In the present volume, in coordination with the Museo Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore, in La
Paz, we decided to remedy this situation by proposing a new focus towards the woven objects located
in the museum deposits, this time centred on making these textiles within the productive chain of
weaving, taking into account the social life of the weaving communities of practice in the region, and
in addition the social life of textiles as both objects and subjects. We considered it necessary to adopt
this approach for various reasons:
First, museum collections are notoriously decontextualised. In only a very few cases, do we know
with any confidence the provenance of a piece, its region, period or cultural affiliation. Knowing at
least the processes in its making helps us contextualise better an object, and understand the relations
between its component elements during its construction. Previously it was sufficient to say that a
textile ‘had’ a certain colour. Now we could say in the catalogue that the colour of a textile had been
introduced through dyes of a certain nature (by natural fibre tone, or a natural or artificial dye). And we
could identify the processes in the construction of the woven object, by identifying the combination of
structural components (the basic elements), added components (the majority of which are sewn on to
the structural component) and extended components (a fringe for example).
Second, textile-making historically has demanded the development of one of the most complex
productive chains in the world. It is not a coincidence that the very complexity of this chain has served
as the model for the development in Japan of the automobile industry and the industrial production
of paints during the early twentieth century (Arnold and Espejo, 2013a: 38-40, 80).
Third, a weaver does not work in isolation, but within the complex networks set up between
different communities of weaving practice. These communities of practice, in turn, have been able
to generate links historically with the wider access networks to raw materials that make up regional
productive chains of weaving production.
Fourth, the practices of textile-making depend on the availability to weavers of a range of
technological and technical elements that have their own histories and processes of development.
Knowledge of the productive chain thus includes knowledge of historical developments in loom and
instrument technologies, and of regional weaving structures and techniques used over different periods
Author(s): Denise Arnold; Elvira Espejo; Freddy Maidana
Publisher: Museo de Etnografía y Folklore (MUSEF)
Year: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 500
City: La Paz
Tags: Bolivia; Andes; Cultura de Bolivia; Bolivian Culture; Cultura andina; Andean Culture; MUSEF; Museos; Textiles; Textilería andina; Textiles andinos; Prehispanic Textiles; Archaeological Textiles; Anthropology of textiles; Antropología de los textiles; Anthropology of cloth; Antropología del vestido; Andean Textiles; Lowland Textiles; Animal Fibres; Plant Fibres; Textile Techniques; Spinning; Dyeing of Textile Fibres; Natural Dyes; Tintes naturales; Looms; Peru; Chile; Amazonian Lowlands
Museums and private collections mentioned in the book______________________________ 7
General abbreviations__________________________________________________________ 8
Language abbreviations ________________________________________________________ 8
Acknowledgements____________________________________________________________ 9
Prologue ___________________________________________________________________ 10
Elvira Espejo, Director of MUSEF
General introduction _________________________________________________________ 11
Denise Y. Arnold
The museum objects following the textile productive chain __________________________ 27
Regional resources ___________________________________________________________ 28
Plant fibres from lowland stems, wound into balls
Plant fibres from lowland and coastal seeds, as harvested products
Animal fibres from the highlands, as harvested products
Shearing ___________________________________________________________________ 32
Fibre cutters
Removing bristle hairs and cleaning _____________________________________________ 34
Archaeological combs
Camelid fibre classification
Spinning and plying __________________________________________________________ 38
Archaeological instruments from the Andes for spinning and plying
Ethnographic instruments from the Andes for spinning and plying
Ethnographic instruments from the Andes for twisting rope
Ethnographic instruments from the lowlands for spinning and plying
Spinning machines
Spinning products ___________________________________________________________ 48
Archaeological products from highland spinning: balls of yarn
Ethnographic products from highland spinning: balls of yarn
Skein making _______________________________________________________________ 51
Ethnographic products from highland skein making: skeins
Dyeing ____________________________________________________________________ 53
Ethnographic highland resources of pigments and dyes
Ethnographic lowland resources of pigments and dyes
Archaeological containers and measuring instruments for pigments
Winding balls of yarn_________________________________________________________ 60
Archaeological yarn winders
Ethnographic products from lowland yarn-winding
Warping up _________________________________________________________________ 65
Archaeological warping instruments from the coast6
Weaving____________________________________________________________________ 67
The loom and its components
The vertical loom
The vertical ‘A’ frame loom
The simple loom of rods
The horizontal and backstrap looms
Archaeological backstrap loom from the Andean coast, with a weft-faced weave
Archaeological backstrap loom from the Andean coast, with a warp-faced weave
Large vertical ‘A’ frame loom from the Andes, with a warp-faced weave
Middle-sized vertical ‘A’ frame loom from the lowlands, with an interlaced sprang weave
Small vertical ‘A’ frame loom from the lowlands, with an interlaced sprang weave
Large vertical loom from the lowlands, with a liyi palla selected weave
Weaving instruments _________________________________________________________ 82
Archaeological loom instruments from the Andes: separators and selectors (wich’uña)
for tapestry weaves
Archaeological loom instruments from the Andes: selectors (wich’uña) for warp-faced weaves
Archaeological loom instruments from the Andes: general selectors for designs (wich’uña)
and separators of colour in layers (jaynu) for warp-faced weaves
Ethnographic loom instruments from the Andes: colour selectors (jaynu)
Weft shuttles from the Andes
Finishes ____________________________________________________________________ 92
Andean archaeological instruments for sewing and finishing: needles and bodkins
Lowland archaeological instruments for sewing and finishing: needles and bodkins
Guarding instruments ________________________________________________________ 98
Archaeological basketry from the Andean coast
Textile planning _____________________________________________________________ 99
Ethnographic instruments from the Andes for planning weaving designs and colours (waraña)
Textile products in the museum
Archaeological textiles _______________________________________________________ 105
The Central Andes
The South-Central Andes
Textiles históricos ___________________________________________________________ 225
Altiplano
Valleys
Ethnographic textiles ________________________________________________________ 257
Highlands
• Altiplano
• Valleys
Lowlands
• Introduction to lowland textiles, by Denise Y. Arnold
• Amazonian region
• Chaco region
• Transitional zone
Glossary __________________________________________________________________ 475
Bibliography _______________________________________________________________ 487
Sites mentioned in the book___________________________________________________ 495
