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Item Name

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Material

Manufacturing Technique

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Maker

Place Made

Date Collected

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Date Owned

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Acquisition Date

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Cultural Context

swaddling

Narrative

Made by Eufrasia Yucra Huatta, a young married woman, a year or so before it was collected. It was used for holding the swaddling cloths of a young baby in place.

Specific Techniques

The yarns are z spun and 2 ply s. The yarns appear to be commercially spun and are probably synthetic fibre; structure is a complementary-warp weave with 2 span floats. Unworked warps made into 8 strand square braid of 2/2 interlacing and finished off by wrapping with a separate element. Loom-shaped.

History Of Use

Warp-faced fabrics with three or four selvedges are woven by women on the indigenous style loom, a staked-out horizontal ground loom, or an adjustable tension (body) loom. The technique and structure have pre-Conquest antecedents, and as in ancient times, the fabrics are used in their rectangular form without cutting or shaping. Narrow bands have a number of miscellaneous uses as ties and straps. They are also used to swaddle babies, of both sexes, to the age of 3 months. They hold the swaddling cloth in place by criss-crossing 2 or 3 times as the ends of the band wrap around the baby's body.

Description

Belt composed of a narrow, warp-faced band with a herringbone pattern running the length of it. Shades of orange and green predominate with a fleck of red-purple in the centre and dark blue-green edges. One end of the band finishes in unworked warps with cut ends and the other end is finished with a square braid.