Between 1200 and 1535 AD, the Incas lived in the in the South America extending from the Equator to the Pacific coast of Chile. They were warriors, and perhaps due to their fierceness became the largest Native American society. Their historic record as with all the tribes evolving on the planet at that time would be recorded through oral tradition, stone, pottery, gold and silver jewellery, and woven tapestry of the people.
They had no writing system at all, but they kept records on various coloured knotted cord called quipu.
Inca weaving is called Tapis or old picture. The Incas had a reputation for being the best weavers of their time they wove some of the finest tapestries with geometric representations of fish, snakes, condors and frogs. Each symbol has a special meaning: the frog represents an animal that leads a double life - on land and in water, rain and growth. A condor represents strength, freedom and the power to communicate with mountain gods.
The Inca valued weaving and their descendants have continued the traditions, with designs being past down from family to family for generations. Weaving is not just a piece of art that they produce it is part of their social organisation and economic situation. Inca weavers wove their tapestries, blankets and other goods using a method which employs a pole instead of the loom.
The technique of tapestry weaving was reserved for the production of cumbi, the finest cloth used only for royalty, but this practise changed after the arrival of the Spanish who commissioned large tapestry-woven wall hangings that were customary in Europe, which then influenced a change in designs and colours.
The sarita belt, which is woven by women only, is the only documented unbroken weaving tradition to survive from Inca times. "Sara" is the Incas word for corn/ maize. The colours of the belt were red, yellow (for the sun and corn),purple and green (for the leaves), sarita belts must have four colours. Red and white were the colours of the Inca Empire red is for power and white is for purity.
Bibliology
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