MOCHE: A PI'RUVIAX COASTAL CO.NLMLMTi-^Gn.UN 



61 



DRESS AND ORNAMENT 



Although the costume of the men of IMoche might 

 excite some mild interest on Fifth Avenue, it is 

 essentially "modern" in all details (except for the 

 fact that men prefer to go barefoot) and so far as I 

 can see is of the general pattern in use for males 

 throughout the Peruvian coastal region. The cos- 

 tume and ornament of women, on the other hand, 

 does not on the whole conform to modern modes, 

 and until fairly recently the majority of women wore 

 garments which clearly set them apart from cholo 

 women of Trujillo and other cities of the coast. The 

 use of one-piece gingham dresses and other changes 

 are creeping into the women's costume, however, and 

 it is doubtful how long the "picturesqueness" which 

 still lingers will last. 



It is unnecessary to describe male dress in detail. 

 A study of the photographs will be sufficient for the 

 curious reader. Suffice it to say that the general 

 pattern is a pair of under shorts and under singlet, 

 a collar-attached shirt without necktie, conventional 

 trousers reaching to the ankles, and a jacket of con- 

 ventional modern design with two buttons and lapels. 

 This combination is completed at the nether end with 

 bare feet or sandals (llanquis) and at the upper end 

 bv a high-crowned straw hat with broad roUed-up 

 brim. Some men omit one or the other or both of 

 the undergarments. The long trousers and jacket 

 are usually made of white or light-colored drill or 

 other cotton material, although a very few men have 

 woolen suits. A certain variety is to be seen in cut 

 and material ; lightweight jerseys sometimes take the 

 place of shirts; an occasional man wears overalls 

 with bib instead of trousers held up with a belt : etc. 

 Most trousers are held up by leather belts of Euro- 

 pean type or rope. Some men wear sashes. When 

 working about his farm a man often appears in rags 

 of his former good clothes, but everyone has an out- 

 fit in which to "dress up" for fiestas and on Sundays. 

 Some men also have a pair of shoes which are used 

 for extremely formal occasions, and this is true of 

 all the young Mocheros who go to Trujillo to the 

 university or to high school (colegio). Only the 

 latter, among Mocheros netos, have felt hats, and 

 they practicall}- never wear them in Moche. The felt 

 hat is the class mark of the forastero or cholo man in 

 the Moche community. Overcoats are unknown in 

 Moche, so far as I am aware. Some men have 

 ponchos made in the Sierra, but the use of ponchos 

 is not universal or typical. 



The remarkable feature of the men's dress in 

 Moche is its lack of protection from the cold during 

 the winter months. Xights and culd dreary morn- 

 ings during June. July, and August are distinctly 

 uncomfortable without woolen clothing, and during 

 this season many of the natives of Trujillo wear 

 woolen suits and topcoats. The "palm beach" 

 garments of the Mocheros are ill adapted to the cool 

 season, and tliis is the more curious in view of the 

 fact that their women's older costume includes 

 woolen skirt and shawl. 



Men's garments are made by tailors, of which 

 there were two leading ones and four secondary ones 

 in the community during my stay. They use both 

 hand needles and machines. Their methods were not 

 studied, but it was understood that they are typical 

 of those followed throughout the country. One 

 Mochero has a tailor shop in Trujillo and lives there. 



Women's costumes may be roughly classified into 

 three general types: (1) The old costume {vcstido 

 antiguo), (2) the modified costume, and (3) the 

 cotton-dress costume. The terms for the second two 

 are my own. The three are illustrated in plates 

 15 and 16. 



The old costume (pis. 15, hnvcr {right and left) ; 

 16. lower (right)) is habitually worn at present by 

 only a handful of older and more conservative 

 women. It is said to have been universal up to 

 1912. In this year a certain chief of police is said 

 to have collected all the women in the market during 

 an epidemic of bubonic plague. He ordered them to 

 strip off their old costumes, which were burned. The 

 women had to reclothe themselves with cotton cloth 

 because of inability to replace the old quickly. This, 

 at least, is the local explanation of tlie loss of the 

 old costume. It consists of one or more white 

 cotton petticoats as undergarments, a dark-blue 

 coarse woolen (bay eta) wrap-around skirt with the 

 split in front, held up by a woven woolen belt with 

 red and blue woven designs. The upper body is 

 covered by a white blouse with a wide neck, either 

 square or rounded in cut, and with short sleeves 

 ending 2 to 4 inches above the elbow ; the blouse is 

 made with a "yoke" over the shoulders and is shirred 

 below the yoke ; it is worn tucked into the belt 

 which supports the skirt. Over the blouse, when 

 the temperature is low, a blue shawl of the same 

 type of dark-blue baycta material as the skirt is worn. 

 This is called a rcbozo. Rcbocos varv in size, but a 



