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

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Fragment from the Shoulder of a Tunic
A Male and Female Pair of Condor Staff-Bearers
Wari culture
AD 600-900
Camelid wool; interlocking tapestry weave
19" x 5½"
The entire body of Wari tunic iconography can be charted
on a design spectrum, moving inexorably towards an
endpoint of total abstraction. Indeed, this trajectory might
be considered the apogee of an Andean textile aesthetic that
began a millennium earlier with the modular constructivism of
Chavín imagery.
Since the tapestry tunics were produced over a period of at
least 500 years, time was clearly a contributing factor in this
progression. Several hypotheses have also been advanced to
explain this fascinating development. Alan Sawyer proposed,
for example, that the patterning was increasingly compressed
toward the outer edges of the tunic in order to create the
impression of a rounded volumetric or cylindrical shape that
overrides the flat, square format of the garment.1 William
Conklin has suggested, on the other hand, that the visual
distortion that occurs as the image is repeated across the vertical
bands reflects an Andean concept of one (or multiple) cosmic
horizons toward which the flying mythical figure recedes (or
from which it emerges), diminishing in scale and angle as it
vanishes (or appears) in the distance. 2
The result of the rectilinear compression and fracturing of
the figure is evident in this interpretation of the staff-bearer
attendant. Although partially outlined with a crisp white
thread, the delineation barely compensates for the extreme
compartmentalization of the avian form into myriad elliptical,
square, oblong, circular, chevron, and irregularly shaped color
blocks. The head of the bird is especially elusive, to the point
of merging with the indigo background (top). That gives
prominence to both the distinctive hooked beak of the bird
of prey and the bisected eye, which is wrapped in a stylized
creature that magnifies or shrinks in size depending on the
width allocated to the figure's head.
Despite its cryptic quality, this Wari variant nevertheless
incorporates the same curious motif that adorns the birdheaded
attendant represented on the Sun Portal. The element,
which consists of a small face with an exaggerated, upturned
mouth, is thought to depict the now-extinct Lake Titicaca
Oresteia’s fish. 3 Here this schematic face is set at the tip of the
staff, behind the foot and below the wing. Perhaps inspired by
a fish eagle, the motif surely links this supernatural personage
with that vast lake, which was regarded as a place of mythic and
primordial origin.
The iconography of this fragment is identical to that of a
tunic excavated by Max Uhle at Pachacamac, the powerful
ceremonial and oracle center on the central coast. 4 Without
knowing whether these related textiles were actually woven
there or brought from the highlands, it is impossible to say
whether the mythic significance of this fish motif was still
pertinent among coastal peoples—or if the loss of context
in fact stripped it and others of their specific meanings, thus
promoting the general stylization and reduction of form.
1 Alan Sawyer, "Tiahuanaco Tapestry Design," Textile Museum Journal 1, no. 2 (1963):
27-38.
2 William Conklin, "The Mythic Geometry of the Ancient Southern Sierra," in The
Junius B. Bird Conference 1984, ed. Anne Pollard Rowe (1986): 123-137.
3 John Wayne Janusek, Ancient Tiwanaku (2008): fig. 5.5.
4 Max Uhle, Pachacamac (1903): plate 4, fig. 2.
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