Huichol Women, Weavers, and Shamans by Stacy B. Schaefer

Author:Stacy B. Schaefer [Schaefer, Stacy B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Latin America, Mexico, Social Science, Anthropology, General, Women's Studies
ISBN: 9780826355812
Google: zo0LogEACAAJ
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Published: 2015-01-15T04:07:18+00:00

Dream Designs

Through the cumulative process of weaving designs from peyote visions and one’s ‘iyari, a weaver will eventually develop the ability to dream her designs and weave them the following day. Eger Valadez (Eger 1978:52) was the first to report on this, and she wrote that, especially in embroidery designs, “striking color combinations and hallucinatory geometric forms are typical examples of these dream creations.” Angélica said that she may contemplate a new design before she goes to sleep. She thinks about “how I am going to make it so it will turn out beautiful; sometimes I dream it.” If she dreams the designs, she says, “I see it in this way, within a square, like when you take a photograph, that’s the way it appears.” Angélica explained also that she prefers to weave her dream designs and embroider her peyote visions.

Nicolasa told me that dream designs are given to a woman in her sleep from the gods, the kaka+yarixi (figures 39 and 40). If she does not weave these special designs, the kaka+yarixi will be angry that she does not appreciate their gift, and the woman may become sick. It is important to release these designs in weaving as a form of pictographic communication a weaver has had with the deities. Any woman can dream designs, but the more experience a woman has in religious beliefs and practices, the easier it is for her to access these dream designs. As a mara’akame, Nicolasa is an interesting example of this. When I asked her how she receives her dream designs, her son helped clarify her response: “It’s because she is a mara’akame,” said Emilio. “There are men who are mara’akame, but they do not know how to weave, they have dreamed various designs, but they do not know how to weave. There are designs, various designs from the kaka+yarixi. She dreams that which is part of the kaka+yarixi, and since she is a mara’akame she dreams, and weaves these designs. That’s how she makes her designs.”

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