Textiles
play an essential role in many ceremonies. This room exhibits
textiles not for their aesthetic beauty, but for their ritualistic
importance. Specific rituals are done to inspire weavers and to
bless their weavings for quality, like the prayers dedicated to virgins
made from stone. The objects in this room are used actively
with the intention of influencing reality or destiny, health, the
fertility of their animals, or their skills as weavers.
In
addition there is a very ancient petroglyph - engraved in stone - that
seems, nevertheless, to have inspired the Andean deity Supay or Saqra
that is still depicted in contemporary weavings. Lastly, there
are ritual offerings dedicated to the sky and the underworld showing
the fundamental participation of textiles such as llijllas – shawls -
and colored wools.
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