Morris, Craig, and Donald Thompson. Huánuco Pampa: An Andean City and Its Hinterland. London:
Thames and Hudson, 1985.
Murra, John V. The Economic Organization of the Inka State. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1980 [1955].
■TAMARA L. BRAYFEATHERS
Feather cloth and ornaments featured among the most spectacular of Inca textiles
(see Costume; Weaving and Textiles), reserved for dressing kings, nobles, and
soldiers; decorating gateways, palaces, and temples; and offered in sacrifice. The
Inca emperor crowned his mascaypacha—the headdress that symbolized Inca
kingship—with black and white feathers, carried a wooden staff festooned with
colorful plumes, and was borne on a litter bedecked with parrot feathers, gold,
and silver.
The Spaniards marveled at the quantities of desiccated birds and feathers
warehoused in Cuzco. Pedro Pizarro, one of the few Spaniards to see Cuzco
before the 1536 siege, noted, “There were deposits of iridescent feathers, some
looking like fine gold; others of a shimmering golden green color. These were
very small feathers, from birds a little larger than cicadas [hummingbirds]. . . .
They made clothing from these feathers, and they amazed one, for where could
they find such amounts of iridescent [feathers?] There were many other feathers
of various colors used to make the clothing worn at the fiestas by the lords and
ladies, and not by others” (Pizarro 1921 [1571]).
A feathered headdress found on the summit of
Llullaillaco in Argentina. It accompanied the tomb of a
young woman. Johan Reinhard.