Differentiating Paracas Necropolis and Early Nasca Textiles

Abstract

Bean (1998: 115) has argued that ``[n]ext to language, cloth and clothing animate the most elaborated systems of representation in social and cultural life. In identity constructon and manipulation…dress dominates the interface between people and their social worlds.'' Vivid examples of Bean's contention abound across the world. Indeed, one of the foundational texts in the anthropological study of identity construction is Wobst's (1977) study of stylistic behavior and information exchange manifested in the headdresses worn by members of different ethnic groups in what today is the former Yugoslavia. In addition to the construction of ethnic identity, dress is a dramatic expression of class, ideology, role, occupation, and gender.