Dance Sling Item Number: 3486/35 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
A fragmentary dance sling (wichi wichi) that has a solid braid and a flat, finger-woven band as handles on either side of the vestigial cradle. The cradle is too small to be functional for hurling stones. Several different patterns alternate on the solid braid, one of which may be a bi-colour variant of “amapolas”, the name of a poppy that grows on the banks of rivers. The sling has large tassels grouped at the end of the solid braid and small tassels on the cradle and finger-woven band.
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 donor between 1978 and 1984 in the Cuzco area, where it was likely made and used.
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.