Dance Sling Item Number: 3486/42 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
A secondary braid from a dance sling (wichi wichi). One end of the sling has a small loop with alternating black and white stitching, leading into the main red braid with black and white geometric and concentric diamond motifs which branches off into five braids decorated with pompoms on the end. The pompoms have varying tones and textures from the different styles of yarn used including sectionns in yellow, dark brown, red, blue, off-white, green, orange, grey, and purple. One of the branching braids is missing a pompom.
Different types of slings are used for different purposes in the Andes. Some are used for hunting or herding, but another type is used as a dance accessory. In the Cusco region, the type that has a small vestigial cradle and many colourful tassels attached near one end of the braid (in Quechua, called a 'wichi wichi'), is used as a dance sling. Sometimes secondary braids with many tassels are suspended from the main braid, and these are worn across the chest or around the waist, with the tassels mainly hanging below the waist. Another type of dance sling, which incorporates pieces of camelid pelt, is used in the Puno area by men and women in the wiphala dance, a dance that ensures success in hunting.
Sling handles are usually made as solid braids, a technique that is done by holding the braid in one’s fist and crossing threads from the four quadrants across the crown of the braid. Variations in colour, slant, and sequence in the crossing threads produce a variety of diamond or oblique patterns. The salmon ground-color of the braid is similar to shades thought to be natural-dye. Donor believes this could date the fragment to the early part of the 20th century.
Purchased by the donor in 1983 in the Artisans' market in La Paz, Bolivia. Donor believes it was probably made and used in Bolivia.