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of their efforts to centralize their empire and its territory,
the Inca moved their finest artists and craftspeople
to Cuzco, their capital. The Inca especially
appreciated geometric designs on fine-quality fabrics
(fig. 15), and human and animal figures gradually
disappeared from their textile arts. Originally
from the cordillera’s highlands, they also preferred
camelid yarn to cotton, which had to be imported.
The process of “Incanization” at the end of the
period resulted in the loss of regional distinctions
and the unique styles of each culture and people.
The Inca Empire was politically centralized, and its
power was cemented and maintained by the dissemination
of its designs and its iconography throughout
the immense area it dominated. Regional styles
had disappeared before the arrival of the Spanish,
belying the richness of the techniques, iconography,
styles, and materials that the predecessors to the
Inca had developed and expressed in such a wide
variety of forms over previous millennia.
POST-COLONIAL PRODUCTION
The colonial imposition of European cultural and
religious norms, which forbade a number of practices
among the indigenous population, notably
with regard to clothing, led to the loss of the tra-
FIG. 22 (below): Pair of
shoes. Inca, Peru.
AD 1470–1532.
Llama leather, alpaca wool. L: 24 cm.
Linden-Museum Stuttgart,
inv. M31933 a and b.
© Linden-Museum Stuttgart.
Photo: A. Dreyer.
FIG. 23 (right): Vessel in the
form of a foot. Chimu-Inca,
North Coast, Peru.
AD 1470–1532.
Terracotta. H: 17 cm.
Linden-Museum Stuttgart,
inv. M32440.
© Linden-Museum Stuttgart.
Photo: A. Dreyer.
ANDEAN TEXTILES
ditions that had already been marginalized by the
Inca. Clothing gradually underwent “Europeanization”
for both men and women. The poncho, for
example, the iconic garment of spaghetti Westerns,
is a variant of the traditional Andean tunic adapted
for horseback riding as introduced by the colonists.
In the second part of the twentieth century, foreign
collectors, concerned by the disappearance of
these traditions, sounded the alarm and garnered
the attention of specifically interested parties as well
as the general public to better appreciate the quality
and inestimable wealth of Andean textiles. Unfortunately,
this also had nefarious effects, since many
impoverished communities then sold and thus lost
their best old textiles as they became highly valued
by others. In their absence, weavers lost their source
of inspiration. Today, the export of these textiles
is regulated and, despite the competition they face
from mass-produced clothing, Andean weavers continue
to produce both for themselves and for tourists.
The connection these peoples have with their
historic traditions and the importance they continue
to attach to weaving are proof that not all is lost.
The beauty of textiles thus endures in the Bolivian
and Peruvian traditions. The designs have been
popularized, undoubtedly in tandem with the European
infatuation with African wax-resist fabrics,
and production has been commercialized to a great
extent. The popular Peruvian woven-yarn earflap
hat (chullo) is a case in point. Despite this, tradition
persists. A simple example of this presented by