Precolumbian Textile Tools and Technologies: Case Studies from North America and Mesoamerica
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)
While the importance of textiles and the techniques of pre-Columbian textile production have been well documented in the Andes, far less research has been conducted on textile tools and technologies in North America and Mesoamerica. With only a few specific exceptions, the climates of these regions are not conducive to preservation, and textiles themselves are therefore only rarely preserved. Several other sources of relatively untapped evidence on textile production exist, however, in other archaeologically recovered material culture such as implements used for creating textiles, including spindle whorls, net gauges, needles, and weaving awls; objects used with or associated with textiles, such as fishing net weights and floats; and even raw materials such as cultivated or collected fibers and pigments. This session explores how analysis of these artifacts carries great potential for insights into textile techniques and technologies, as well as into the practical and symbolic use of textiles in these societies.
Other Keywords
Textiles •
mission •
Basketry •
California •
Gender •
Cosmology •
Weaving •
Spoons •
Holocene •
Spanish Colonial
Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) •
Mesoamerica •
United States of America (Country) •
United Mexican States (Country) •
Republic of El Salvador (Country) •
Belize (Country) •
Republic of Guatemala (Country) •
USA (Country) •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
Utah (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-6 of 6)
- Documents (6)
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Direction, Gender, and Cosmology in the Pre-Columbian Textile Technologies of Mesoamerica (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Despite the paucity of actual archeological textiles in Mesoamerica, alternative sources provide a picture of pre-Columbian textile technologies. These include: Colonial-era depictions and descriptions, tools, and especially continuities to ethnographic practice. Together, these reveal the centrality of textiles to these societies, and even hint at how textiles conceptually embodied and reflected indigenous cultural norms and notions. I argue that these sources suggest some hitherto...
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Mesoamerican Spindle Whorls from a Technological and Ideological Perspective (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
An important aspect of textile production involves the preparation of fibers, an activity that is represented in the archaeological record from Mesoamerica primarily through the presence of spindle whorls made from a variety of materials, most commonly pottery, but also stone, wood, shell, and gourds. Although occasionally recovered from primary contexts, spindle whorls are more often found in secondary depositions such as burials and caches, or in middens. This paper focuses on spindle whorls...
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Nets, Gauges, and Weights: More on Formative Period Gulf Coast Textiles and Technologies (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
While considerable research has been conducted on the importance of textiles in Mesoamerica, little study has been done on textiles among Formative Period cultures such as the Gulf Coast Olmec. This is in great part because direct evidence of early textiles is scanty, consisting only of a fabric-impressed clay sherd, some hand-formed spindle whorls, and fragments of cordage and woven mats. As noted in my recent publications, however, depictions of textiles in Olmec sculpture provide additional...
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Rare Glimpses: Well-Preserved Weaving Tools, Technologies, and Textiles from the North American Southwest (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Perishable materials that provide information about prehistoric weaving traditions rarely survive in archaeological contexts. The arid environment in the U.S. Southwest, however, has allowed many perishable materials to preserve in excellent condition. Numerous objects collected from the U.S. Southwest, and which are spread out in museum collections across the United States, represent a varied range of textiles and also the material correlates of textile production, including wooden spinning and...
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Weaving the Strands of Evidence: Multifaceted Confirmation of Textile Production and Use at Mission Santa Clara de Asis (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Mission Santa Clara de Asίs, founded in 1777, is one in a chain of twenty-one Spanish Colonial missions established along the coastal region of Alta California. Recent excavations within Santa Clara's Native American Rancherίa have revealed a plethora of objects directly and indirectly associated with textile production and use within the colonial setting. Indigenous practices from ethnic regions of California and Mexico are reflected within the assemblage of sewing/weaving tools, adornments,...
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Wild Plant Fiber Processing and Technological Organization: Holocene Perishable Artifact Production in the Bonneville Basin (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Perishable artifact analysis in the Great Basin has often focused on whole or complete pieces to address questions regarding broad social groupings and environmental adaptation. In the Great Basin, past populations targeted distinct ecological zones to tend and gather wild plant species for the manufacture of perishable material culture, and by focusing on technological organization and the manufacturing process, there is great potential to better understand how these activities contributed to...