Technical attributes as cultural choices: The textiles associated with an Inca sacrifice at Cerro Esmeralda, northern Chile.

摘要

In this thesis, my primary intent is to demonstrate that technical attributes of textiles are the result of individual choices made within the contexts of cultural traditions. These choices may represent the decisions made by the people who produced the artifacts as well as the preferences of the artifact consumers.; Textile artifacts from the Inca Sacrifice site of Cerro Esmeralda were assessed and interpreted using the system defined by Emery (1980), and were then compared with known Inca textile characteristics as described by Ann Rowe (1995–96) and published artifacts from other sites. By focusing on specific artifact variables such as dimensions, structure, colour, and design; yarn attributes such as diameter, direction of twist, angle of twist and tightness of twist; fibre characteristics such as type of fibre and diameter of fibre; and other factors such as levels of skill, it was possible to distinguish technical differences suggesting both individual producers and the social groups that sponsored them.