Turkey Feather Blankets

[TexasBlues]

https://news.unm.edu/news/research-delves-into-role-of-turkeys-to-ancestral-pueblo-peoples

https://magazine.wildlife.state.nm....aves-a-blanket-made-of-17000-turkey-feathers/

 

[swamphiker]

Wow, that is beautiful and fascinating!

 

[Molpet]

That's a lot of work put all those feathers in. 17000 feathers for a 2x 3 ft piece. Not something for everyday use... unless a handicapped person made as a contribution to the tribe.

 

[TexasBlues]

That's a lot of work put all those feathers in. 17000 feathers for a 2x 3 ft piece. Not something for everyday use... unless a handicapped person made as a contribution to the tribe.

They say that potentially every person in them pueblos had one of these blankets.

 

[TexasBlues]

The turkeys were kept alive for years and the soft under feathers were harvested from the turkeys. It’s pretty interesting that the turkey was originally domesticated for feathers, not meat.
Here’s a video of the making of the blanket from yucca cordage and turkey feathers.

 

[TexasBlues]

That's a lot of work put all those feathers in. 17000 feathers for a 2x 3 ft piece. Not something for everyday use... unless a handicapped person made as a contribution to the tribe.

“As Ancestral Pueblo farming populations flourished, many thousands of feather blankets would likely have been in circulation at any one time,” said Dr. Shannon Tushingham, also from the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University.

“It is likely that every member of an Ancestral Pueblo community, from infants to adults, possessed one.”

https://www.sci.news/archaeology/ancestral-puebloan-turkey-feather-blanket-09091.html

 

[Molpet]

They say that potentially every person in them pueblos had one of these blankets.

So much work. I'm so used to leisure time I guess.
My poultry seems to eat all the molting feathers that the rodents and wild birds don't line nests with. A job just keeping up with collecting feathers.

 

[R2elk]

“As Ancestral Pueblo farming populations flourished, many thousands of feather blankets would likely have been in circulation at any one time,” said Dr. Shannon Tushingham, also from the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University.

“It is likely that every member of an Ancestral Pueblo community, from infants to adults, possessed one.”

https://www.sci.news/archaeology/ancestral-puebloan-turkey-feather-blanket-09091.html

Believe what you want but this is mostly guessing on their part. You can see that with all the "likely" comments.

 

[TexasBlues]

Thanks? For the advice

 

[TexasBlues]

https://www.penn.museum/sites/exped...s-and-feathers-used-by-the-southwest-indians/

Here’s some written accounts of the turkeys, eagles, and macaws kept by the native Americans in the SW. including the numbers of turkeys seen and the use of turkey feather blankets I hope this doesn’t offend the turkey know it alls.


https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...-turkey-farming-american-southwest-180976438/

https://www.researchgate.net/figure...ern-Utah-Note-the-wooden-posts_fig6_353682130