Indigenous Andean Hats and Headdresses: Tradition, Identity, and Symbolism

In the Andes, before the Spanish conquest, natives wore distinctive headdresses as markers of regional and ethnic identity. Thus the hat has been, and still is, a conduit of social and cultural reproduction, knowledge, values, and beliefs. After the colonists brought the Merino sheep to Peru around 1537, started farming cotton, and imposed Spanish ways of dressing on the natives, hats in the Andes became diversified. But the diversity of hats that Andean natives wear today is fast changing. The advent of the modern market economy, globalization, and the popularity of wearing the ubiquitous baseball hat are extinguishing the artful designs of identity imprinted in traditional hats. During my last five years of research, I have collected 50 indigenous hats some of which are old because they are no longer made. The entire collection of hats will be donated to an academic institution or a museum whose mission is to preserve, to advance, and to promote the material culture of indigenous peoples in the Americas.