weavers produce what are termed complementary warp weavings. In such
weavings, warp threads of different colors are alternately raised or lowered in an
operation called pallay (to pick [up]) with successive passes of the weft. The
emergent designs produced by this technique are colored opposite (e.g., color vs.
white, or one color vs. another color) on the top and bottom sides of the finished
fabric.
One of two types of fixed-tension looms, the upright loom was most
commonly used in the production of tapestry weave textiles. The weaver would
work in different runs of weft threads of one or another color, generally
interlocking the threads of one color with those of another color where the two
runs met to produce different designs across the surface of the completed textile.
Another type of fixed tension loom, the horizontal loom, was probably used as
well—primarily for the production of tapestry weaves.
With the various materials, devices, and techniques described above, Inca
weavers fashioned some of the finest textiles produced by hand anywhere in the
world. Cloth was a highly valued object in the Inca world. The Incas and their
administrators used their finest textiles to seek favors and compliance with state
plans—including conquests, and to show utmost respect to other peoples with
whom they came into contact. They even offered fine cloth in sacrifice to the
gods and shrines.
Further Reading
Cobo, Bernabé. Inca Religion and Customs. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton. Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1990 [1653].
Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca. Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru. Translated by
Harold V. Livermore. 2 vols. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966 [1609, 1617].
Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe. Nueva corónica y buen gobierno. Edited by John V. Murra and Rolena
Adorno. Translated by Jorge L. Urioste. Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno, 1980.
Murra, John V. “Cloth and Its Function in the Inca State.” American Anthropologist 64, no. 4: 710–28,
1962.
Rowe, Ann Pollard. “Inca Weaving and Costume.” Textile Museum Journal 34–35: 4–53, 1995–1996.
Stone-Miller, Rebecca, ed. To Weave for the Sun: Andean Textiles in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1992.
■GARY URTON
WOMEN
Institutions with a distinctive Andean character shaped what it meant to be a
woman or man in Inca times. Norms of gender parallelism—a model in which
women were conceptualized as descending from a line of women and men, in
like fashion, as descending from a line of men—governed much of community