COLOURED COTTON

RETURN OF THE NATIVE

JAMES M. VREELAND, JR.

When the Spanish Conquistadores first crossed the Peruvian coastal valleys in 1532, they discovered, much to their surprise, extensive fields of native cotton growing in a profusion of natural colors – white, tan, maroon, mauve, chocolate brown and other shades.  Because they had encountered nothing like it in north Africa or Europe, the early chroniclers of the Conquest reasoned that Indians must have previously dyed the fiber and set it out on bushes to dry.

During the past 150 years, many scientists and explorers have been intrigued by the singular beauty and value of Peruvian cotton, including the naturalists Darwin, von Humbolt, Raimondi, Spruce, La Condamine and Saauer, who identified and named seventeen species of New World cotton plants.  Paleo-botanists, long fascinated by the early history of cotton, tell us that the plant was cultivated by fishermen as early as 2500 BC at Huaca Prieta, an archaeological site located in the lower Chicama Valley of Peru’s north coast.  Although specialists still dispute its origin and place of domestication, native cotton is grown extensively in this area today and in the ceja de selva region (eastern Andean moist mountain slopes).  In the warm inter-Andean mountain valley, it grows up to an altitude of about 1900 meters, higher than any other cotton species.

Botanically termed Gossypium barbadense by taxonomists, but simply called algódon pais (”country cotton) by traditional farmers, native Peruvian cotton is still cultivated much the way it has been for centuries.  A recent survey found cotton strongholds in traditional communities in the Chira, Piura, Lambayeque, Jequetepeque and to a limited extent, in the Moche and Moquegua valleys.  But its existence is now threatened, even in these areas, and it has become virtually extinct in most of the intervening valleys.

The reasons for this lamentable disappearance are many and complex.  Because it produces coloured fiber and relatively low yields per hectare under some conditions, algodón pais has been the focus of a kind of economic racism.  The prejudice holds these varieties to be inferior to foreign hybrid strains now intensively cultivated throughout coastal Peru for the industrial market.  When grown in proximity to these sensitive all-white hybrids, coloured cotton may cross-pollinate with them, producing undesirable intermediate breeds and muddied colour fibers unacceptable in a highly commercialized market.

During the past 50 years, Peruvian legislation has clearly favoured the introduction of hybrid strains and promoted the systematic elimination of native varieties.  Since the 1930’s, farmers who plant algodón pais – a perennial – must cut down and burn all stalks, leaves and bolls remaining in the field after each agricultural season.  Failure to comply with this law renders the transgressor liable a fine of 500 Peruvian soles per hectare (about US $2).  Yet “illicit” native cotton continues to be grown in isolated fields and garden plots throughout the north coast where agricultural inspectors rarely venture.  Recent investigations of native cotton cultivation in the departments of Lambayeque and Piura have shown  that this fiber is widely used, not only in a still vigorous artisan textile craft, but also in the practice of traditional medicinal cures, religious rituals and, in the exercise of certain prehispanic beliefs.   Household spinners and weavers, for example, produce a variety of beautiful warp-striped fabrics for both domestic and ceremonial use blending five different natural colours, much as they have been doing for three millennia.

In many traditional communities, nearly every infant’s head is capped with a pad of brown cotton, placed there in the belief that only it’s special properties can protect the babies head from the nocturnal hoot of the two-horned owl, whose cry is though to be strong enough to split the infant’s head open.  Cotton fiber is also used as a common cure for spider bites and mal de ojo (the “evil eye”), among other psychosomatic conditions that that seem to affect many children.  It is interesting to note that researchers have only recently discovered that cotton seed contains significant amount of natural antibiotic substances as well as protein, now utilized in bread produced commercially in the USA.

Though multiple uses of native cotton have long been known to Peruvians, algodón pais is not presently considered to be a “permanent cultivar” under the Ministry of Agriculture’s classification system.  Therefore, it cannot receive irrigation water, which is administered by the state according to an article of the water law, Ley de Aguas, applied to all permanent crops.  Nonetheless, due to its fine and deep root system, native cotton plants can survive up to five years without receiving surface water of any kind.

In addition, native cotton offers a number of advantages over competing hybrids, which are frequently destroyed during dry years.  Cotton scientists and farmers alike agree that these hardy native plants are much more resistant to the some 250 different pests and organisms that attack commercial cotton hybrids, reducing yields drastically if insecticides are not applied.

Native cotton offers other important advantages.  It requires virtually no maintenance after sowing, no fertilizers, and no pesticides during its long vegetative cycle.  Developing into large bushes that produce fiber all year round after the first year, native cotton can be harvested for up to six years, and will yield high-grade fiber often in excess of average yields of commercial hybrid varieties.  It can be grown successfully in arid soils  whose high level of salinity and boron toxicity will support virtually no other crops.  Algodón pais  is also frequently grown in a tough hedgerow to protect field crops from foraging animals.

For the industrial textile market, native cotton has several useful properties.  The generally long and relatively thick fibers are ideal for soft spun yarns used for knitted socks and undergarments.  The range of natural colours is found nowhere else in the world, and represents a valuable commodity for the specialty fiber and artisan markets.  Moreover, coloured cotton’s rich, natural, permanent pigmentation will not appreciable fade with washing or exposure to light.

Preliminary investigations of the economic and genetic potential of this plant show that native cotton deserves a closer look by plant scientists, agricultural extension services, and national rural development agencies.  Determined and coordinated efforts are needed to make native cotton into a competitive market crop, and to modify official policies that discriminate against its cultivation.  Experiments are presently underway in the USA, Egypt and Peru to introduce some of the coloured cottons genetic material into commercial hybrid varieties in order to increase productive capacity.

Under the auspices of the Peruvian Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Integration, the Instituto of Latin American Studies of the University of Texas, experimental research will be conducted in order to assess the feasibility of extending native cotton cultivation to similar arid zones.  As the cost of producing or importing synthetic fibers climbs precipitously in  LDCs because of the rising price of petroleum products, the cost of hybrid cotton cultivation, heavily reliant on petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers, also soars.  Hearty algodón pais, once the mainstay of a sophisticated textile technology in the arid Andean coastal valleys, is a plant that Peruvians may rediscover once more in the 1980s.

James M. Vreeland Jr., an ethnoarchaeologist, is leader of a research project on artisans in Peru’s rural areas.  He is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin, Texas  78712, USA.

CRAFTY MEANS OF SURVIVAL

James M. Vreeland, Jr.

Research conducted in traditional Peruvian communities suggests that fluctuations in rural agricultural productivity can lead to substantial increases – and in some cases, a revival – of artisan activities and consumption of traditional products. 

Morrópe, for example is situated in a marginally productive tropical desert zone.  It seems likely that the population never fully relied on agriculture for survival, but supplemented its income with artisan, fishing, mining, transport and trading activities.  Most families today engage in some subsistence agriculture, but water shortages – or occasional catastrophic flash floods – force them to continue to engage in secondary economic activities, including craft production.  Weaving, gourd carving, pottery, carpentry, adobe brick making are common.

Regulated by the agricultural cycle, artisan activities are carried out during the dry season and when crops are maturing.   Most raw materials are grown or collected in the area and are available year-round or can be stored indefinitely.  The tools needed are also made from locally available materials and, like the technology, have remained largely unchanged since late prehistoric time.

The consumption patterns of the products have changed in recent years, however.  Rapid price rises of commercially manufactured textiles, yarns and dyes have stimulated the use of indigenous fibers.  And while synthetic, industrially produced goods such as blankets were common a few years ago,  the trend is now to all-cotton, traditional types.

According to rural consumers, the native blankets wear longer, are better woven and colourfast, provide more warmth, and are cheaper. Similarly, gourd containers, once displaced by cheap plastic substitutes, have made a spectacular comeback. The increase in consumption of artisan fabrics has brought about a certain specialization among the district weavers. Products are now also being made for sale rather than only for household use and community exchanges.

photo: James M. Vreeland, Jr.

It has been estimated that between 200,000 and 400,000 Andean farmers, herders and fishermen are also part-time artisans.  And while rural communities are the largest consumers of their products, urban markets are expanding – an indication that traditional values and belief systems survive in the cities. An ancient strategy to counterbalance agricultural uncertainty, perennial shortages and uneven distribution of primary resources, artisan trades still represent vital cultural activities that provide an alternative to imported, capital intensive technologies.

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