Weaving threads and painting bodies: Huasteca women, clothing, and embodiment during the Late Classic to Postclassic
Date
2021-09-27
Authors
Sanchez Balderas, Adriana Fabiola
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Abstract
This is an emerging analysis of the use of a cape type garment, the dhayemlaab in the
Teenek language, also known as the quexquemitl in Nahuatl language, among modern
Huasteca women as an analogy to an illustrative group of feminine imagery, including
ceramics and sculpture, from the Huasteca region. Huasteca is located in the northeast of
Mexico along the Gulf coast, and this paper will explore evidence for practices of
embodiment at a time of social change in the Late Classic and Postclassic periods. Multiple
lines of evidence suggest that elite women used the dhayemlaab /quexquemitl to negotiate
their social position. An integrated application of perspectives on embodiment,
ethnohistorical sources, ethnography, and material culture illuminate the visible role for
women as active participants in ritual practices among the Huasteca. This paper seeks to
understand the relationship between body and embodiment through the
dhayemlaab/quexquemitl dress used by elite women in the Huasteca to negotiate their
social status during the Late Classic to Postclassic period (600-1521 CE).
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Keywords
Feminine imagery, Body, Identity, Embodiment, Huasteca, Late Classic, Postclassic