Editing Weaving (section)

===Latin America===
{{Main|Textile arts of indigenous peoples of the Americas|Andean textiles}}
[[File:Tzutujil.weaving.jpg|left|thumb|An indigenous woman of the Maya Tzutujil culture weaves using a back-strap loom.]]
[[File:Andean Weaving Museum of Anthropology UBC Vancouver.jpg|thumb|Example of weaving characteristic of [[Andean civilizations]]]]
[[File:Tejedora de fibras.jpg|thumb|Natural fiber weaver in [[Nuevo León]], Mexico]]
The [[Indigenous people of the Americas]] wove textiles of [[cotton]] throughout tropical and subtropical America and in the South American [[Andes]] of wool from [[camelids]], primarily domesticated [[llamas]] and [[alpacas]]. Cotton and the camelids were both domesticated by about 4,000 BCE.<ref>Rajpal, Vijay Rani; Rao, S. Rama; Raina, S. N. (2016). ''Gene Pool Diversity and Crop Improvement''. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. p. 117.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The History of Llamas and Alpacas in South America |url=http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/Llama-And-Alpaca.htm |work=ThoughtCo |author=Hirst, K. Kris |date=29 September 2014 |access-date=6 October 2016}}</ref>  American weavers are "credited with independently inventing nearly every non-mechanized technique known today."<ref>Stanfield-Mazzi, Maya (2012). [http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766581/obo-9780199766581-0022.xml "Textile Traditions of the Andes"]. Retrieved 6 October 2016.</ref>

In the [[Inca Empire]] of the Andes, both men and women produced textiles.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Graubart |first=Karen B. |date=2000 |title=Weaving and the Construction of a Gender Division of Labor in Early Colonial Peru |journal=American Indian Quarterly |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=537–561 |doi=10.1353/aiq.2000.0017 |jstor=1185889 |s2cid=143772318 |issn=0095-182X}}</ref> Women mostly did their weaving using [[backstrap loom]]s to make small pieces of cloth and vertical frame and single-[[heddle]] looms for larger pieces.<ref>McEwam, Gordon F. (2006). ''The Incas: New Perspectives''. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. p. 167; Cartwright, Mark (1 February 2015). [https://www.worldhistory.org/article/791 "Inca Textiles"]. ''Ancient History Encyclopedia''. Retrieved 7 October 2016.</ref> Men used upright looms. The Inca elite valued ''[[cumbi]]'', which was a fine tapestry-woven textile produced on upright looms. The elite often offered {{lang|qu|cumbi}} as gifts of reciprocity to lords (other elite) in the Empire. In regions under direct control of the Inca, special artisans produced ''cumbi'' for the elite. Women who created ''cumbi'' in these regions were called ''acllas'' or ''mamaconas'' and men were called ''cumbicamayos''.<ref name=":0" /> Andean textile weavings were of practical, symbolic, religious, and ceremonial importance and used as currency, tribute, and as a determinant of social class and rank. Sixteenth-century Spanish colonists were impressed by both the quality and quantity of textiles produced by the Inca Empire.<ref>Morris, Craig; Von Hagen, Adriana (1993). ''The Inka Empire and its Andean Origins''. American Museum of Natural History. New York: Abbeville Press. pp. 185-191.</ref>  Some of the techniques and designs are still in use in the 21st century.<ref>Meisch, Lynn A. [http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/features/112333/the-mur-a-code "The Murúa Code"]. ''Natural History Magazine''. Retrieved 7 October 2016.</ref>

Whereas European cloth-making generally created ornamentation through "suprastructural" means—by adding embroidery, ribbons, brocade, dyeing, and other elements onto the finished woven textile—pre-Columbian Andean weavers created elaborate cloth by focusing on "structural" designs involving manipulation of the warp and weft of the fabric itself. Andeans used "tapestry techniques; double-, triple- and quadruple-cloth techniques; gauze weaves; warp-patterned weaves; discontinuous warp or scaffold weaves; and plain weaves" among many other techniques, in addition to the suprastructural techniques listed above.<ref>{{cite book |title=Archaeometry of Pre-Columbian Sites and Artifacts: Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by the UCLA Institute of Archaeology and the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, California, March 23–27, 1992 |year=1994 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=978-0-89236-249-3 |editor=David A. Scott, Pieter Meyers |page=8}}</ref>