Cobo and provincial Inca clothing

by

Grace Katterman

 

In addition to naming several types of cloth made in the highlands of camelid fibers  (chusi, abasca, and cumbi), Father Bernabe Cobo (1990, bk. II, ch.11) wrote that in the provinces, people made clothing of domesticated cotton under two particular circumstances.  First, he stated, was "for themselves", and the second, "for their overlords." Cobo provided no names or further description of these types of cloth, but the cotton cloth they "made for themselves" most likely referred to the home production of clothing for the family.  The second type, cloth "for the overlords" suggests clothing produced in fulfillment of the mita tax requirements imposed by the government on every household and overseen by local overlords (Murra 1962). 

 

Arachaeological discoveries on the south coast of Peru  provide interesting details about these types of Provincial cotton cloths.  Concerning tribute cloth, the discovery of a large cache of Inca Period  cotton garments at Rodadero in the Acari Valley (Katterman and Riddell 1994) helped  identify the standardized types of  women's garments collected for the mita tax requirements. At the Cemetery of the Sacrificed Women at Pachacamac, Max Uhle (1803 and 1991) also reported discovery of similar types of female garments. The recognition of these standardized garment types at a number of locations remote from one another indicates their wide and varied circumstances of  redistribution. 

 

Concerning the types of cotton clothing people in the provinces made for themselves, the collection and analysis of over 70 Inca Period burials from Quebrada de La Vaca West in the Chala drainage  (Menzel and Riddell, 1954;  Katterman, in process) provide first time detailed information about the everyday cotton clothing workers and their families wore at an Inca outpost on the south coast.   The standardized types and consistent patterns of  simple decoration indicate adherence to a well-ordered code of dress at this provincial government center.  

 

 

Grace Katterman received her MA in Anthropology and Museology in 1986 from the University of Arizona and continued studies in Clothing and Textiles until the department closed without awarding further degrees. During this time she was also employed in textile conservation by the Western Archaeological and Conservation Center, a National Park Service repository in Tucson, where she now continues to work under contract with this facility as a textile conservator. As a current Board Member of the California Institute for Peruvian Studies, she has been active in textile instruction, research and conservation in Peru for over 15 years. She has authored articles concerning several major south coastal textile collections in the care of this organization and currently continues the study of Provincial Inca garments.