Costume and History in Highland Ecuador

Conclusions

Conclusions ann pollard rowe Perhaps our most notable finding is the longevity of Inca-style costume, which in women’s dress and even in men’s tunics continued until the midtwentieth century in several areas. This survival results in part from the fact that the Spanish overlords did not object to it.When they did object to something , such as men’s loincloths, it was quickly replaced by Spanish garments. In the colonial period, indigenous garments formed part of the tribute and payment system, which would have reinforced their use, but even after these systems were no longer in effect, people continued to make and wear this clothing. Presumably the fact that this small country had relatively few resources and attracted relatively little outside attention also contributed to the conservatism of the costumes of its indigenous inhabitants. The woman’s full-body anaku, introduced into at least northern Ecuador by the Incas, continued in use into the twentieth century in Imbabura (Otavalo area), Pichincha, and Central Chimborazo. Even in some areas where gathered skirts were current during the 1970s and 1980s, there is evidence of the anaku not very far back, notably in eastern Imbabura and much of Southern Chimborazo. The main nineteenth-century evidence for Spanish-style skirts is in Quito and the Cuenca Valley, the most urbanized zones. We lack mid-nineteenth-century evidence for Cañar and Loja, although photographs from around 1900 do suggest polleras in both areas. Thus, the Great Skirt Divide appears to have simply crept northward a little, and the skirts that appear in Quito can be explained by the proximity of European influence. Although in Imbabura, southern Pichincha, and Chimborazo a full anaku evolved into a half anaku, in Tungurahua a half anaku was worn with a separate wrapped top, and there is evidence also in Saraguro for such a combina- 310 Costume and History in Highland Ecuador tion. The Saraguro pleated skirt is called anaku and is backstrap-loom woven, suggesting its derivation from a wrapped garment. The half anaku in Tungurahua (and Bolívar) is also fuller than those in Otavalo and Chimborazo, which may reflect the influence of the pollera, as seems to have been the case in Saraguro. Unfortunately, we have no pre-1900 evidence for these costumes. Similarly, the man’s kushma was worn throughout the colonial period all over highland Ecuador. Moreover, it not only survived in use through much or most of the twentieth century in Central Chimborazo, Cañar, and Saraguro , but also into twentieth-century memory in Imbabura and parts of Pichincha Province. There is also evidence of young boys wearing tunics to the exclusion of pants in Otavalo, Salasaca, and Chimborazo within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. It is interesting that the kushma was often worn belted, unlike Inca tunics , and also that it was not always sewn up the sides. Possibly these features derive from a pre-Inca kushma originating in southern Ecuador, though for Cañar, the term is the only record of such a garment. In Cañar, Central Chimborazo, and the old Zámbiza costume, these two features go together: the belt was used to hold the cloth close to the body. But the Saraguro kushma was both sewn and belted. The sewn tunics worn by the Indio principal of Quito in Albán’s 1783 painting and in Nayón (near Quito) seem to have been unbelted, in the manner of Inca examples. Perhaps in Quito a tunic closer to Inca custom would be expected, whereas in Saraguro, the local custom of a belt was added to the Inca-style tunic.The kushma was also usually made from a single loom panel, and thus is a relatively narrow garment. Possibly the Salasaca poncho, which is a long and narrow single panel, evolved from a kushma. It is also notable that these Inca garments (except belts) are usually undecorated , although some have a simple striped pattern. This situation contrasts markedly, for example, with that of the southern highlands of Peru and Bolivia, where the clothing often has elaborate woven patterning. Although in some cases the garments are or were treadle-loom woven (e.g., in Salasaca and Otavalo), which would tend to restrict the amount of patterning, in many cases the indigenous backstrap loom is or was used (e.g., in Chimborazo , Cañar, and Saraguro). Ordinary Inca garments (again, except belts) also lacked woven patterning apart from simple stripes, so it is possible that its absence...