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Maya textiles (working draft)

Knowledge of Mayan textiles is limited mostly to elite ceremonial costumes; nonetheless their clothing has significant representation in the complexities of their culture. The most prevalent and influential aspect of women’s clothing in ancient Maya is the huipil, which is still prominent in Guatemalan and Mexican culture today. The huipil is a loose rectangular garment with a hole in the middle for the head made from lightweight sheer cotton. The huipil is usually white with colorful cross-stripping and zigzag designs woven into the cloth using a brocade technique that is still commonly used today. The huipil could be worn loose or tucked into a skirt; this depends on the varying lengths of the huipil. Huipils were important for displaying one’s religion and tribal affiliation. Different communities tended to have different designs, colors, lengths as well as particular huipils for ceremonial purposes. It was uncommon and often disgraceful to wear a huipil design from another community within one’s village; although, it was a sign of respect to wear a community’s huipil when visiting another village. Intrestingly, women were not just limited to their community’s design. Instead the huilpil design offered an outline for what women were required to wear and within the community design women were allowed creativity to make their huipil different than others. Women would often express praise to different gods by including significant animals around the collar of their huipil.

Duties

Besides other duties, one of the top priorities for women was the weaving of cotton cloth for their family because textiles were a significant form of art and religious beliefs. The preparation of cotton for spinning was very burdensome, as it had to be washed and picked clean of seeds. Mayan women wove in patterns on a backstrap loom with spindle fibers and bone picks. Bone picks were unique in that they had different designs for most families and were usually passed on from generation to generation with the elite having the most expensive and beautiful. Elite women were also given the opportunity to work with the most expensive dyes, feathers, and pearl beads. However, women of the elite not only had to prepare the best clothing for their families they also had to be talented in weaving tapestry, brocade, embroidery, and dyeing for tribute to other families and rulers. Weavers had several different types of natural dyes they could use for dyeing their fibers.

Dyes

The Mayas used a variety of natural dyes that came from plants, flowers, seeds, vegetables, fruits, trees, insects, and sea animals. Minerals were also used as a mordant to aide in the dyeing process to achieve different colors or shades of a color even if they were using the same dyeing material.

Indigo an expensive and desired dye supplied different shades of blue that came from the Añil plant, also known as "jiquilite." The Mayas used indigo to dye fibers, paint murals and vases, as well as writing Codices. There are different types of indigo in the world, but the term Maya blue is specific to the indigo used by the Mayas.

"Purpura de Caracol" is an interesting dye which refers to a coastal mollusk that would produce a beautiful purple color. Like the Indigo, the purpura mollusk was very expensive and desired, but only the elite and nobility were able to afford the purple fibers, which is why it was also called, "Imperial Purple". It was expensive because the process of extracting the dye from the mollusks was very tedious and time consuming. These mollusks that live on the coastal rocks had to be picked by hand by the thousands and stimulated to produce a milky substance that was applied directly to the fibers. The mollusks were then quickly returned back to the rocks where they lived and would go undisturbed for a period of time, usually an entire lunar cycle, so that the mollusks would have an opportunity to regenerate their dye.

Cochineal, is an insect that was raised and farmed on prickly pear cactus plants. When the insect was harvested, it was crushed and dried to make a red colored dye. Even though cochineal was primarily used a red dye, by using different mordants a variety of colors could be achieved, including purple.

"Palo de Campeche" was the most important dye and also commonly known as logwood, produced an array of colors by using different mordants in combination with the wood. Colors that can be derived from logwood include: a variety of yellows, reddish browns, light to dark browns, black, grays, blues, and purples.

The Mayas had a couple of different ways of making blacks and grays, such as using logwood, coal or combining several of the dyes together with or without mordants and metals to make a dye bath.

El Almendro is an almond tree whose leaves were dried and put into a vat to create a light yellow dye.

Achiotte also known as "annatto" is a seed that is typically heated to produce orange to reddish dyes used on fibers and for cooking food. Another dye that produces reddish or orange colors is Tamay bark.

Chlorophora tinctoria is a type of small mulberry tree that comes from the moraceae family produces yellow, green, and brown dyes, also referred to as mora in Spanish.

Fibers

The Maya worked with several fibers that accepted dye like cotton, rabbit, wool, henequen, and maguey. Many of these fibers were used for trade before and after they had been dyed.

Cotton was produced in two varieties, a whitish cotton and a natural brown cotton. After the cotton was picked and cleaned of seeds, it was spun into thread before it was dyed then woven into different types of textiles. Many times a backstrap loom was used to weave cotton threads after they had been dyed. The elite and nobility were the only ones that wore clothing made of the finest cotton. Cotton was also used for ritual offerings. "Tochomite" is the name given to a type of rabbit wool that was spun into threads along with cotton then dyed to make clothing, hair ribbons, and other types of textiles. Wool that came from sheeps and goats was later introduced to the New World. Henequen was cultivated from a type of agave plant and used to make rope, twine, and clothing for commoners because it was so inexpensive and abundant. Maguey was also a fiber that was produced from a type of agave plant and was of major value to the Maya as a cordage material used for horse gear, nets, hammocks, and bags.

Dye Processes

Since the Maya used a variety of natural dyes that came from plants, seeds, trees, animals, and minerals, they had to use different processes for each dye and fiber.

Tree dyes like Logwood bark or wood are soaked in water to allow the wood to release the color. If the bark or wood in the water is heated or boiled, it accelerates the process of extracting the dye, as well as creating a stronger richer colored dye. Wood dyes that are not heated yield lighter colors or even different colors. Basically, the Maya could get an array of colors from the same wood dye depending if the vat was heated or not. The ratio amounts of wood dye to water were also a factor that affected the color or shade outcome in the dyed fibers. Another important factor is the use of natural dyes in combination with mordants, such as bicarbonate, alum, copper, tin, and other metals.

Myths

The Maya believed that clothing could transform a person and a person could transform the garment and expressed themselves through it, thus clothing was of great cultural significance. They would often make textiles to enhance religious power; the most common way of doing this was dressing for the maize gods. Women and men would wear a net over skirt made of jade, which they believed to be the color of life and represented their high place in society. In order to dress as a maize deity and manipulate the regeneration of the maize plant, they would weave serpent designs onto huipils to symbolize lightning. Mayas believed that the Lightning God created maize on the top of Mt. Sustenance. Mayan elite would also wear a shark shell belt and a jade-netted collar incorporated into the maize deity costume. Other significant costumes consisted of wearing many quetzal and eagle feathers on headdresses to represent and elite’s power in blue and green tones, which represented the fifth direction, the center of celestial, terrestrial and the underworld levels of the cosmos. Kings would also wear jaguar skin skirts, which signified their connection between the sky and the earth.

Clothing

Mayans wore fancy clothing woven by women. They also wore jaguar skin skirts, a net overskirt made of jade, shark teeth, shell belts, and a jade-netted collar. Other clothing consisted of wearing many quetzal and eagle feathers on headdresses.

See also

• Textiles of Oaxaca

References

• Martin, Simon et al. (2004) Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, London: Thames and Hudson, p16-198.

• O'Neale, Lila M. (1945) Textile of Highland Guatemala. Washington D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, p7-27.

• Schevill, Margot B. (1993) Maya Textiles of Guatemala (1st ed.) Austin: University of Texas Press, p8-60.

• Mayan weaving photos

• Kojima, Hideo (1999). Breve historia de Colorantes naturals en la area Maya y Mesoamerica. U tz’ib, Vol. 2, issue 6, pp. 1-15 Guatemala, Asociacion Tikal 1991-

• Harper, Roland M. (May 1932). Useful Plants of the Yucatan. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. 59, No. 5, pp. 279-288 (Available at http://www.jstor.org accessed on 9/12/2008).

• Conrad, Jim. (1998) Natural Dyes of the Yucatan. Available at: http://www.mexicanmercados.com/crafts/yuc-dye.htm Accessed on 9/13/2008).

• Schevill, Margot Blum, Berlo, Janet Katherine, and Dwyer, Edward B. (1991). Textile Traditions of Mesoamerica and the Andes: An Anthology. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.

• Leggett, William F. (1944) Ancient and Medieval Dye. New York: Chemical Publishing Co.

• Ruz, Mario. (1979). El Añil en el Yucatan del siglo XVI. Estudios de Cultura Maya, Vol.2, pp.111-145.

• Foster, Lynn B. (2002) Handbook to life in the Ancient Maya World. New York: Facts on File, Inc. p. 317

• Kramer, Jack (1972) Natural Dyes: Plants and Processes. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons

• Stalcup, Ann (1999) Maya Weaving: A living Tradition. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group's Power Kids Press

• Robinson, Stuart (1969) A History of Dyed Textiles. Great Britain: Studio Vista Limited

Category:Maya science and technology Category:Maya clothing Category:Textile arts