Weaving and traditional dress are an important
part of Mayan culture and can even be used as a
political voice, said researcher Carol Hendrickson
at a lecture Friday.
Hendrickson’s research has taken place mostly
in highland Guatemala, particularly in the town
of Tecpan. Her lecture focused on the use of
traditional dress, or traje, as a voice or symbol for
the Mayan culture and its women in particular.
“The reason I’m talking about women’s traje
instead of men and women’s traje or focusing
on men’s is because women uphold the tradition
of traje much more than men,” she said. “One
man said to me, ‘It’s because women are braver
that they wear traje.’ “
Wearing traje easily identifies a person as Mayan,
and this can lead to discrimination and prejudicial
treatment, she said.
“If you’re wearing traje, it’s like you have a
big neon sign on you that says, ‘I’m Mayan,’ and
to be Mayan in Guatemala means that you can
have prejudicial treatment dumped on you at any
point,” Hendrickson said.
She said a man in blue jeans and a flannel shirt
might not be identified as Mayan, because there
isn’t any real physical difference.
Mayan weaving uses many different colors
and designs, and it not only identifies someone
as Mayan, but it can even identify the town they
are from. For example, Mayans in the town
of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, are famous for
weaving bird designs.
“People have received copies of Audobon
and Roger Tory Peterson bird books and done
anatomically correct birds embroidered on these
blouses,” she said.
The use of color can also be important in traje,
she said. Black and purple are traditionally colors
of mourning, and red is the color of strength or
protection.
“Red is considered a very strong color; you
want red on your baby, your puppy, your newborn
calf,” Hendrickson said.
These traditions are still strong among many
Mayans, but there have been changes, she said.
Young people today are very influenced by fashion
and might not want to wear the traditional
dress.
Very few women wear the traditional headpiece,
or tocado, anymore, and many families aren’t
dressing their daughters in traje, she said.
Women were traditionally homemakers, but
now they have more opportunities to work outside
the Mayan community. To avoid prejudice Mayan
men have faced in their working life, women are
sometimes abandoning the traditional dress, as
well.
For those Mayans who are more politically
active, wearing traje can be a strong statement of
their culture. Hendrickson used a black leather
jacket with strips of traditional Mayan weaving on
either side of the zipper as an example.
“This became sort of the jacket to wear if you
belonged to a group of men who were involved
in the Mayan revitalization movement,” she said.
“This became almost a uniform.”
As a part of this movement, Hendrickson said,
fewer people are restricting themselves to wearing
traje only from their community.
“Much more in the past than now people would
be loyal or adhere to only wearing the traje from
their municipality,” she said. “Now there is this
sort of pan-Mayan movement that women will wear traje from
many communities and think of themselves as Mayan.”
Hendrickson’s lecture was sponsored by the School of World
Studies and inspired by the “Ixchel’s Thread: Maya Weavings
from the Bowdler Collection” exhibit currently on display at
the Anderson Gallery.
McKenna Brown, director of the School of World Studies, said
the exhibit has been incorporated into classes within the school,
and the lecture was meant to give the exhibit context.
“Our goal was to have the exhibit contribute to student
learning as much as possible to make it not something that
someone would look at for a minute and say ‘that’s nice’ or
‘that’s weird,’ ” he said. “To give someone a reason to go back
and look at a piece and say, ‘Oh, I understand now how this
fits into the life of a person, of a community, of a culture.’ ”
The lecture succeeded, said junior criminal justice major
Sarah Schlickenmaier.
“Looking at her pictures kind of expanded and mostly
reinforced what we have been learning about the culture,” she
said.
Senior international studies major Nicole Munday said she
agrees.
“It definitely added some color to it,” she said.