PRE-COLUMBIAN TEXTILES

56 I HALI 144

A Nasca textile (4) from the far south coast portrays an ocean teeming with marine warriors and bloodied with human heads. Anthropomorphic catfish are ranged against giant whale sharks or orcas; some have already been consumed. The schematically-drawn catfish display life-like barbs, fleshy lips, and flattened heads, but they also feature human hands and feet, and wear loincloths. Small, ovoid motifs possibly represent Capsicum chilli peppers, which were associated with fertility and bloodshed, and were a traditional offering to the sea. 6 Does this intricate scene relate a coastal myth, or could it be an allegory describing an epochal struggle between rival chiefdoms, with the rapacious fish standing in for human warriors? The odd-looking catfish is probably the only fish to be represented in highland and coastal traditions alike. Stone pillars carved with barbed and skeletal fish were enshrined at Pukara, the ceremonial site on the northern edge of Lake Titicaca between 200 BC and 250 AD . Archaeologists have also uncovered a temple mound there that was laid out in the form of the catfish. 7

Conceivably, such cult effigies honour the legendary suche, a large river catfish that lurks in the depths of the nearby lake. Myths from the southern Sierra and altiplano present the catfish as one of the riverine wives or sisters of Tunupa, the Lord of Lightning and Fire. 8

The Inca historian Garcilaso de la Vega’s catalogue of the marine creatures venerated by Andean natives

indicates that unusual attributes of size or shape, beautiful colour or patterning, and peculiar appendages such as outsized claws or tentacles were particularly valued. All hint at a supernatural current beneath the surface of things. Undoubtedly, the conspicuous barbels emerging from behind the catfish’s mouth intrigued ancient Andeans. This whisker-like trait apparently linked it to other shamanic animals such as felines, otters and seals. Armed with sharp spines and poison sacs, some of the marine species of catfish are also highly venomous. This cultural fascination with dangerous sea creatures probably extends to other fish depicted in pre-Columbian art. The fantastical puffer or porcupine fish, shown in a Wari tapestry (2), is notable for its capacity to alter its shape by inflating itself into a large taut sphere and deploying long, sharp spines. Certain types contain a virulent neurotoxin that, when consumed, can cause paralysis or even death – a fact evidently recognised by coastal cultures, who must have regarded this deceptively comical figure with awe. One of a pair of extraordinary fish-shaped panels associated with the sanctuary of Pachacamac on the central coast idealises yet another fish of ambivalent status – the trambollo, a kind of blenny (6). A series of such tapestries exist, woven sometime between 1000 and 1476 AD , the height of the shrine’s power. Their unusual dimensions and contoured forms suggest