Blue Tunics and Royal Lions: Colonial Period Changes in Clothing and Changing Conceptions of Indigeneity in the Spanish Colonial Americas

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeologies of Contact, Colony, and Resistance" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper addresses the impact of conquest and colonialism on indigenous Andean peoples’ clothing styles and textile motifs in the central Andes, using examples from elsewhere in Latin America and beyond to contextualize documented patterns. Comparing Prehispanic and colonial period examples, I use several classes of material culture to shed light on sociopolitical organization, gender, and ethnic identity. Specifically, I explore the impact of Spanish public policies, gender roles, and social ideals on the maskaypacha scarlet forehead fringe, the form and decorations on male Inkan unku tunics, and gendered costume changes. All of these examples reveal patterns in indigenous clothing that can be linked to colonial period conceptions of indigeneity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeologies of Contact, Colony, and Resistance   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23050