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

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Panel from a Tunic
Ecstatic Staff-Bearer (Camelid? Puma?)
Wari culture
AD 500-800
Camelid wool; interlocking tapestry weave
7" x 18¼"
In Wari design, the mechanisms of abstraction and the
layout of the patterned bands not only generate a sideways
compression and distortion of the image. The process can also
exert internal pressure on the alternating motifs from top to
bottom—as in this composition, which oscillates between a
relatively legible icon (below) and a nearly incomprehensible
compressed form subsumed into a conglomeration of
geometric shapes (above).
While the abstract aesthetic in Wari tapestry design appears to
have gained momentum over time, the stylistic evolution was
not linear. Andean weavers always had at their disposal two
sophisticated modes (figurative and abstract) for patterning
fabric and encoding cosmological and cultural ideas. The Wari
tradition also produced garments that were purely geometric
in conception and layout, such as the scintillating tie-dyed
mantles associated with the Nasca coastal region. But the
synthesis of the two modalities, which occurs in the tapestrywoven
tunics, is visually and intellectually unique.
Tiwanaku and Pukara iconography tapped feline imagery
extensively, using the animal as an exponent of spiritual
vitality, as well as an atavistic metaphor for sacrificial killing.
Plumbing the symbolic link between wildcat and San Pedro
cactus, Wari tunic iconography similarly gives primacy to
the feline, alongside the bird of prey, as an avatar of shamanic
transcendence. But although the particular incarnation of the
ecstatic staff-bearer seen here is usually interpreted as having
feline attributes, Susan Bergh suggests now that its "twofingered
hand" alludes to the cloven hoof of a camelid or
deer. 1 In any case, the character’s upturned head followed by
the emergence of the animal claw and bared teeth signal a
shape-shifting brought on by a psychotropic plant.
This magical alteration is mirrored on the visual plane, where
the geometric fragmentation of the figure invokes the kinds
of optical effects triggered by the taking of hallucinogens. The
design seemingly acknowledges that sort of experience, and
indeed might have been intended to affect the viewer in the
same way.
1 Susan E. Bergh,"Tapestry-Woven Tunics," in Wari. Lords of the Ancient Andes, ed.
Susan E. Bergh (2012): 166-167.
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