Chuspas

A chuspas (which is Quechua for bag) is a pouch that is used to carry coca leaves, used primarily in the Andean region of South America.

Highland textiles are traditionally woven from the hair of native camelids, usually the domesticated alpacas and llamas, and more rarely, wild vicuña and guanaco.

[3] Long before the Spanish arrived in Peru, Andean artists portrayed people wearing chuspas, especially on pottery vessels.

Chuspas are particularly notable in the seventeenth century line drawings that accompany Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala's length description of Inca customs.

Guaman Poma includes chuspas in an extensive variety of contexts, as two individuals share coca during horticulture, in ritual settings, at funerals, in festivals, and in parades.

[6] In 1609 Bernabe Cobo wrote that underneath his mantle and over his tunic a man would carry 'a small chuspa which hangs around the neck.

[9] Regardless of the technique used, after the weaver is finished, she removes the loom pieces and is left with a four-selvage length of cloth, which is folded in half and stitched along the sides to create the basic bag shape of a chuspa.