Wari: Lords of the Ancient Andes

This book is the catalog for a 2012 exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Whoa.First of all, the Wari made faceneck vessels. After reading this book, you will be able to identify Wari ceramics instantly. So many faceneck vessels.Second of all, to read this book, you have to ignore much feminist jargon and not let it ruin your fun. "The radicalized other." "Colonial hierarchies of power." "...elites ... affiliate themselves with Wari prestige..." Sheesh.Good maps on xiv and xv.The Wari are an Andean culture of Ecuador and Peru, contemporaries with the Tiwanaku people, 600-1000AD.Once you get through the ceramics, get ready for the textiles! Tapestries and featherwork and tie-dyed, assembled tunics. It's amazing. Last come the sculptures and figurines.Gorgeous illustrations - hang onto this book and look at ancient India and South Asia.Observations:There are a lot of "Ch" names on the west coast of Peru... Chavin, Chanchan, Moche... There are a lot of "New" names on America's east coast... New York, New England, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Brunswick.Wari were the most complex early culture in the Andes, the first empire. (47) This was "accomplished without the advantage of foreign inspiration or influence", I am required to say.India influence: Moche mask, p 52, figure 32.Wari society was complex, with terraced agriculture, irrigation canals, and whitewashed temple complexes.We have too many "diacritics feasts" (84). This term is not defined. Does.it mean status-differentiated? Also, "gifting." Gag me.The ceremonial life pages explored dualism. Discussion of the ceremonial smashing of ceramics. Very interesting textiles and tapestries. Look at the tie dye! Look at bandhani from India. Just look.What a beautiful book. Mostly, if you can get past the academic gibberish that passes for writing, this book is worth the money.

This is a wonderful book that could serve as a solid general introduction to Peruvian Indian cultures and ideologies. Besides maps and charts, it contains many sumptuous color plates that depict beautiful creations such as paintings, sculptures, miniature figurines (pp. 232-240), and hand woven cloths. The Wari Indians were at their height for the last four centuries of the first millennium AD. Short papers by expert archaeologists and art historians comment on aspects of Wari technology, architecture, and political organization, illustrating their points with references to the color plates. We get to know some of these artifacts very well. All this is part of a must see traveling museum show starting in 2012 in Cleveland, Ohio and continuing to Florida, and Texas in 2013. The authors place the Wari in historical context with their regional precursors, such as the Chavin  Chavin and the Origins of the Andean Civilization , Tiwanaku  The Tiwanaku: Portrait of an Andean Civilization (Peoples of America) , and Nasca, as well as with their successors such as the Inca and modern Andinos. They aim directly at common icons and symbols (p.114-118), feasting (p.82-99), trade, religion, and engineering technology (p.77). Once upon a time, archaeologists depicted the Wari as rulers of a militaristic, totalitarian conquest state, perhaps because there were so many elaborate colony cities with the same distinctive architecture and ceramics scattered around the mountains and coastal deserts. Instead of an empire, the Wari emerge as mega wealthy Svengalis living an unbelievably expensive life style who rode an appealing religious faith, with technological underpinnings, aimed at credulous pilgrims looking to build their own cities in the sky.My gripes about the book: no index, no glossary, relaxed footnoting.

"Wari (also spelled Huari in Spanish); Lords of the Ancient Andes", is a triumph of a book/catalog). It is the catalog of the upcoming exhibition of the same name at the Cleveland Museum of Art.The editor of this work is Susan Bergh; the curator at the museum, of Pre-Columbian and Native American Art. She has done an admirable job! Granted it was made somewhat easy by the fact that this is the first North American exhibition and exploration devoted to the Wari/Huari. But, that quibble aside, this catalog rules! It covers all aspects of Wari/Huari art: ceramics, textiles, metals, shell, anything and all that remains. Any material that could be used to depict life and culture is included in this work.I would not have liked to live in this culture. But this book gives me a greater understanding of it.As an update as of 10/21/2012, I sent copies or recommendations of this catalog/book to some of the pre-eminent dealers in Pre-Columbian Andean Art. Their names and businesses will remain undisclosed. All were incredulous as to the quality of this work. The following is a parsed (fully shown) quote from one such. "What a wonderful surprise that book turned out to be. I was expecting the usual skinny catalog and instead this gorgeous book shows up. Looking at a number of the textiles, I'm now totally confused though, as I always thought that the various tie-dyes I had were Nazca. I need to go through that section carefully when I have a little time, right now it's all been focused on a few acquisitions and travel."

I've come across mention of the Wari culture quite often in the Andean archaeological textile literature but this is the first comprehensive work I've seen on the Wari. The compilation of the latest research findings alone is worth the price of the book; however when you add the photographs and the handsome cover - you have both a coffee table book and an excellent starting point for further research interest.