High and Low: Highland and Coastal Dress in the Andean Region, 100-800

Summary

Dress can be a key aspect of stating a cultural or ethnic identity. Garment shapes, textile techniques, and accessories all contribute to creating a particular ensemble that can define a group identity. This effect can be heightened in the representation of dress, as the artist and patrons decide what are the essential elements that are worth depicting, and as the medium of representation dictates what can and cannot be conveyed visually. This paper examines the similarities and differences in the representation of dress in ceramic effigy vessels among the Moche, Nasca, and Recuay cultures of Peru. These cultures overlap in time, providing a chance to understand what were considered important elements of the cultures themselves, and whether commonalities in coastal dress styles noted by A. Rowe (1990) and others (Frame 2003, Horié 1991) persisted in the representation of costume in ceramic. Similarities and differences in garment forms, decorative motifs, and accessories are all used to analyze the statement of identity and difference made by these pieces.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• See How We Are: Representing Identity in the Ancient Americas

Keywords

Spatial Coverage