Book Prehistoric Textiles of the Southwest By Kate Peck Kent

Book Prehistoric Textiles of the Southwest By Kate Peck Kent

Published 1983, School of American Research and University of New Mexico Press

ISBN # 0-8263-0591-1

315 pages

Hardcover

About: 

From book jacket: In this definitive study of prehistoric textiles, Kate Peck Kent traces the history of weaving in the Southwest long before the Spanish conquest. She has recorded and examined thousands of woven articles—archaeological finds—all the evidence available to her in museum collections and published reports. Her research will interest many more than those who think of southwestern weaving as synonymous with Navajo weaving. 

The author illuminates the antecedents of Navajo weaving as she follows the course of the indigenous tradition back through the arts of the early Pueblo Indians, the Basketmakers, and the Mogollon peoples. We are led through the "Gran Chichimeca" to the roots of southwestern weaving in the textile arts of the high cultures of Mexico, Central America, and Peru.

Prehistoric Textiles of the Southwest covers an extraordinary range of subject matter with clarity and care, richly accompanied by nearly 200 illustrations.  The author discusses the preparation of fibers and dyes (yarns, leaves, fur, feathers, and human hair), both nonloom and loom fabrics and weaves, wearing apparel, and utilitarian and ceremonial objects.  Other topics include cordage, looping, netting, bands, belts, twined warps and wefts, and the question of sprang, as well as openwork, float, and compound weaves, embroidery, painting, and the influence of textile processes on design.

Kate Peck Kent is an anthropologist who has studied and written about ethnic tetiles in North America and West Africa. She taught anthropology for twenty six years at the University of Denver, concentrating on ethnic arts. 

Chapters:

1.      The Search for Clues

2.      The Preparation of Fibers and Dyes

3.      Nonloom Single Element Fabrics

4.      Nonloom Warp-Weft Weaves

5.      Loom-Woven Fabrics

6.      Textile Design

7.      Form and Function

8.      Regional and Temporal Traditions and Styles

161 Maps and Illustrations and 18 color plates

Condition: Very good