The dolls shown here are 20th century Peruvian artifacts made using ancient textile fragments. The dolls are near facsimiles of a doll making tradition that was in practice along the arid central coast of Peru 1000 years ago. These modern dolls are an example of indigenous Peruvian artisans redeveloping an ancient industry of their ancestors to provide a new source of income. Sometimes modern dolls are fraudulently sold as antiquities, but more often Andean artisans maintain the connection to their past and sell them as a contemporary style of folk art that has ancient roots.

I chose to display these Peruvian dolls because they are a great example of a revival of an ancient tradition in the modern world. These dolls represent a blurring of the line between the ancient past and the present – a characteristic that is common of many indigenous cultures around the world.
– Ed Fleming, Curator of Archaeology