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Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

 

ARCHIVED EXHIBITION

 

 

    Hand-woven white cotton huipil or woman's blouse

    (picb'il style). with brocade designs.

    Santa Maria de Chirripur cooperative, Alta Verapaz,

    Guatemala. 21st Century. MAA 2019.5.

    Photography by Josh Murfitt.

 

 

 

16 May –  6 October  2019                                                         

A new Spotlight Gallery exhibition focusing on historic and contemporary picb’il textiles from MAA’s collections. 

The Q’eqchi-speaking Maya women of Central Guatemala make a type of finely woven cotton cloth called picb’il. This fabric is used in traditional blouses known as huipils, connecting women to their ancestors and identifying them as members of a particular indigenous community. 

The contemporary picb’il were collected from women’s cooperatives as part of Cambridge doctoral student Callie Vandewielle’s 2016-17 fieldwork, funded through the generosity of the Crowther Beynon Grant.

Tuesday to Saturday 10:30 – 16:30 

Sunday 12:00 – 16:30

Two million years of human history. One million artefacts. Countless astonishing stories.