Luxury Craftsmanship as an Alternative to Building Social …
107
The wealth of our nation is manifested in ancestral knowledge, in the traditions present in
the trades, the use of materials and symbolic expressions that are put at stake in the artisanal
exercise [46, p. 6].
• The “Vueltiao” hat of the Zenú community is the Colombian handcrafted piece
par excellence at the national and international level, where the transformation
of the cañaflecha fiber into totemic figure narrates the community’s relationship
with the universe and nature for more than a thousand years (Fig. 3).
• The weaving of the Waleker (spider) of the Wayúu women is part of the initiation
rites of adolescent girls to adult life; the Kanás (designs) reveals the matriarchal
structure of their society and has become a cultural manifestation (Fig. 4).
• The women of the Arhuaca community make the Arhuaca backpack, which is
identified as a symbol of an extension of the body, and the uterus (Fig. 5). Through
their knitting, the women of the Arhuaca community express their ancestral knowledge. The backpack is woven in the form of a spiral, the symbol of the creation
of the world [50].
Each handmade piece contains intrinsically cultural forms developed over time.
These forms are often subject to external changes that permeate and transform the
artisan relationship between the artisan and the outside world, thus resignifying the
Fig. 3 “Vueltiao” hat,
making by the Zenu
community with natural
fiber: cañaflecha. María del
Pilar Rodríguez’s picture,
worker and connoisseur of
crafts and Colombian
indigenous communities
(Image sent by María del
Pilar Rodríguez, researcher
and creator of the Awana
Taller brand)
107
The wealth of our nation is manifested in ancestral knowledge, in the traditions present in
the trades, the use of materials and symbolic expressions that are put at stake in the artisanal
exercise [46, p. 6].
• The “Vueltiao” hat of the Zenú community is the Colombian handcrafted piece
par excellence at the national and international level, where the transformation
of the cañaflecha fiber into totemic figure narrates the community’s relationship
with the universe and nature for more than a thousand years (Fig. 3).
• The weaving of the Waleker (spider) of the Wayúu women is part of the initiation
rites of adolescent girls to adult life; the Kanás (designs) reveals the matriarchal
structure of their society and has become a cultural manifestation (Fig. 4).
• The women of the Arhuaca community make the Arhuaca backpack, which is
identified as a symbol of an extension of the body, and the uterus (Fig. 5). Through
their knitting, the women of the Arhuaca community express their ancestral knowledge. The backpack is woven in the form of a spiral, the symbol of the creation
of the world [50].
Each handmade piece contains intrinsically cultural forms developed over time.
These forms are often subject to external changes that permeate and transform the
artisan relationship between the artisan and the outside world, thus resignifying the
Fig. 3 “Vueltiao” hat,
making by the Zenu
community with natural
fiber: cañaflecha. María del
Pilar Rodríguez’s picture,
worker and connoisseur of
crafts and Colombian
indigenous communities
(Image sent by María del
Pilar Rodríguez, researcher
and creator of the Awana
Taller brand)