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

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Band from a Tunic?
Female Dignitary Receiving a Procession
Lambayeque culture
AD 1000-1375
Cotton, camelid wool; interlocking and
slit tapestry weave
10½" x 5"
The unusual pictorialism of Lambayeque textile design
is a legacy from their Moche forebears, who illustrated
exquisitely detailed mythic narratives on their fine pottery.
(Their textile iconography is mostly unknown though.)
Lambayeque and Pacatnamu artists transferred Moche visual
naturalism and storytelling to the medium of cloth. The
woven representations of mythological and ceremonial themes
are greatly simplified, however, focusing on key episodes or
characters that are presumably drawn from broader north coast
oral traditions of cultural myth and history.
One of the major protagonists in Moche iconography is a
priestess who plays a key role in sacrificial rites. This enigmatic
personage is sometimes shown traveling by boat or on a mythic
journey that takes place at sea. Contemporary archaeological
investigation has uncovered increasing evidence of the
importance of priestesses and female shamans and healers
in the Moche world. Nevertheless, women are infrequently
represented in textile imagery, so this fragment is tantalizing—
as much for what it suggests about the unknown role of women
in ritual, as for what can be construed by analogy.
Executed in the characteristic olive green, gold and white colors
of the Lambayeque style, the vivid scene portrays a female
dignitary, garbed in a checkerboard dress and shawl, receiving
a procession. Borne on litters, these obviously elite individuals
(warriors? nobles? captives?) carry large arrow bundles on their
backs. The closest equivalent to this subject matter is found
among Moche narratives, in which certain episodes culminate
in the presentation of high-ranking prisoners to assorted
supernatural and real personages (prior to their gruesome
dismemberment).
The stepped platforms or terraces interspersed with rows
of human heads, shown in the lower register of the design,
establish the setting as a ceremonial precinct. The heads may
represent spectators or else a row of trophy heads culled from
vanquished foes. The display is framed top and bottom with
motifs that offer a potential clue—fruits that likely symbolize
th Ulluchu plant, which has anticoagulant properties and was
associated with blood rites.
Although the bird perched on the priestess’s head may reflect
Andean notions that link women shamans with parrots or
owls, sacrificial tableaux abound in vultures and raptors as well.
The distinctive shape of the tumi decapitation blade, which is
placed between the two litter-bearers, may well signal the fate
that awaits the person they transport.
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