Weaving Identities: Construction of Dress and Self in a Highland Guatemala Town

By Carol Hendrickson

Book Overview

Traje, the brightly colored traditional dress of the highland Maya, is the principal visual expression of indigenous identity in Guatemala today. Whether worn in beauty pageants, made for religious celebrations, or sold in tourist markets, traje is more than "mere cloth"--it plays an active role in the construction and expression of ethnicity, gender, education, politics, wealth, and nationality for Maya and non-Maya alike.

Carol Hendrickson presents an ethnography of clothing focused on the traje--particularly women's traje--of Tecp?n, Guatemala, a bi-ethnic community in the central highlands. She covers the period from 1980, when the recent round of violence began, to the early 1990s, when Maya revitalization efforts emerged.

Using a symbolic analysis informed by political concerns, Hendrickson seeks to increase the value accorded to a subject like weaving, which is sometimes disparaged as "craft" or "women's work." She examines traje in three dimensions--as part of the enduring images of the "Indian," as an indicator of change in the human life cycle and cloth production, and as a medium for innovation and creative expression.

From this study emerges a picture of highland life in which traje and the people who wear it are bound to tradition and place, yet are also actively changing and reflecting the wider world. The book will be important reading for all those interested in the contemporary Maya, the cultural analysis of material culture, and the role of women in culture preservation and change.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0292731000
• ISBN13: 9780292731004
• Release Date: December 1995
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Length: 261 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Traje

This book is good for those looking to learn about traditional Maya dress in Guatemala and how it relates to the lives of those who make and wear it. It is an interesting read, giving good insights to cultural aspects also. Although the research was conducted many years ago, this was an interesting and yet very shaky time in Guatemala, making the read all the more interesting.