Gold, ceramic, and macaw feather artifacts from the permanent archaeological collection at the Museo del Oro in Bogotá, Colombia

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The origin and development of the Wari culture and its empire

These modern details remind me that, 1) traditions are alive and they will, subconsciously or consciously, find a way to remain part of a culture. 2) The art of a tradition can be lost. Because although the practice of storytelling is–or rather at the time of recording this book-- was alive the stories read very much incomplete. As if the storyteller didn't pay close enough attention to the details or the story as it was told to them-- or perhaps it was told as incomplete as we see it now... who knows?! It's as if the completeness had been chipped away by years of change– years of colonization and modernization. It seems as though the artistry had disappeared. Stories seemed to end abruptly, details seemed to be missing, plot lines became fluid and ran into an entirely new plot line in the end. I question if that is the original convention or is it due to the translation? How much of that is the lack of continuity in cultural practices? How much did colonization affect the importance of keeping these stories intact? I suppose these are questions for a journey into the Nahua world that I might not get the chance to take, but it's still worth questioning and wondering, don't you think?

The Art Institute of Chicago.