Luxury Craftsmanship as an Alternative to Building Social …
121
Although the Kamsá and the Ingas share cultural and organizational attributes,
each has achieved through craftsmanship to differentiate themselves as a unique
community, sharing their consciousness of the territory, its origin, language, and
connection with the universe.
The Inga people, descendants of the Incas, are distributed in three departments
of Colombia, concentrating more significant population in the Alto Putumayo and
are known for their artisanal ability with weaving, knowledge of plants, and healing
abilities.
Knitting is an ancient activity, created to cover the body and transfer oral history
through intertwining, shapes, colors in a symmetrical game, where hands are responsible for translating visions, spiritual encounters, thoughts, past, present, and future
desires and conceptions of permanence in the world.
“Telling stories and weaving are inseparable realities, irretrievably woven. For the
Ingas, every story is first and foremost a fabric, a crossroads of stories, threads, and
words that with some luck can become poetry. The art of knitting is analogous to that
of cultivation. The sowers of stories are growers of the future: counting the past, they
sing the present, and allow someone to listen and sing in the future.”
13 Their knitting
consists of shapes representing geometric figures and zoomorfas,
14 thus achieving
the creation of ancestral crafts.
Wool is one of the primary raw materials used by this community, which in combination with plants such as elderflower, marigold, chilca, and yerbabuena, achieves
diverse natural dyes. The weavers gather around the “tulpa” or homemade stoves to
work with the fiber. During this process, they embody their connection with the land
and theirs, through the guanga.
The guanga is a vertical loom used exclusively by the women weavers of the
Inga and Kamsá community to make ruanas, blankets, scarves, and other pieces. The
creations of these women are full of symbolism, which distinguishes their cultural
and historical journey in the territory. This practice also manages to maintain the oral
tradition through the practices of connection and familiarization generated by the art
of knitting.
The fabric made in guanga can be labeled as an ancient art, which is transmitted from generation to generation through oral tradition. The making of these art
forms maintains contact and balance with nature, as well as the symbology of the
guanga, duality, relationships community hierarchy, iconography, and symbology of
the people [10] (Fig. 11).
One of the most fabulous Ingas creations is the Chumbe, a sash or belt that is
traditionally between 5 and 10 cm wide by 4 or 5 m long. Its central element is the
geometric figure of the rhombus, an abstraction of the anatomical conformation of
the stomach, which symbolizes the place where life begins; it is why women use it
around the belly as a form of protection to the place where a new life is gestated.
13 Accessed 1 July 2019 https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/cultura/benjamin-jacanamijoyhijo-del-viento-articulo-713541.
14 Representations of animals through drawings and figures that express the importance of wildlife
in the community cosmogony.
121
Although the Kamsá and the Ingas share cultural and organizational attributes,
each has achieved through craftsmanship to differentiate themselves as a unique
community, sharing their consciousness of the territory, its origin, language, and
connection with the universe.
The Inga people, descendants of the Incas, are distributed in three departments
of Colombia, concentrating more significant population in the Alto Putumayo and
are known for their artisanal ability with weaving, knowledge of plants, and healing
abilities.
Knitting is an ancient activity, created to cover the body and transfer oral history
through intertwining, shapes, colors in a symmetrical game, where hands are responsible for translating visions, spiritual encounters, thoughts, past, present, and future
desires and conceptions of permanence in the world.
“Telling stories and weaving are inseparable realities, irretrievably woven. For the
Ingas, every story is first and foremost a fabric, a crossroads of stories, threads, and
words that with some luck can become poetry. The art of knitting is analogous to that
of cultivation. The sowers of stories are growers of the future: counting the past, they
sing the present, and allow someone to listen and sing in the future.”
13 Their knitting
consists of shapes representing geometric figures and zoomorfas,
14 thus achieving
the creation of ancestral crafts.
Wool is one of the primary raw materials used by this community, which in combination with plants such as elderflower, marigold, chilca, and yerbabuena, achieves
diverse natural dyes. The weavers gather around the “tulpa” or homemade stoves to
work with the fiber. During this process, they embody their connection with the land
and theirs, through the guanga.
The guanga is a vertical loom used exclusively by the women weavers of the
Inga and Kamsá community to make ruanas, blankets, scarves, and other pieces. The
creations of these women are full of symbolism, which distinguishes their cultural
and historical journey in the territory. This practice also manages to maintain the oral
tradition through the practices of connection and familiarization generated by the art
of knitting.
The fabric made in guanga can be labeled as an ancient art, which is transmitted from generation to generation through oral tradition. The making of these art
forms maintains contact and balance with nature, as well as the symbology of the
guanga, duality, relationships community hierarchy, iconography, and symbology of
the people [10] (Fig. 11).
One of the most fabulous Ingas creations is the Chumbe, a sash or belt that is
traditionally between 5 and 10 cm wide by 4 or 5 m long. Its central element is the
geometric figure of the rhombus, an abstraction of the anatomical conformation of
the stomach, which symbolizes the place where life begins; it is why women use it
around the belly as a form of protection to the place where a new life is gestated.
13 Accessed 1 July 2019 https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/cultura/benjamin-jacanamijoyhijo-del-viento-articulo-713541.
14 Representations of animals through drawings and figures that express the importance of wildlife
in the community cosmogony.