perspective, the article concludes that typical costumes are not just a question of the "material culture" or "cultural identity" that feed these imaginaries.

The study of archaeological collections from cemeteries of the Arica archaeological zone, ascribed to Formative, Middle, and Late Intermediate periods (ca. 500-1200 AD), have permitted the identification of types that correspond to the two textile traditions that coexist in Arica during the Middle Period. One of them shows textile elements of the highlands, also associated with Charcollo, Cabuza and Tiwanaku ceramics; the other, appears with Maytas and has stylistic connections with southern and lowland valleys of Perú. These relations, the specific ceramic associations and the development of techniques, decoration and burial patterns, permit us to establish the existence of a Highland Textile Tradition and also a Western Valleys Textile Tradition. These results complement and confirm those obtained in the study of pottery and reinforce the non-sequential vision of the cultural-historic development of Arica.

During the time in the Andes known as the Late Intermediate Period (900-1450 AD), the Tarapacá region was socially integrated with societies that articulated resources from different areas through numerous strategies of exploitation. Dispersed settlements in the region suggest methods of habitation like those known to llama caravan traders. Although it has been explained how, in this period, the Pica-Tarapaca Complex controlled the territory, it has not been studied how the inhabitants of the area understood their common identity. It might be assumed that if identity is recognized as one aspect of sociopolitical connection, then affi liation with the Pica-Tarapaca Complex would be expressed in specifi c aspects of material culture, in this case, in a shared textile technology.

A type of semi-trapezoidal tunic with curved borders is a garment style known to have been used in the Pica-Tarapaca region during the Late Intermediate Period. Images of this tunic were painted and etched on stone in the interior river valleys of
north Chile dating to 1000-1290 AD (calibrated). These images allow the exploration of the ways clothing style is used to express cultural affi liation. In addition, the distribution of images of this garment style in the valleys that drain into the Pampa del Tamarugal and along the borders of the zones associated with the Pica-Tarapaca Complex, indicate that this clothing style was created and used to specifi cally display the cultural identity of the territory, providing evidence of the use of material culture to gain and maintain power.

This is a catalogue for an exhibition of mantles and matching garments that were prepared for the mortuary bundles deposited at several sites on the south coast of Peru about 2000 years ago. The theme of ancestor transformation is conveyed through the imagery and the metaphoric substitution between seeds and bones. The catalogue is illustrated in color.

Until now, the cultural sequence of San Pedro de Atacama -principally of pottery and cemeteries-, is the most important referent to the archaeological study of Atacama territory. Nevertheless, the researche increase since sixties in the Río Loa region -especially of domestic sites-, enlarge and change the peception of circumpunian late phehistory displaying a break of San Pedro culture continuity, because a post Tiwanaku altiplanic presence and the particular character of "atacameño" in the Loa region. In this sense, this break have meant significant differences to try and understand this moments in both zones, associated to a useful Historic Cultural approach, but its concepts needs revision. Therefore, continuing the experience in other localities (i.e., Turi, Caspana and Quillagua), we begin to discuss the Atacama cultural unit and its particularities since the revision of San Pedro later phases: Yaye, Solor and Catarpe, through systematics studies of materials collecti...

The purpose of this article is to present the logic of operation of a color grammar in Tarabuco textiles of the Southern Andes (south-central Bolivia). Focusing on the system of k’uychi, a prescriptive device of chromatic gradation (dégradé), it is intended to demonstrate how it works as a mechanism for building an expressive language, consistent with the Andean cosmological foundations.

I argue that patterns of repetition in Andean art are systematic, and frequently reflect Andean constructs of space. I explore how the configurations of patterned space are referenced toward the interworking of elements in fabric technology, and how this metaphor embodies fundamental relationships and systems of order that convey cultural meaning.