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Making cotton from harvested fiber

 
The Campa Indians (Ashaninka and Machiguenga tribes) have probably been processing cotton and weaving it for thousands of years.  In fact, indigenous Amazonians may have been cultivating cotton longer than the ancient South American civilizations from the Andes and coastal regions of Peru.  However, it is difficult to ascertain with accuracy information about ancient Amazonian cultures due to the lack of archaeological evidence.  In the lower Amazon Rainforest, buildings were built out of wood and leaves rather than stone and adobe as in Peru's drier climates, and consequently, most archaeological evidence about ancient Amazonian tribes has been lost.  That said, the oldest evidence of ceramics being used in South America comes from the Amazon and predates the use of pottery in the ancient civilizations of the Andes and Pacific Coast.    

 


 
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Photograph © Copyright Chuck Clark, all rights reserved. Campa Indian making cotton