The Life Thread: Paracas Textiles and Culture

This book documents a collection of approximately 90 Paracas textiles. The collection consists of cloaks, ponchos, tunics, as well as some smaller fragments such as ribbons. Originally housed at the Ethnographic Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden, the objects were returned to Peru during 2019 and 2020. Paracas textiles tell the story of the people living in Peru more than 2000 years ago and how they saw and viewed the world. In cultures without a written language imagery is very important. Textile pictures were created from the depths of the human senses, from thoughts and dreams. The makers of the Paracas textiles depict fantastic stories from their time and culture about creation, death and thoughts about life.

Kerstin Paradis Gustafsson has studied, inventoried and analysed the Paracas textiles for decades, and cracked codes about how they were made. She also has pioneering theories about what they want to say and how the unbroken thread symbolises life. In this text, Kerstin documents and explains the secret behind these fantastic 2000-year-old textiles.