Endangered Threads Documentaries: Sheer Elegance: Surviving Strands of Ancient Maya Weaving

November 2010 - Presentation made by Kathleen Mossman Vitale at the American Anthropological Association's annual meeting in New Orleans.

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Sheer Elegance: Surviving Strands of Ancient Maya Weaving

Picb'il weaving, a style that dates back more than a thousand years to the Classic Maya Era, is still woven by a few weavers in rural areas outside of Cobán, Alta Verapaz.

This two minute clip is part of a research project and future documentary. Picb'il is an ancient Maya weaving style of white cotton spaced or gauze weave with white cotton supplementary weft brocaded designs, still woven in rural areas outside of Coban. A version of this clip runs in a continual loop at the "Painted Metaphors: Pottery & Politics of the Ancient Maya" exhibition, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology & Anthropology. Edited by Kathleen Mossman Vitale, assisted by ETD intern Callie Vandewiele.

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Picb'il design of arches (arcos SP) made by supplementary weft brocade on a spaced or gauze weave textile on a backstrap loom.

Picb'il design of arches (arcos SP) made by supplementary weft brocade on a spaced or gauze weave textile on a backstrap loom. Photo by Kathleen Mossman Vitale. © 2009 Endangered Threads Documentaries.

Picb'il design of women or female dolls (muñecos SP) made by supplementary weft brocade on a spaced or gauze weave textile on a backstrap loom.

Picb'il design of women or female dolls (muñecos SP) made by supplementary weft brocade on a spaced or gauze weave textile on a backstrap loom. Photo by Kathleen Mossman Vitale. © 2009 Endangered Threads Documentaries.

Picb'il design of deer made by supplementary weft brocade on a spaced or gauze weave textile on a backstrap loom.

Picb'il design rows of dolls (muñecos SP), figure eights, stars & planets, and domestic fowl. The designs are made by supplementary weft brocade on a spaced or gauze weave textile on a backstrap loom.

Picb'il design rows of dolls (muñecos SP), figure eights, stars & planets, and domestic fowl. The designs are made by supplementary weft brocade on a spaced or gauze weave textile on a backstrap loom. Rachael Gould Mossman Collection. Photo by Kathleen Mossman Vitale. © 2009 Endangered Threads Documentaries.

Picb'il design row of dolls (muñecos SP) on a huipil from the Rachael Gould Mossman Collection. The designs are made by supplementary weft brocade on a spaced or gauze weave textile on a backstrap loom.

Picb'il design row of dolls (muñecos SP) on a huipil from the Rachael Gould Mossman Collection. The designs are made by supplementary weft brocade on a spaced or gauze weave textile on a backstrap loom. Photo by Kathleen Mossman Vitale. © 2009 Endangered Threads Documentaries.

ETD intern Callie Vandewiele learned picb'il-style weaving on a backstrap loom while living in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, 2008-9. Photo by Terra Leigh Vandewiele. © 2009 Endangered Threads Documentaries.

ETD co-founder and videographer Kathleen Mossman Vitale discusses weaving techniques with weavers in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Photo by Ned & Marilynn Vilas.

Picb'il huipiles or blouses with added embroidery around the neck are occasionally sold in weaving supply stores in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Photo by Callie Vandewiele. © 2009 Endangered Threads Documentaries.

Young Q'eqchi'-speaking Maya girls learn picb'il weaving at home in Alta Verapaz.

Fragment of a textile used to teach picb'il weaving to young girls in a Q'eqchi' family in Alta Verapaz.

Picb'il weaver Concepción Poou Coy de Tharin wears her wedding huipil or blouse and shows off an uncut picb'il huipil from Alta Verapaz.