Dancing Sling Item Number: Sf381 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Description
Wool sling consisting of an orange, purple, green, yellow and red braid with five tassels spaced along the length and a centrally positioned pouch. The pouch is composed of four woven strips which have a stitched netting between them. One end has a braided finger loop.
History Of Use
Used by men and women for dancing at carnival, a moveable fiesta in February or March. A fruit like an apple, called 'ningrello', is put in the pouch and it is swung over the head with the fruit giving weight to it. Dance slings appear to derive from slings used in hunting or warfare to hurl projectiles. The dance sling is smaller, more elaborately decorated and has a modified pocket. Many Andean communities use slings in their dances but the style of the sling is distinctive in each community. The tassels are called fluicos; the braids are called simbasqa.
Narrative
Bought from Elena Quispe Flores in Taquile who sold it for the maker, her adoptive mother Teresa Flores Huatta. Teresa made it during the 1950's and had been using it for dancing in the Carnival Fiesta right up to present.
Specific Techniques
The yarns of the original sling are sheep's wool and alpaca fibre, hand spun z and plied 2 s. Dyed with chemical dyes. The orange yellow and magenta yarns in the tassels are commercial yarns, z spun and plied 3 s, and were added some years after the sling was made. The sling is a square braid, obliquely interlaced with 12 threads in an over 3 under 3 interlacing order. The finger loop is briaded on 6 ends and varies irregularly between a flat and square braid. The pouch is composed of 4 strips of weft-faced plain weave woven on the same threads used in the braiding. The strips are joined by netted sections of irregular stitching. Separate cut yarns are mounted on a cord and stitched to the braid in 5 places to form the tassels.
Cultural Context
carnival dancing
Item History
- Made by Teresa Flores Huatta (Maker) in Taquile, Puno, Peru between 1950 and 1960
- Collected by Mary Frame during 1987
- Owned by Mary Frame before November 3, 1987
- Received from Mary Frame (Seller) and Museum of Anthropology Shop Volunteers (Funding source) on November 3, 1987
What
- Name
- Dancing Sling
- Identification Number
- Sf381
- Type of Item
- sling
- Material
- wool fibre, alpaca wool fibre, synthetic fibre and dye
- Manufacturing Technique
- spun, plied, braided, woven and sewn
- Overall
- height 69.3 cm, width 8.6 cm, depth 3.6 cm
Who
- Culture
- Quechua
- Creator
- Teresa Flores Huatta (Maker)
- Field Collector
- Mary Frame
- Previous Owner
- Mary Frame
- Received from
- Mary Frame (Seller) and Museum of Anthropology Shop Volunteers (Funding source)
Where
- Holding Institution
- MOA: University of British Columbia
- Made in
- Taquile, Puno, Peru
When
- Creation Date
- between 1950 and 1960
- Collection Date
- during 1987
- Ownership Date
- before November 3, 1987
- Acquisition Date
- on November 3, 1987
Other
- Item Classes
- textiles
- Condition
- good
- Accession Number
- 1274/0035