article

Textiles, women, and political economy in late prehispanic Peru

Research in economic anthropology14Published In 1993 • Pages: 3-28

By: Costin, Cathy Lynne.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Costin examines textile production as it is portrayed in the ethnohistoric literature and in the archaeological remains found throughout the Yanamarca Valley in Peru. For the sake of simplification, as gender can not be distinguished in the archaelogical data and as it is usually produced by women, Costin treats cloth production as solely women's work. She specifically looks at how rough cloth ('ANASQA) and fine cloth (QOMPI) were made during the Wanka II period as shown by the archaeological data and contrasts that with the changes seen in the Wanka III period, after the Inkan conquest, based on archaeological and ethnohistoric data. Some of the changes seen in the Wanka III period include towns that showed no sign of spinning or weaving and indications that women gained even less direct benefit from the textiles they wove than they had earlier. Although women made most of the CHICHA and cloth given as gifts by the Inka state they rarely participated in the ceremonies where these items were distributed. Instead, men were the usual receipients.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Cordage
Woven and other interworked fabrics
Production and supply
Division of labor by gender
Social relationships and groups
Household
Taxation and public income
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Inka
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2005
RegionThe area the document pertains to
South America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Central Andes
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
article
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Archaeologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Sarah Berry ; 2003
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1977-1979, 1982-1983
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1350-1533
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Yanamarca Valley; Peru
NotesAdditional notes
Cathy Lynne Costin
Includes bibliographical references (p. 25-28)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
79640245
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Incas