Shamans, Supernaturals & Animal Spirits: Mythic Figures from the Ancient Andes, Volume 2

subdivided into multiple symmetrical columns of varying
width and number. Patterned bands alternate with areas of
solid color, usually gold or red. (A small number of tunics
replace this standardized layout with atypical configurations,
all-over patterning or even large-scale figuration.)
The primary motif—whether a staff-bearing character or
other supernatural or a profile or frontal face, or an abstract
element like a spiral or fret—is repeated within all the vertical
bands. And it is the dynamic, malleable treatment of this figure
that is so visually arresting. The figure is typically subjected to
a series of artistic conventions that result in its compression,
expansion, inversion or reversal. The process ultimately leads to
the total distortion of its modular parts and overall form.
Each motif is composed using a stock vocabulary of rectilinear
and curvilinear figurative or schematic elements. This
constructivist approach to creating a figure out of geometric
blocks—which are modified in shape, in scale and by color,
according to an internal pattern scheme—yields mosaic-like
designs. The compositions range markedly in their degree of
visual cohesion and legibility—even to the point of visual
fracture, when the geometricization and distortion are pushed
to an extreme.
The orientation of the motifs in the patterned bands also
follows an internal logic established by the weaver or weaving
workshop. The repeat figures are juxtaposed, inverted, doubled
or paired in ingenious ways. Depending on whether they are
read on the vertical axis, as horizontal rows or in diagonal
arrangements, some figures are shown twisting in opposite
directions, for example, while others may face the same way, or
mirror each other across the center seam.
This pattern of alternation is further complicated by the
rhythmic magnification and condensation of the smaller
components or details of the design (such as a wing, staff,
head or headdress). These shifts visibly alter the proportions,
delineation and clarity of the overall image.
If this process were not sufficiently confounding, it also
intersects with a sophisticated use of color, which is applied in
predictable combinations that recur in a fixed number, order
and direction across the entire compositional field of the tunic.
Even though these color clusters, or blocks of associated colors,
are repeated at regular intervals, they are aligned and staggered
on parallel diagonal lines that may converge, cross or move
up and down in opposite directions. This progression can be
mapped graphically, as Susan Bergh has done. But because the
faceted surface and prismatic color usually mask the underlying
order, it not easily distinguishable by the viewer. Moreover,
randomly placed and arbitrary color substitutions, or deviations
in the hue of any one element, large or small (an aesthetic
predilection common to Andean weavers from all cultures and
periods), may further disrupt the sequence, thus baffling most
readings. (This type of analysis is particularly difficult to grasp
when the textile is incomplete or fragmentary.)
Why most Wari tunic iconography focuses almost exclusively
on the attendant staff-bearer, rather than the primary waka
or Cosmic/Creator Deity, is unanswerable. It may have to
do with the political and military nature of the Wari state.
Perhaps this imperial society took on the role of proselytizer
of the Tiwanaku (or highland) religious vision. Or, possibly,
its officials saw themselves as members of a “divine legion"
who paid veneration to the Cosmic Deity and sought to direct
the resources of the larger Andean realm toward it (while
benefitting from the power and control over such resources).
The result of this cultural imperative was a powerful artistic
vision that encoded its message of shamanistic transcendence
in a collectively created visual and symbolic language that left
room for individual genius.
1 Susan E. Bergh, “Tapestry Woven Tunics," in Wari. Lords of the Ancient Andes, ed.
Susan E. Bergh (2012): 166.
2 Anita Cook, “The Coming of the Staff Deity," in ibid., 112-113.
TheWinged, Avian Staff-Bearer on the Gateway of the Sun at Tiwanaku.
Adapted from Anton 1984, 107.
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