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Alpaca fibers: The treasure of the Andes

Christopher Jury Morgan

Alpaca fibers, fine filaments of fleece shorn from an animal half a world away, lovingly woven to form a dazzling textile. Soft to touch, gentle on skin, it drapes amorously: caressing the wearer, following corporeal contours. As a totality, it whispers each fiber a thread of narrative; intricate designs, and splashes of color providing flavors of the locality. The textile tells of a place: roof of the Western Hemisphere, cradle of a rich cultural heritage; a place from whence these fibers came.

 

The Andes, spine of a continent, separating arid desert from the lush jungle; indomitable snow-clad peaks, shrouded in pregnant clouds, plunge into chasmic torrent-hewn gorges. Condors soar above these geological titans, tracing lazy circles on expansive wings. Nature holds sway here: floods, droughts, and avalanches are common fare. The people who call these mountains home accord these forces the respect deserved; sun and storm abound in local pantheons. Despite environmental adversity, though, cultures not only survive but thrive here: intricate irrigation systems, ingenious agricultural engineering, and interrelationships with fellow mountain inhabitants have been foundations for the empire after empire, with rewards to be harvested from harnessing the powers of nature. Nothing exemplifies this collaborative approach to the environment better than the relationship Andean folk have maintained with alpaca.

 

For over six millennia, alpaca husbandry has been an indispensable practice in these mountains – a valuable and often unique source of sustenance and the origin of complex cultural and economic systems. The Inca regarded these creatures as wealth: their meat prized, their droppings valuable fertilizer, and their fleece known as the ‘Fiber of the Gods’. Clothing was essential in this culture – the most prestigious of gifts – and the deified fleece of the alpaca was reserved for royal use alone.

 

At home on the harsh altiplano of Southern Peru, where temperatures can vary forty degrees in a day, alpaca survive thanks to the endurance they share with their camelid cousins of Asia and Africa. Their thick coats, sheared once a year, are composed of fine fibers that are naturally hypoallergenic, fireproof, water repellent and extremely warm – fantastic properties for humans intending to cohabit their rugged homeland.

 

When the Conquistadores zealously carved their way down the continent to the beat of gunpowder and steel, it was their unquenchable greed for gold that drove them. Whilst their recompense in this regard was substantial, the real jewels of the Andes were not its glittering ores, but rather the cultures that inhabited these majestic mountains. However, the accumulated traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples was largely ignored – as were their valued cohabitants, the alpaca: forced to ever remoter pastures to make way for the colonist’s preferred livestock, sheep. Alpaca fiber, likewise, was quickly dismissed by European textile manufacturers as ‘unworkable’ due to its fine and supple nature.

 

Despite centuries of marginalization, alpaca fiber has recently benefitted from a global reevaluation, largely thanks to the tireless work of the Michell Group. Since 1931 they have been instrumental in maintaining the cultural practices and traditional knowledge central to producing the fiber, whilst adapting them to modern technologies. Their pioneering efforts extend to social and environmental sustainability, overseeing numerous projects to ensure future cultural and climatic stability in the region of Southern Peru they call home. Having opened the first alpaca factory in the country, the organization now manages the process from rearing through to retail.

 

The result of this conscientious melding of old with new is a truly contemporary Peruvian product: carefully crafted tokens of cultural confluence from a variegated landscape; exquisite textiles, embodying the history of their homeland and carrying within them the flame of Andean heritage.

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