Did the Andean Natives know how to knit or crochet pre European contact?

by DancingMidnightStar
CommodoreCoCo

There's not much to say here since, as per the University of Michigan's Carrie Brezine, the answer is no:

Knitting has the distinction of being one of very few textile techniques not practiced by Andean people. [...] Andean people developed an extensive repertoire of methods for creating textiles including looping, knotting, oblique interlacing, twining, cross-knit looping, and sling braiding. In the broad category of weaving they used structures including doubleweave, complementary warp and weft weaves, supplementary warp and weft weaves, twill, tapestry, gauze, and discontinuous warp and weft.

The earliest evidence of knitting in the Andes is from Magdalena de Cao Viejo, near Trujillo, Peru. The town was founded in 1578, though it was never more than a backwater; it was probably practiced elsewhere a bit earlier.

Why was it never used? That's impossible to tell, especially given that very closely adjacent techniques were used. "Why didn't they?" is a question historians and archaeologists are ill-suited to answer.

I'd be happy to answer more specific questions about what they did do.


Brezine, Carrie. 2012. “Knitting a New World.” Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings, September.