Contrasting epistemologies in the use of natural dyes, Central Highlands of Chiapas
Date
2023-09-05
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Abstract
Mexico is an ecologically diverse area with a variety of natural resources used by its inhabitants since millenniums before our common era. In the southwest of the country, the ecosystem of the Central Highlands of the state of Chiapas is no exception, where a few textile craftswomen transform various local plants, roots, and berries into colourful dyes and import some pigments into the area, maintaining sharing networks between different ecological regions. Still, these practices persist today with great difficulty. Over the last decades, a few non-local teachers have worked to reintroduce these practices through workshops held in the regional capital of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. During these workshops, a number of non-local materials were taught, as well as specific methods of making and understanding dyes, which contrast with the practices of local dyers, many of whom identify as Tsotsil. Therefore, this research examines how the interaction of these diverse communities of practice and inherent epistemologies affects artisanal dyeing techniques among the populations of the Central Highlands of Chiapas. Ethnoarchaeological fieldwork was carried out in San Cristóbal de Las Casas and its surrounding areas during the summer of 2022 with interviews and participant observation sessions. A comparative analysis led to the conclusion that the dyers of the Central Highlands of Chiapas developed their understanding of the materiality of dyes in relation to their environment: the home, the pasture, and the forest. The locality of the raw material becomes a factor in the development of local dyers’ epistemologies, influencing a generative relationship with the material that has an impact on their technique and creativity. Conversely, processed pigments are imported with their ways of making, shaping the way artisans understand and reproduce their use. The ways in which commercial networks intersect with local dyers’ practices and epistemologies may lead to an improved understanding of the impact of non-local dyes on communities of practice in the archaeological past of Mesoamerica.
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Keywords
natural dyes, Chiapas, epistemologies, textile archaeology, craft knowledge, communities of practice, ethnoarchaeology
Citation
Aranguiz, K. M. L. (2023). Contrasting epistemologies in the use of natural dyes, Central Highlands of Chiapas (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.