Woven in Awe, Cusco

In the Andes, weaving is more than just a craft —it’s a profound spiritual practice— that brings
people together with the natural world and their ancestral knowledge. Elders hold the knowledge
of sophisticated patterns gained from years of observation and are considered the most
important members of the community.

The elders observe animals and the nature that surrounds them, and they transpose those
observations into graphic representations. Each elder has a particular way of depicting a bird, a
dog, a llama, or the ripples of the waves on the surface of a lake when it’s windy. In this case,
elders are the universities for the younger generation, and this transferring of wisdom is
essential for the preservation of their culture.

Once a year, the Hilloc people of the Patacancha valley in Cusco, participate in a competition
were they make tiny little outfits for their Guinea Pigs, or Cuys, in the Quechua language.

This intense felling of awe that these people experience while weaving creates neurological
networks that could protect their brains as they age. Awe has been defined as an emotional
response to perceptually vast stimuli that overwhelm current mental structures, yet facilitate
attempts at accommodation.

The landscape, so closely tied to the lives of the people of Patacancha, is awe-inspiring:
mountains and snow-capped peaks in the distance that define the vastness of the world and put
human existence into perspective—small yet real.