Shamans, Supernaturals & Animal Spirits: Mythic Figures From the Ancient Andes

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Portion of a Tunic
Staff Deity
Wari-influenced style (Chachapoyas?)
Circa AD 1000
Cotton, camelid wool; tapestry weave,
tubular edging, selvedged on one side
10½" x 15½"
The enduring status of the mythic personage known as
the Staff Deity across Andean space and time is reflected
in this post-Wari-style tunic, possibly from the eastern cloud
forest region of Chachapoyas. From Chavín to Tiwanaku, this
protean divinity (an ancestral or shamanic spirit embodied
in human form?) is consistently presented in a power stance
flanked with two staffs. The visualization of the icon does
evolve over time, however, and its attributes are often culturally
specific.
In this case, the black background is as unusual as the
composition of the tunic, which substitutes widely spaced
pattern blocks featuring a simplified figure for the conventional
Wari banded format.
Although abstraction of the primary icon is characteristic of
late Wari art, this image moves in the opposite stylistic direction.
Esoteric content and visual complexity are replaced by a
straightforward, unsubtle depiction. The implication of this is
ambiguous. Either the context in which the textile was woven
did not attain the level of artistic sophistication evident in
other Wari centers, or weaving traditions had declined by this
period. It is also possible that the interpretation reflects local
styles of representation adapting to a new, foreign leadership,
religious message and iconography.
The personage sports the large ear spools associated with
Andean nobility, as well as patterned headgear and a tunic
adorned with bird medallions. This attire likely signaled ethnic
identity or place of origin.
The rendering is lively and idiosyncratic, making the most of
a bright white outline to articulate form and detail, such as
long fingernails, teeth, a concave mouth and spiraling ears. The
color palette is equally distinctive, incorporating the intense
ochre or mustard yellow that is conspicuous in Chachapoyasstyle
textiles.
Certain ancient visual and symbolic conventions linger. The
figure is slightly off-kilter to allow for the subtle (or attempted)
effect of the contraction and expansion of the staff. Employing
the most common visual trope for communicating shamanic
notions of transfiguration or supernatural status, the heads are
also inverted in one register of the design (but they keep their
hats in place!).
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