This morning we took a 45 minute busride from Ollantaytambo to the weaving village of Patacancha. There are about 450 people in the village, but it is sprawling. Weaving is the main source of income for the village, and they have been weaving in the same ways since at least Incan times. They raise sheep and alpaca, shear them, wash and spin the wool, dye it with natural dies, and then weave it using a an Andean backstrap loom. They tie the yarn to their belt, and the other end of the strings is attached to a nail or piece of wood which they hammer into the ground. This is a unique type of weaving because it uses the warp to make the pattern, using the long strings to make the pattern instead of the weft. In western weaving, you don't have to pick through the strands to find each color that you want to pull through a strand at a time to create the pattern, and so requires much less presence..
They also spin the yarn uniquely, using a wooden drop spindle which is hard to describe so I will use pictures.
Andean weavers dress traditionally, if impractically for the weather. They wear sandals made of tires in all weather, because they say that having open-toed shoes make them feel connected to the earth. They wear black, synthetic skirts with weaving on the bottom half called polleras, and seven or eight colorful petticoats underneath. In souther Peru, they often stagger the petticoats so that you can see all the colors, but not in Patacancha. They generally wear three or for synthetic sweaters, because the synthetic dyes are more colorful. You see bright colors in clothing everywhere. The jackets that they wear called juyunas are generally bright red, and have individualized button patterns on them in any way that they like. Girls who are old enough to be married (17 or 18) weave a shoulder cloth, generally as fancy and complex as they can. It is a way of showing 'I am a really good weaver, I would make a good wife'. When they reach middle age, they weave a new one to show what they have learned in their lives.
Everyone wheres a hat called a montera, which tilts to one side. They are red, with patterns in the middls and a place in the center that is hollow and used for storing money. The hats are purely traditional, and do nothing for un protection or carrying things. The hat is held on their heads by a beaded strap called a sonq'apa, which is also beaded according to whatever pattern the woman likes.
Until recently the sharing of labor was pretty evenly divided between men and women, but recently with the decrease of barter and trade and the increase of money the men have had to go find work as taxi drivers or porters in the city and are gone about 27 days a month. This leaves the crop tending, raising of children, house repairs, and animal care to the women, who also bring in most of the money with their weavings. It makes sense for them to have many children to help with the work, but the Patacancha population has been decreasing because of the cost of buying books and uniforms.
Children are now learning to weave in school. Generally they learn to spin around the age of 3, and begin to weave around 9 or 10.
Families build first a kitchen, using sun-dried bricks. The roofs are thatched, often with corrugated tin under the thatching. Then they will build a living room, and if they have enough money a separate one for the adults and the children. Guest houses will also be built if they can, and these are often round.
Guinea pigs live in the kitchen, and are eaten on special occasions.
I'm not sure what order the pictures will be in, but there are a LOT and include Patacancha, Ollantaytambo ruins and streets, some pictures from Lima, and a couple pictures of sprayine permethrin on clothes to avoid bugs in the rainforest and of getting packed iup.
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