*** Welcome to piglix ***

Textile arts of indigenous peoples of the Americas


Textile arts of indigenous peoples of the Americas are decorative, utilitarian, ceremonial, or conceptual artworks made from plant, animal, or synthetic fibers by native peoples of both North and South America.

Textile arts and fiber arts include fabric that is flexible woven material, as well as felt, bark cloth, knitting, embroidery, featherwork, skin-sewing, beadwork, and similar media. Textile arts are one of the earliest known industries.Basketry is associated with textile arts.

While humans have created textiles since the dawn of culture, many are fragile and disintegrate rapidly. Ancient textiles are preserved only by special environmental conditions. The oldest known textiles in the Americas is some early fiberwork found in Guitarrero Cave, Peru dating back to 10,1000 to 9,080 BCE.

The oldest known textiles in North America are twine and plain weave fabrics preserved in a peat pond at the Windover Archaeological Site in Florida, the earliest dating to 6,000 BCE.

As previously mentioned, fragments of rope and textiles dating back between 12,100 and 11,080 years ago have been unearthed from Guitarrero Cave in Peru. Because of the extremely dry conditions of the desert sands, twined textiles from the Norte Chico civilization in Peru have survived, dating back to 2500-1800 BCE. Cotton and wool from alpaca, llamas, and vicuñas have been woven into elaborate textiles for thousands of years in the Andes and are still important parts of Quechua and Aymara culture today. Coroma in Antonio Quijarro Province, Bolivia is a major center for ceremonial textile production. An Aymara elder from Coroma said, "In our sacred weavings are expressions of our philosophy, and the basis for our social organization... The sacred weavings are also important in differentiating one community, or ethnic group, from a neighboring group..."Aguayos are clothes woven from camelid fibers with geometric designs that Andean women wear and use for carrying babies or goods.


...
Wikipedia

...