The earliest evidence of weaving in Mesoamerica dates back to 1,000 to 800 B.C.E. (Brumfiel, 2006).
Weaving has been an important part of Mayan culture for hundreds of years (Brumfiel, 2006), in fact this craft defined class for the Maya and was reserved for elites during the Classic Maya period, very different than with Aztec culture, where it defined gender.
In Mesoamerica, textiles served as a critical economic resource and symbolic display of status, wealth, and social affiliation (Halperin, 2008).
Cloth was considered currency and was used as such in local and regional trade networks (Halperin, 2008).
However, illegal contraband and eventual legal trade of British textiles destroyed the locally produced textile industry during the early 19th century (Abdelnur, 2005), Maya people simply could not compete with industrialized Britain, even though they were skilled weaver and resources were plentiful.
In the 20th century, weaving defines ethnicity (Brumfiel, 2006). It is a form of acknowledgment of obligations among families and communities, promotes craft sales and tourism, and is a “visible emblem for the emerging pan-Maya political movement.”
Maya peoples inhabit the eastern half of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and northern Honduras. They speak twenty-eight languages and dialects.
Just as language distinguishes one group from another, so too do manners of clothing the body and the designs adorning the cloth. They are expressions of each group’s efforts to maintain their distinctiveness in modern society (Brumfiel, 2006).
