Browsing by Autor "Denise Y. Arnold"

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A Comparison of War Iconography in the Archaeological Textiles of Paracas-Topará (in Southern Peru) and in the Weavings of Ayllu Qaqachaka (Bolivia) Today
(Berg Publishers, 2009) Denise Y. Arnold; Elvira Espejo Ayca
Drawing on some observations by Anne Paul concerning the iconography of textile borders in cloth from archaeological sites in Paracas-Topará (southern Peru), and her suggestion that these acted as “markers of the sacred,” we examine some ethnographic contexts in highland Bolivia that also concern borders: the final moment of the wayñu dance each year, and the finishing of textile and field borders. In each case, we propose that the object is to control certain spirits believed to dwell within these borders, so that they finish their creative task there. Finally, we examine the relation between the so-called “war of the ayllus” in Bolivia (in 2000), which produced dramatic changes in regional aesthetics, and textile structures postwar, in which images from textile borders came to occupy the central space of woven cloth. We explain these changes through a theory concerning the war dynamics that occur between the borders and centers of modern territories in conflict, and the way that local populations understand these, which might also have archaeological significance in the case of Paracas-Topará.
Andean Guardian Mountains and the Ethical Obligations Underlying Resource Management: Between Reciprocity and Predation
(2023) Denise Y. Arnold
El ‘vivir bien’ (suma qamaña/ sumaq kawsay) en Bolivia: un paraíso idealizado no tan ‘andino’
(Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, 2019) Denise Y. Arnold; María Clara Zeballos; Juan Fabbri
The concept of “vivir bien” or “well living” and its possible meanings have generated heated debates in Bolivia and the rest of Latin America. This paper, based on a series of interviews with persons familiarized with these debates, examines the origins of the concept, its development, some interests behind it and the impact of its ideas in current Bolivian politics. Three conjunctures are identified in the development of the concept: first as a form of personal advice-giving within a family context linked to the regional practices of a moral economy; second as a public discourse assumed by international organizations, linked to alternative development projects, and third as a slogan in the populist politics of the MAS party (Movimiento al Socialismo) in Evo Morales’ second government. In each conjuncture, the paper identifies the principal social actors interested in the concept of “well living”, their wider interests and the factors at play in their modalities of disseminating the idea. Finally the paper questions whether the concept is authentically Andean, as is usually supposed.
Hacia una visualización semántica del Vocabulario de la lengua aymara, de Ludovico Bertonio
(Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, 2012) Denise Y. Arnold; M.J. Díaz Aguilar; Juan de Dios Yapita
En el marco del Proyecto Comunidades de practica textil , el ensayo explora un nuevo enfoque sobre el Vocabulario de la Lengua Aymara, de Ludovico Bertonio, escrito originalmente en 1612. Nuestro proposito era el de reagrupar las entradas del Vocabulario en campos semanticos ligados con el dominio textil, que se podria visualizar en la pantalla de la computadora ademas de permitir la realizacion de consultas centradas en estos campos por los usuarios del sitio. Este dominio abarca 3.000 entradas centradas en la cadena productiva del textil, desde la crianza de los animales de fibra, pasando por el recojo de los recursos naturales (sobre todo el vellon) y su conversion en materia prima (mediante el escarmenado, hilado, torcido y tenido), y finalmente a las actividades de la elaboracion textil (urdido, tejido y acabado) y la circulacion del producto textil en la sociedad andina. Se usa un abordaje ontologico dirigido a la preparacion de un tesauro, y se ha disenado un nuevo visor para visualizar el Vocabulario semanticamente. Se termina con algunas reflexiones sobre el contenido cultural del Vocabulario, que facilitan este abordaje.
La iconografía textil andina en el contexto de los ritos de paso. Expresiones visuales del derrame de sangre y del momento de florecer
(2023) Denise Y. Arnold
Este artículo rastrea los antecedentes históricos de ciertos textiles andinos y su iconografía en los ritos de paso de los jóvenes durante la pubertad. Estos antecedentes arrojan luces sobre los significados más amplios de las composiciones textiles y el uso del color, sobre todo el rojo y el azul oscuro, en algunas prendas masculinas y femeninas clave. También destaca el significado complementario de estas prendas para cada grupo sexual. Estos significados se centran en la manera en que tejer para las mujeres es en esencia un ejercicio autobiográfico en el que ellas inscriben su propia identidad en diferentes etapas de su vida, al experimentar las equivalencias entre sus propios flujos de sangre y otros flujos líquidos generativos de su entorno. Exploro este tema al yuxtaponer datos etnográficos de Mesoamérica, las tierras bajas amazónicas y los Andes. This paper traces the historical background of certain Andean textiles and their iconography in the rites of passage of young men and women at puberty. This background sheds light on the wider meanings of textile compositions and colour use, above all that of red and dark blue, in some key male and female garments. It also highlights the complementary significance of these garments for each sex group. These meanings are centred in the way in which weaving for women is in essence an autobiographic exercise, in which they inscribe their own identity at different stages of their lifespan, by experiencing the equivalencies between their own blood flow and that of other generative flows of liquids in their environment. I explore this theme by juxtaposing ethnographic data from Mesoamerica, the Amazonian lowlands and the Andes.
Making textiles into persons: Gestural sequences and relationality in communities of weaving practice of the South Central Andes
(SAGE Publishing, 2018) Denise Y. Arnold
The complex social and technical dimensions of weaving in contemporary Andean communities of practice are examined to suggest how these might have evolved so that populations could coordinate and make sense of their daily tasks in an emerging biocultural space. Rejecting former constructivist epistemological biases in operational studies of working practice, the article explores an alternative approach where technical practice is given meaning through ways of being in the world, and where common sense-making derives from the idea that textiles are living beings. The nurturing processes of a relational ontology where ‘making’ is ‘growing’ are traced in the patterns of learning and their gestural sequencing in weaving communities, in winding instruments that intercalate productive spheres and in finished textiles that express productive yields.
The intrusive<i>k'isa</i>: Bolivian struggles over colour patterns and their social implications
(Taylor & Francis, 2012) Denise Y. Arnold; Elvira Espejo
This essay explores the relationships between technical practices, philosophical ideas and cultures, from the perspective of ideas about colour use in Andean textiles. It proposes that Andean theories of colour, as in Europe, are closely bound to developments in the production of colour. This implies that culturally held colour theories change with the movement of ideas across geographical and political frontiers, as part of the cultural reflections that accompany the interchange and commerce of artifacts (woven and others). We examine the current insistence in the region of ignoring the impact of global influences on local productive practices, and the paradoxical situations that result, when the origins of new productive tendencies become confused with regional phenomena. We also consider the attempts to integrate these external influences into political posture that seek to reinvent regional traditions, arguing that this disguises the possible negative effects of a greater integration of populations into wider economic networks, while effacing the role of regional social actors in technological developments. As a case study we take the k'isa, a pattern of colouring whose use has come to express visually and politically the power of the indigenous movement, above all of Aymara-speaking peoples, in spite of its origins elsewhere.
Tornasol Techniques as Cultural Memory
(2023) Denise Y. Arnold
<p class="first" id="d7020865e113">This chapter challenges traditional interpretations of the shimmering effects of Andean colonial cloth that are widely considered to result from the introduction of Asian silks to the New World. Instead, such techniques illustrate a much longer-term regional strategy concerned with cultural continuity, subjectivity, and memory, through the material replication of ancestral knowledge. Early modern shimmering Andean textiles, this chapter argues, materialised indigenous cultural memory, persistence, and resistance, and the making of indigenous communal identities in a changing world. The colonial setting opened up a liminal space in which the material articulation of these pre-colonial cultural continuities became a crucial element of identification, memory, and identity.
Towards Building a Knowledge Base for Research on Andean Weaving
(Springer Science+Business Media, 2009) Denise Y. Arnold; Sven Helmer; Rodolfo Velásquez Arando
Using ethnography to unravel different kinds of knowledge in the Andes
(Taylor & Francis, 1997) Denise Y. Arnold
(1997). Using ethnography to unravel different kinds of knowledge in the Andes. Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies: Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 33-50.
Weaving as writing: a serious omission in the Bolivian Educational Reform of 1994
(Springer Nature, 2023) Denise Y. Arnold