More than the sum of its parts: Dress and social identity in a provincial Tiwanaku child burial

•Explores social identity through burial dress and offerings.•Studies social and ritual dynamics of burial in provincial Tiwanaku society.•Analyzes technological and iconographic features of polychrome Tiwanaku textiles.•Considers role of curated objects and heirlooms in burial contexts.

Dress can be a powerful statement of status, ideology, and ethnic identity. Archaeological textiles in their original contexts may provide insight to these and many other facets of social life. This study takes a contextual approach to study and interpret a set of four high-quality garments found in a single child burial at the Tiwanaku site of Omo M10 in Moquegua, Peru (700–1050 AD). By integrating the histories of textile objects and social groups, we consider the identity of the deceased, and how the layers of funerary dress reflect the child’s relationship to the community of mourners.