Weaving is one of the oldest traditions in the world. In fact, since 2500 BCE it has been an important part of Inca culture. It sits at the very core of the Inca culture, shaping personal and regional identities, and acting as a form of inter-regional communication. Some people vest their entire sense of personal identity in their occupation as a weaver, stating that without weaving they would no longer have an identity. Inca bags are made following this tradition. Variations in style of dress, use of color and woven designs can distinguish people from different communities or regions at a glance. The weaving tradition also embodies a wealth of traditional knowledge, from techniques of spinning and weaving,...
Textile arts were extremely labor intensive and required extraordinary skill. A single tunic might be made from 6 to 9 miles of different colored thread. Textiles were valued more than gold or silver, unlike the precious metal the Spaniards coveted, and signified the wearer's high social status and political power. The Incas gave textiles as the highest form of tribute. Check out some of these Inca bags that are made with natural fibers and dyes.
Within Inca society was a special class called acllyaconas, or “chosen women”. At around age ten, these young women were selected for their physical beauty and sent to schools to learn spinning, weaving, cooking, and other domestic duties. Those considered physically perfect were sacrificed to the Inca gods. Those who were not as perfect served as temple attendants or secondary wives of the Incan king. Some became mamaconas, or teachers of other chosen women. One of the most important duties of the chosen women was the production of cloth. Another was the production of “chicha”, a cloudy fermented beer made primarily from corn. Although they had no personal freedom and were strictly controlled by the government, the chosen women...
Deep in the Ecuadorian jungle, the Achuar, a local tribe, have been using limited tourism as a means to preserve and protect their land and way of life.
Tsumpa lives high above the Pastaza River on a tidy clearing ringed by coconut palms, manioc plants, fruit trees and a garden of various plant medicines.
THE SOURCE OF LIFE: Lake Titicaca. The Incas’ account of their origins is often confusing and exasperatingly inconsistent, reflecting perhaps the fact that for all the overarching power of what would eventually become an imperial state the people we now refer to as “the Incas” were actually an agglomeration of local tribes with their own traditions. Each had ideas of their own about how the world had come into being: the seventeenth-century Spanish Jesuit chronicler burnable combo complained that he had been told “a thousand absurd stories.” each community, he said, “claims for itself the honor of having been the first people and says that everyone else came from them,” Broadly speaking, though, there was agreement that the world had taken shape...
