"Imagery in Nasca Cross-Knit Looped Textiles from the Milwaukee Public " by Katherine A. Cianciola

Date of Award

December 2023

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Anthropology

First Advisor

Jean Hudson

Committee Members

Dawn Scher Thomae, David Pacifico

Keywords

cross-knit looping, Malcolm K. Whyte, Milwaukee Public Museum, Nasca, Peru

Abstract

Textiles associated with the Nasca culture (0-650 C.E.) from Peru’s South Coast have been recognized for their complex and colorful ecological, anthropomorphic, and geometric imagery. Little, however, has been written about their three-dimensional cross-knit looping and embroidery. Cross-knit looping produced three-dimensional figures that were part of an elaborate border on clothing and a style specifically associated with the Nasca (Sawyer 1997:24, 27, 41, 97, 131-132, 136 for example). This thesis focuses on Nasca textiles primarily from the Malcolm K. Whyte (Accession Numbers: 18046 and 20517) collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) and includes three-dimensional cross-knit looping of ecological and anthropomorphic subject matter. I have identified a total of 127 Nasca cross-knit looped related catalog numbers which consist of 331 individual fragments. This thesis will use the ecology and cultural history of Peru’s South Coast as a starting point to evaluate connections between the natural world of the Nasca and the iconography present on their cultural products. The methodology in this research involves a museological approach that integrates collection management, textile analysis, and quantitative determination of decorative trends.

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