The other night, I dreamt, as so many times before, I could fly. The dream to fly has been and is being dreamt all around the world. For the pre-hispanic Aztecs flying was something incomprehensibly fantastic and mysterious. The eagle gliding high above through the air, seeing and hearing everything that happened on Earth, had to be carried by unknown powers that were thought to reside in the feathers of its wings.
The Aztecs and many other pre-hispanic people across Latin America valued brightly coloured feathers, for their mysterious powers. Warriors, kings and priests adorned themselves with them to show their rank and status within the elaborated hierarchical structures of the ancient societies. In the Amazon, the rank of men and women was symbolized by wearing feathers from birds living in the different levels or canopies of the rainforest. Hunters were associated with birds from the middle and upper canopies (macaws, egrets and toucans), while women who are responsible for gardening and gathering were associated with the birds of the lower levels. Of course the most valuable feathers are those of the eagle that lives on top of the rain forest canopy.
When Hernan CortÈs arrived in the great Tenochtitlan (today’s Mexico City), he was awestruck by the wealth, the beauty and the hustle and bustle of the city, built in the middle of a lake. He was no less fascinated by the dresses of the inhabitants, colorfully adorned with feathers of exotic birds such as those of the Quetzal.
CortÈs shared his fascination, sending gifts to King Charles I. of Spain, among which two shields made from bright bird feathers captured the attention of the people. And curiously, bird feathers started to become somehow fashionable with the royalty and the religious magnates of 16th century Europe. It is said that on his wedding celebrations in 1582, Ferdinand II of Tyrol and his horse were adorned with Quetzal feathers imported from Mexico.
From various readings it seems that there were different techniques to incorporate these feathers, some were woven into the cloth, others sewn or pasted on with special glue, check out the intricacy and diversity of motives and applications in the pictures from an exhibition of the Metropolitan Museum – my definite favorites are the Ear Ornaments and the Four Cornered Hat.
Photo Copyright © 2000ñ2009 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All rights reserved
Mar 16, 2009, 12.39 AMby lauriana
Thanks for your comment, merryk. I didn’t think you ment to deny the evils of imperialism and I completely agree with that those who suffered from colonialism, and the like, should not be portrayed only as victims. To do so would just be another way of denying identity. I hope you will continue celebrating crafts from all over the world in your blog posts.
Mar 13, 2009, 12.50 PMby merryk
Thank you very much for your comment, lauriana, I absolutely agree with you that these encounters have and still do (!) wreak havoc mostly to the detriment of non-European people. I don’t want to romanticise the eras of colonialism, nor do I want to deny their lasting negative repercussion. But I (personally) think it is important to consider that those people who are usually considered to be mere victims of colonialism didn’t just quietly allow to be subjugated: as the blog of the beads tried to show despite the physical but also the psychological destruction that the rhetoric of the colonisers in Africa created, framing all that was “black” as “inferior” and “uncivilised”, Africans didn’t just submit but held up their heads high and used whatever little they could to their advantage. Why do I think this is important: because a “victim” is associated with somebody who is helpless, who has to rely on others to get up and is ultimately not seen as equivalent. I (again personally) think it is time that especially African countries free themselves from this victimhood and that they are recognised as fully equivalent member of the international community.
NEVERTHELESS – your comment is pointing to a significant omission in my blog, and since I cannot change the blogs, I’ll use this space to include the following: “Far from recognising the artistry and elaborate cosmology of the pre-hispanic Latin American cultures (standing symbolically for all cultures that suffered under the violent expansion of Europe), the European colonizers in their barbaric zeal to “civilize” people who they didn’t understand, robbed and destroyed artifacts, enslaved people and forced them to abdicate their believes. Nevertheless, despite the violence, the colonizers did not manage to eradicate the dignity and the pride of the ‘colonised”….
Mar 13, 2009, 05.58 AMby mirela
@nehmah I think you could get an idea on how this could be made from the latest issue of Threads magazine.
@lauriana I couldn’t agree more
Mar 13, 2009, 02.45 AMby lauriana
I really like the sewvenirs posts. However, while reading this one I couldn’t help thinking about how European fascination with what they found on the American continent led to the destruction of its indiginous people and cultures. I had a similar experience while reading the post on beads. While it’s great to admire the various influences on sewing and crafts today, I think we should not overlook the human cost of many of these early cultural cross-overs.
Mar 12, 2009, 03.00 PMby nehmah
Can you recommend a book which explains how the feathers were woven into those elaborate capes? I have never figured out how-to and still keep so much of the color. Cordially, Nehmah
Mar 12, 2009, 02.16 PMby harmke
GREAT! GREAT! I love to read.
Mar 12, 2009, 02.03 PMby mirela
In the latest Threads magazine there is a great how to on using feathers to create your own trim.