How Is Traditional Maya Weaving Being Preserved?

Traditional Maya weaving is one of the most important cultural practices of the modern Maya, and one of the most challenging to preserve. The tradition is under pressure from language shift, urbanization, the outmigration of young people, the decline of the cofradía system in some communities, and the appropriation of Maya designs by the international fashion industry. At the same time, the tradition is supported by a growing movement of Maya weaving cooperatives, by international fair-trade retailing, by the development of Maya design rights advocacy, and by the Pan-Maya movement’s emphasis on the centrality of weaving to Maya identity. This page is a detailed treatment of the question of preservation, and is part of the broader site coverage of the living Maya: heritage and modern descendants. The broader cultural context of Maya textiles is treated on the Maya textiles, weaving, and the huipil pages, and the politics of Maya identity in the 21st century are treated on the modern Maya identity and survival page. For the linguistic side of the same effort, see Maya languages today: living tongues, and for the regional geography of the highland communities where most preservation work is done, see the Maya in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, and Honduras.

The challenges facing Maya weaving

The preservation of traditional Maya weaving faces a number of substantial challenges in the 21st century. The major challenges include:

Time and economics

A single high-quality huipil can take weeks or months to weave, and the most elaborate pieces (the cofradía costumes worn by religious officials, for example) can take a year or more. The economic pressure on young women to seek paid employment outside the home reduces the time available for weaving, and the opportunity cost of hours spent at the loom is substantial. The market price for a huipil, even a high-quality one, often does not reflect the time invested. The development of fair-trade retailing and direct-to-consumer online platforms has helped to raise the price, but the economic pressure remains real.

Outmigration

The outmigration of young people to Guatemala City, to the United States, and to other urban centers has reduced the number of young women available to learn weaving in traditional communities. The diaspora Maya often have less access to the apprenticeship relationships that transmit weaving knowledge, and the transmission of weaving techniques across generations is increasingly difficult in diaspora communities.

Loss of materials and dyes

The traditional Maya textile tradition depends on a complex chain of plant materials: cotton and wool for the fiber, natural dyes (cochineal, indigo, achiote, and many others) for the color. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen a substantial shift to synthetic dyes and synthetic fibers in much of the Maya region, and the knowledge required to produce natural dyes from local plants is increasingly rare. The Maya Traditions Foundation and other organizations have developed revitalization projects focused on the recovery of natural dye traditions, but the work is slow.

Decline of the cofradía system

The cofradía (religious brotherhood) has historically been one of the major patrons of Maya weaving. The cofradía costume, including the cofradía huipil, the cofradía shawl, the cofradía hat, and the cofradía sash, is one of the most elaborate and expensive items of traditional dress, and the production of the cofradía costume has been a major economic and ritual act. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen a substantial decline in the cofradía system in some communities, partly as a result of the growth of Evangelical Protestantism (which sometimes rejects the cofradía system as incompatible with Christian faith) and partly as a result of urbanization and migration. The decline of the cofradía system has reduced the demand for the most elaborate Maya textiles, with a corresponding decline in the transmission of the most demanding weaving techniques.

Appropriation by the fashion industry

The international fashion industry has been a major source of demand for Maya textile designs, and the appropriation of Maya designs by international fashion brands has been a major source of conflict. The most famous cases include the 2010s controversies over the use of Maya-inspired designs in international fashion collections, in which Maya organizations protested the use of specific patterns and motifs by major fashion brands. The Maya design rights movement has emerged in response, and the development of legal instruments for the protection of indigenous designs is an ongoing project.

The cooperative movement

The Maya weaving cooperative movement has been the most important institutional response to the challenges facing Maya weaving. The cooperative model — in which groups of weavers organize to share resources, market their products collectively, and develop a sustainable economic base for the practice — has grown substantially since the 1980s, and the movement has been supported by international development agencies, by fair-trade retailing, and by the Pan-Maya movement.

Major Maya weaving organizations include:

The Maya Traditions Foundation, founded in 1990 by the anthropologist Cynthia Tovar and based in Panajachel, Guatemala. The foundation works with over 500 Maya weavers from 11 communities, supporting the development of sustainable weaving economies, the recovery of natural dye traditions, and the marketing of Maya textiles in international markets. The foundation has been a major institution in the development of the cooperative model.
The Asociación de Tejedoras Mayas (ATEMYA), a Guatemalan Maya weavers’ organization that has worked on the development of standardized product lines, the marketing of Maya textiles in international markets, and the advocacy of Maya design rights.
The Cooperativa de Mujeres de la Etnia Mam, a Mam Maya women’s weaving cooperative in the western highlands of Guatemala.
The Q’ero Textile Project, a community-based project working with Q’eqchi’ Maya weavers in the Alta Verapaz region.
The Women’s Weaving Cooperative of Santiago Atitlán, a Tz’utujil Maya cooperative.
The Asociación Femenina para el Desarrollo de Sacatepéquez (AFEDES), a Kaqchikel Maya weavers’ organization.
The Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco (CTTC) — a Peruvian indigenous textile organization that has provided a model for Maya textile work elsewhere in the Americas (though it is not itself Maya).

The cooperative movement has been a major source of economic and cultural revitalization in Maya communities. The development of the Maya Traditions Foundation’s Maya Collection brand, and similar brand-development projects, has allowed Maya cooperatives to capture a larger share of the final price of Maya textiles, with corresponding increases in the incomes of the weavers.

Fashion industry collaborations and controversies

The international fashion industry has been a major source of both opportunity and tension for Maya weaving. On the one hand, the development of high-end fashion collaborations with Maya weavers has provided a major new market for Maya textiles and a major new source of visibility for the tradition. On the other hand, the appropriation of Maya designs by international fashion brands has been a major source of conflict.

The most prominent case of appropriation was the 2015 controversy over the use of Maya-inspired designs in the collection of a major international fashion brand, in which the brand used specific patterns and motifs that were clearly identifiable as the work of specific Maya communities. The Maya organizations protested, the story went viral, and the brand issued a public statement acknowledging the issue. The controversy was one of the major events in the development of the Maya design rights movement.

The design rights movement has been working to develop legal instruments for the protection of indigenous designs, drawing on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) framework and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The movement has been supported by the Guatemalan government and by international indigenous rights organizations. The implementation of design rights protections has been slow, but the movement has achieved substantial cultural visibility.

The positive collaborations between Maya weavers and international fashion brands have included the development of Maya-inspired collections with the consent and economic participation of the Maya weavers, the marketing of Maya textile products in international retail outlets, and the development of Maya-led fashion brands that combine traditional Maya weaving with contemporary fashion design. The Maya Collection brand, the Ixchel brand, and similar initiatives have been major examples of this trend.

The iconography of the huipil

The iconography of Maya textiles is one of the most important cultural resources for the preservation of Maya weaving. The visual vocabulary of Maya huipiles — the geometric patterns, the animal motifs (especially the quetzal, the deer, the monkey, the eagle, the bird), the floral motifs, the zoomorphic figures — encodes a substantial body of Maya cultural knowledge, and the transmission of this iconography is a major part of the weaving tradition.

The iconography of Maya textiles has been studied by major scholars including the American anthropologist Mary Elizabeth Smith, the British scholar Elizabeth Carmichael, the Guatemalan scholar Collin C. Owen, and the American art historian Robert M. Laughlin. The scholarship has documented the regional variation of Maya textile iconography, the symbolic meaning of specific motifs, and the historical evolution of the iconography over the past several centuries.

The iconography of Maya textiles is also a major site of cultural politics. The use of specific motifs in the modern fashion industry, the reproduction of Maya textile patterns in non-traditional media, and the symbolic use of Maya textile iconography in political and national contexts (e.g., the use of the quetzal motif in Guatemalan national symbolism) all involve the negotiation of meaning and ownership.

The future of Maya weaving

The future of Maya weaving depends on a number of factors:

The economic viability of weaving. The market for fine Maya textiles is growing, and the cooperative model has been a major source of economic support for weavers. The future depends on the continued development of markets and the continued economic viability of the practice.
The transmission of weaving knowledge. The transmission of weaving knowledge from master weavers to apprentices is the most fundamental challenge. The cooperative model has supported the transmission of knowledge, but the time required to learn the tradition is substantial, and the social and economic pressures on young women remain significant.
The political and legal environment. The development of design rights protections, the support of national and international institutions, and the recognition of Maya cultural rights are all important for the future of the tradition.
The cultural and political mobilization of Maya communities. The Pan-Maya movement’s emphasis on weaving as central to Maya identity has been a major source of cultural support for the tradition, and the continued mobilization of Maya communities around the issue will be important for the future.

The 21st century is, in many ways, a pivotal period for Maya weaving. The choices made in the next decades will shape the tradition’s future, and the question of how to balance the economic, cultural, and political dimensions of the tradition will be central.

Sources

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