Dance Sling Item Number: 3486/47 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
A complete sling (wichi wichi). It has a small vestigial cradle that is finger-woven. Many colours of yarn tassels outline the cradle. The larger handle has diamond patterns in four alternating colours along its length. The final section has a series of tassels and there is a finger loop hidden between the second and third tassels. A large red tassel is near the end and has 4 simpler braids, each with a final tassel. There is a secondary braid that branches off, just above the large red tassel, and it has five colourful tassels. The second handle that comes off the cradle is thinner. It is wrapped with natural colours of camelid yarns, but has no pattern beyond horizontal colour changes.
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.
Purchased by the donor between 1978 and 1984 in Lima.
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.