Britannica Sources used in this answer

How did Indigenous weavers make hammocks and other cotton items?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Map of South America and the Caribbean showing the distribution of Aboriginal cultural groups, with regions color-coded by cultural type including Andean, Central American, tropical forest, and various nomadic cultures such as aquatic nomads, forest hunters and gatherers, and shellfish gatherers. Major group names are labeled across the continent and surrounding islands. — South American forest Indian Distribution of aboriginal South American and circum-Caribbean cultural groups.

Indigenous weavers among South American forest peoples utilized cotton, which they either gathered from wild plants or cultivated, to create items such as tunics, belts, skirts, and hammocks.1

The production process involved the following techniques:

Spinning: Weavers used simple spindles, which they manipulated by whirling them like tops to create thread.1
Weaving: The most common tool employed was the heddle loom, where warp threads were wound around a vertical frame and separated by heddles to allow the weft to pass through. Additionally, the back-strap loom—a form of the horizontal two-bar loom—was historically used across various South American cultures, allowing the weaver to control warp tension by attaching one bar to a stationary object and the other to their waist.12

While these weaving techniques were well-known, they remained at an elementary level compared to other artistic traditions, as many forest groups prioritized body painting and ornamentation over elaborate clothing.1