CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 53 
weaving and washing activities performed while 
kneeling.*? Long, full, pleated skirts held up with 
drawstrings are the usual type worn in Quezaltenango 
and to some extent also in the Guatemala City region 
(pls. 38, c; 42, c). 
Oviedo in the 16th century wrote that most women 
wore skirts reaching nearly to the knees, but that the 
noblewomen (principales) wore thinner ones, of 
ankle length (see p. 48). 
In Santiago Sacatepequez many women wear men’s 
wool, checked rodilleras, several sewn together to 
make enough material for a skirt. These are bought 
at the August fair in Patzicia. Usually the men’s 
rodillera, if worn by women at all, serves as a skirt 
only for young, unmarried girls (under about 12 to 
14 vears) as at Solola and Chichicastenango (pls. 8, 
ert a)!; 
Sandals.—Sandals are sometimes worn by women, 
especially at Totonicapan, and, to a lesser degree, 
Olintepeque ; mainly by women who use the tumpline 
(mecapal) in bearing burdens. In the municipios 
mentioned, it is not at all uncommon for women to 
carry heavy loads of pottery or fodder by this method. 
Many semi-Ladinized women of Quezaltenango wear 
shoes and stockings, nearly concealed under long, 
full, pleated skirts. 
Hats.—Hats are seldom worn by Indian women, 
and it is a rarity even among Ladinas. The former 
fold up large sutes and place them upon their heads, 
especially if they are seated in the open market place 
in the sun. Or they may put an inverted basket or 
a comal (tortilla griddle) or other object upon their 
heads (frontispiece). Young girls and women of the 
municipios of Santa Lucia Utatlan and Totonicapan 
provide some of the few exceptions, in wearing men’s 
palm hats.8* Ladinas cover their heads and shoulders 
with long, manufactured shawls, often of black cotton 
or silk. 
There are probably two reasons at least for the 
lack of hats among these people. First, the Spanish 
women who followed the Conquest did not wear hats, 
so there was no trait which may have been borrowed 
by the Indians (though the women probably would 
83 Atitecas ordinarily weave seated, with legs extended forward, a re- 
striction imposed by the skirt, fet also an advantage in preserving leg 
beauty. They usually wash standing in the Lake near shore, and not on 
their knees. There are plenty of good lava rocks for washboards, at all 
desirable heights above the water. 
84 Except for the hats, the similarity existing between Santa Lucia 
dress and that of San Crist6bal Totonicapan is striking, and some cul- 
tural connection may be thereby indicated. 
not have adopted it, anyway) ;*° secondly, when In- 
dian women go to market, they return with their 
purchases, which are often heavy, in wide baskets 
balanced on their heads, so they could not wear hats 
at the same time. In those villages where Indian 
-women wear straw hats, goods are carried by them in 
cloth slings on their backs, the cloth ends being passed 
around the shoulders and tied in front. 
Headdress.—Many of the varied headdress styles 
in the region are unusual and beautiful. One of the 
most striking is the “halo” of the Atiteca, consisting 
of an inch-wide, tightly woven cotton band, mainly 
red, but with sections of yellow, purple, and green, 
wound around a dozen times or so, until a disklike 
ring extending out from the head like a halo, is 
formed. This head band is over 25 feet (7.6 m.) 
long’® (pls. 7, k, mm; 42, b). Other distinctive coif- 
fures are employed by women of Santa Maria Chi- 
quimula, who braid and twist a black wool cord 
around their hair so that the tassels form a spray at 
one side of the forehead. The San Juan Ixcoy head- 
dress is similar to this, without the tassels (pl. 39, 9). 
In certain parts of the Alta Vera Paz, great rolls of 
ribbon are wound around the head. (See Osborne, 
1935, fig. 3, p. 23.) Such styles are not character- 
istic of the majority of the villages of Guatemala. 
Most women wear nothing so prominent, and a 
simple, narrow pink ribbon of cotton braided into 
the hair, with the braid passed around the head, is 
common (San Juan Ostuncalco, San Pedro la La- 
guna, Panajachel, Santa Catarina Palopd, San 
Andrés Semetebaj, etc.). Often the hair is plaited, 
sometimes with ribbon intertwined, into one or two 
braids, which hang down the back (Solola, San 
Pedro Sacatepequez, Chichicastenango, Tecpan, Cer- 
ro de Oro, Olinteqeque, etc.; pl. 7). 
Ceremonial dress.—Many women’s ceremonial 
costumes are extremely elaborate and beautiful. A 
great amount of silk is employed in embroidering and 
weaving designs of great intricacy. Special head- 
dress, as well as huipils and skirts, are worn on 
certain festive occasions. Often these are entirely 
different from everyday dress (Osborne, 1935). 
85 It has been pointed out that Indian women have taken few European 
“traits of dress, 
86 The Santiago ‘‘halo” has been made larger and more brightly col- 
ored within the past 30 or 40 years. Informants pointed out a narrow, 
inconspicuous band worn by old women as the type formerly used by all 
(before about 1910). A picture in Maudslay’s book (1899, opposite p. 
62) substantiates this. 
