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

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Fragment from a Tunic
Warriors?
Wari culture, probably South Coast (Ica?)
AD 600-900
Cotton, camelid wool; interlocking tapestry weave
5" x 8"
Recent scholarship suggests that the male personages portrayed in large Wari effigy
jars may have represented specific individuals (or more generally, particular
ethnic or social groups) within the larger Wari world. Accordingly, such figures should
be identifiable by markers of personal style, such as distinctive tattoos, body paint,
clothing and symbolic accessories.
Although this long-haired, turbaned individual is less elaborately costumed than many
such characters, his features undoubtedly place him among the company of real people,
rather than mythical ones.
Indeed, the figure's sentry-like posture and weapon (spear thrower?), suggest a guard
or warrior—not an unlikely role given the militaristic nature of Wari expansionism.
And while his red-and-yellow checkerboard shirt is similar to a type of gauzy Nasca-
Wari tunic woven in the discontinuous warp-and-weft technique, it is interesting how
the design also anticipates the checkerboard tunics worn by Inka battalions several
centuries later.
One has to wonder exactly who wore this tunic within Wari hierarchy. A military
leader, whose troops were represented in the design? A foreigner with the power of
the highland empire metaphorically massed behind him? Or, self-referentially, the very
person who occupied the role itself?
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