Costume and History in Highland Ecuador (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) - Hardcover

Rowe, Ann Pollard; Meisch, Lynn A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0292725914 ISBN 13: 9780292725911

Publisher: University of Texas Press, 2011

Synopsis

The traditional costumes worn by people in the Andes—women's woolen skirts, men's ponchos, woven belts, and white felt hats—instantly identify them as natives of the region and serve as revealing markers of ethnicity, social class, gender, age, and so on. Because costume expresses so much, scholars study it to learn how the indigenous people of the Andes have identified themselves over time, as well as how others have identified and influenced them.

Costume and History in Highland Ecuador assembles for the first time for any Andean country the evidence for indigenous costume from the entire chronological range of prehistory and history. The contributors glean a remarkable amount of information from pre-Hispanic ceramics and textile tools, archaeological textiles from the Inca empire in Peru, written accounts from the colonial period, nineteenth-century European-style pictorial representations, and twentieth-century textiles in museum collections. Their findings reveal that several garments introduced by the Incas, including men's tunics and women's wrapped dresses, shawls, and belts, had a remarkable longevity. They also demonstrate that the hybrid poncho from Chile and the rebozo from Mexico diffused in South America during the colonial period, and that the development of the rebozo in particular was more interesting and complex than has previously been suggested. The adoption of Spanish garments such as the pollera (skirt) and man's shirt were also less straightforward and of more recent vintage than might be expected.

About this title

About the Author:

ANN POLLARD ROWE was Curator of Western Hemisphere Textiles at the Textile Museum for most of her career and is presently Research Associate of Western Hemisphere Textiles there. She also edited and contributed to Costume and Identity in Highland Ecuador, which examines contemporary costume, and Weaving and Dyeing in Highland Ecuador, which investigates textile techniques and production.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0292725914
• ISBN 13: 9780292725911
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416
• Editor: Rowe Ann Pollard