COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THREE INCA WOMEN’S ACSUS FROM DIFFERENT PLACES, CONTEXTS, AND TIMES
ESTUDIO COMPARATIVO DE TRES ACSUS FEMENINOS INCAS PROCEDENTES DE ESPACIOS, CONTEXTOS Y TIEMPOS DIFERENTES
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4067/s0717-73562026000100405
Ana María Rojas Zepeda
and Soledad Hoces de la Guarda
Key words: Feminine textiles, Inca clothing, capacocha, textiles techniques, iconography.
Abstract
Since early times, Andean clothing has played a fundamental role as a medium of cultural communication, defining belonging, hierarchies, and social roles. Within this framework, the present study analyzes three acsus: Inca women’s garments associated with capacocha ritual contexts. These garments, comparable to dresses, have been found both in life-size form and as miniatures deposited in ceremonial offerings. The acsus examined here—originating from Cerro Esmeralda (Chile), Pachacamac (Peru), and the National Museum of Colombia— display notoable compositional similarities, despite differences in time, place, and manufacturing technique. Based on a comparative analysis of their formal and technical characteristics, the study identifies recurring patterns in visual organization and iconography—particularly the repeated depiction of double-headed amarus and ñawis— along with variations that reveal the incorporation of diverse textile traditions under Inca rule. These findings allow us to understand acsus as cultural media that transcended their material forms, serving as vehicles of memory, instruments of political legitimation, and ritual expressions linked to the female body and the Andean cosmological order.
