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Ethnohistory 47.3-4 (2000) 833-836



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Book Review

Textile Traditions of Mesoamerica and the Andes

The Unbroken Thread:
Conserving the Textile Traditions of Oaxaca


Textile Traditions of Mesoamerica and the Andes. Edited by Margot Blum Schevill, Janet Catherine Berlo, and Edward B. Dwyer. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996. xxi + 503 pp., 86 illustrations, preface, contributors, introduction, chapter bibliographies, glossary, index. $19.95 paper.)

The Unbroken Thread: Conserving the Textile Traditions of Oaxaca. Edited by Kathryn Klein. (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 1998. xiii + 162 pp., 158 illustrations, foreword, preface, chapter bibliographies. $55.00 cloth, $39.95 paper.)

Drawing on the technical expertise and financial resources of the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), the Oaxaca Textile Project was launched in June 1993 in association with Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología and the Oaxaca regional museum. Follow-up field studies were conducted to collect plant dyes for chemical analysis and to document current weaving practices, but the heart of the project was an unusual on-site collaboration between GCI consultants and the regional museum staff, prompted by the extensive expansion the museum was undertaking within its early colonial convent setting. The timing thus was opportune to inventory the museum’s important collection of handmade costumes and other indigenous weaving, check any deterioration of the materials that had taken place during the [End Page 833] facility’s twenty-year history, and set in place practical conservation strategies that would ensure the best maintenance of the collection as a whole. For ethnohistorians interested in the dynamic history of traditional arts in Mesoamerica and for visitors to Oaxaca entranced by the colorful panoply of native costume, the lavishly illustrated book that documents this project will be a prized addition to any personal library. That the publication of The Unbroken Thread carries with it the imprimatur of the Getty Trust can only enhance Oaxaca’s growing reputation in the art world and draw attention to the evolving community traditions that produce these textiles.

The Getty consultants sought to train the museum staff in modern conservation standards and techniques that emphasize the stabilization of textiles and prevention of further deterioration, rather than the restoration of damaged objects. A primary objective of the collaborative project was to find techniques for conserving the collection that would be sustainable within the museum’s existing resources. How the resulting protocol was developed to make use of locally available materials and supplies and how the museum staff was trained in its implementation are described in articles by the two Getty conservation consultants, Sharon Shore and Kathryn Klein. Klein, whose prior experience with Mesoamerican textile traditions was in the highland Maya area, provided the overall direction and momentum for the project and served as editor of the publication.

Symbolic, ritual, and technical connections between the textile arts of these two regions and their roots in a common pre-Columbian heritage are the major subjects of Klein’s introductory chapter, “Conservation and Cultural Identity.” The brevity of this chapter makes the multiplicity of such links somewhat difficult to follow in a book designed for the nonspecialist, however. In future publications scholars will want to see fuller development of Klein’s ideas about prehistoric textile symbolism and its relationship to household cloth production today. Ethnohistorians will be particularly interested to see how she reconciles this assumption of historical continuity with her recognition that “the traditional foundations of expressive culture are not static, but are maintained while in various states of transition” (3).

Two other contributions also promise to be of broad interest to Mesoamericanists. Arie Wallert contributed both ethnobotanical and spectrochemical/chromatographic analyses to the study of dyestuffs used in the Oaxaca textile collection. His article includes some surprising findings of the combined use of natural and synthetic dyes in many of the weavings and a useful review of the ethnohistorical and ethnobotanical literature on indigenous dye production. Finally, Alejandro de Avila brings the volume to an informative close with a far-reaching historical and ethnographic review of cloth production and costume design, based...

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