These Butterwick

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DAYS OF THE DEAD:

Ritual Consumption and Ancestor Worship
in an Ancient West Mexican Society
by
KRISTI BUTTERWICK
B. A , University o f California, 1974
ML A., University of Denver, 1986
A dissertation submitted to the

Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Colorado in partial fulfillment
of the requirement for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Department o f Anthropology
1998
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout perm ission.
UMI Number: 9916776
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DAYS OF THE DEAD:

A DISSERTATION
by
Kristi B u tterw ick
t
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission of the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission.
The dissertation o f Kristi Butterwick is approved

for the Department o f Anthropology by:
Chair o f Committee
November 1998
ABSTRACT
DAYS OF THE DEAD:
by
Kristi Butterwick
This study focuses upon the Teuchitlan people o f ancient West Mexico, who
lived near Tequila Volcano, Jalisco from 200 B.C. to A D . 250. I argue the thesis
that during the Late Preclassic Period o f Mesoamerican prehistory, the central
organizing principle o f this society was based upon descent, and that kin groups
practiced ancestor worship as a manifestation o f this social organization. Deep shaft
tombs, a hallmark o f the Teuchitlan people, are the tangible archaeological remains of
their social emphasis upon kin groups and principles o f descent.
My study of the organization o f an early West Mexican society relies upon
evidence drawn from both art and archaeology. As part o f their mortuary rituals, the
Teuchitlan people placed ceramic architectural models containing figurines, into the
tombs of their dead. My analysis of the architectural features and zoomorphic and
anthropomorphic figural elements on 82 ceramic models identifies the themes o f
ancestor worship and ritual consumption.
At Huitzilapa, a Late Preclassic site situated on the flanks of Tequila Volcano,
I further investigate evidence for kin groups and ritual consumption. My settlement
pattern study reveals the imprint of kinship in the form o f domestic architecture, patio
group residences and family altars. I infer that the Huitzilapans had corporate kin
groups that were ranked vis-a-vis each other. My ceramic analysis explores further
the practice of ritual consumption. I conclude that the Huitzilapans conducted private
mortuary feasts and public annual feasts that commemorated the ancestors.
I propose that the localized production o f the native Agave tequilana plant,
restricted to the Tequila Volcano area, gave the Huitzilapans an unusual advantage
over their neighbors. This plant may have provided a food surplus and the juices
needed to prepare the intoxicating drinks o f pulque and mescal. The corporate
control over the valuable agave fields may have been the impetus for the formation o f
ranked descent groups during the Late Preclassic Period. The elaborate graves mark
the claims made by these groups to the rights and properties o f founding landowning
families.
ui
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study has benefited enormously from the encouragement and support o f
family, friends, and colleagues. I would especially like to thank the members o f my
doctoral committee at the University of Colorado: Barbara Voorhies, Payson Sheets,
Linda Cordell, Catherine Cameron, and Robert Ferry for sharing their wisdom,
kindness, and insights.
I am particularly indebted to Barbara Voorhies for her
intellectual spirit and her perseverance in guiding me through the completion o f this
dissertation.
I would like to acknowledge my first mentors in Mesoamerican prehistory,
who shared the spark of scholarship with me: Gareth Lowe, Eduardo Martinez
Espinosa, and John Clark of the New World Archaeological Foundation.
My warmest thanks go to my West Mexican colleagues for their gift of
friendship, and for lively discussions about agave and the ancestors: Phil and Celia
Weigand, Peter Furst, Richard Townsend, Joe Mountjoy, Christina Turner, Jane
Stevenson Day, Robert Pickering, Otto Schondube, Bruce Benz, and William
Litzinger.
I gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Jorge Ramos de la Vega and
Lorenza Lopez Mestas Cabreros, and thank them for granting me permission to
iv
conduct field studies as part o f the Proyecto Huitzilapa of the Centro INAH Jalisco.
Their logistical and financial support in the field, as well as their generous sharing of
data and collections made much of my dissertation research possible. The prior work
at Huitzilapa by Phil C. Weigand, his maps, knowledge of the area, frequent visits,
and readings o f preliminary drafts of my research greatly enhanced my fieldwork and
results. I particularly thank Christopher Beekman for taking the time to comment on
drafts o f my ceramic analysis.
I also thank Alejandro Martinez M. of INAH for
encouraging my field studies in Mexico.

I am deeply grateful to the scholars who facilitated my search for West
Mexican ceramic architectural models.
Hasso von Winning, Peter Furst, Phil C.
Weigand, and Otto Schondube generously provided me with unpublished information

on house models. Dr. von Winning graciously gave me a copy of his personal catalog
of ceramic model photographs, notes, and plan drawings that he has maintained for
half a century. I thank the curators who found West Mexican architectural models in
their collections: Otto Schondube of the Regional Museum o f Jalisco at Guadalajara,
Gabrielle Zepeda of the Regional Museum of Nayarit at Tepic, Beverly Balger of the
Dayton Art Institute, Douglas Bradley of the Notre Dame Art Museum, Mannetta
Braunstein of the Jaguar Foundation, Jane Stevenson Day and Bob Pickering of the
Denver Museum of Natural EGstory, Virginia Fields of the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, Gillett Griffin of the Princeton Art Museum, Julie Jones and Heidi
King and of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gordon McEwan and Inga Calvin of
!
the Denver Art Museum, Mary Miller and Susan Matheson o f the Yale University Art
i
I
I
i
{
i
Museum, Nancy RosofF o f the National Museum of the American Indian, Dawn Scher
Thomae of the Milwaukee Public Museum, Edna Southard o f the Miami University
Art Museum, Charles Stanish o f the Field Museum, Stacey Symonds o f the American
Museum o f Natural History, Richard Townsend o f the Chicago Art Institute, and
Stephen L. Whittington of the Hudson Museum.
I greatly appreciate the financial support for my dissertation research given by
the Graduate School and the Department o f Anthropology, University of Colorado at
Boulder.
Finally, I acknowledge the contributions of the Butterwick and Martens clans
for their unfailing support for my project and my spirit. I would like to express my
gratitude to my parents, J. D. and Gloria Butterwick, who encouraged me early on to
explore new lands and peoples. I am most grateful that Steven Martens shared the
often frenetic doctorate experience with me, and I dedicate this work to our boys,
Nicholas and Benjamin.
VI
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract
iii
Acknowledgments
iv
List of Tables
xii
List of Figures
xiii
Chapter L General Introduction..................................................

A Research Design
Defining the Research Themes
The Ancestors
Definitions
Social Implications: Genealogy and Kin
Ancestor Deities
Hereditary Status
Hereditary Authority
Economic Implications: Hereditary Rights to Land
Tombs as Markers
Feasting Strategies
The Social Element of Ritual Consumption
The Social Element o f Mortuary Feasting
The Politics of Ritual Consumption
The Economics o f Ritual Consumption
Regional Exchange and Competitions
Introduction to the Art and Archaeology of West Mexico
Ceramic Art
Archaeology o f West Mexico
Guide to Text
1
3
9
10
11
15
20
20
22
24
25
26
29
33
36
38
40
41
43
50
Chapter n. The Physical and Social Settings of West Mexico...

The Highland Environment of Jalisco
Highland Lakes
Tequila Volcano
The Aboveground Built Environment
Teuchitlan Tradition
El Arenal Phase
Ahualulco Phase
Settlements Around Tequila Volcano
Regional Settlement of the Late Preclassic Period
53
54
54
56
57
59
60
62
63
67
vii
21
The Underground Built Environment

West Mexican Shaft Tombs
Variations of West Mexican Burial Practices
El Openo
Colima
Southern Nayarit
Pacific Coast
Atemejac Valley
Sayula Lake Basin
Tequila Valleys
Ancestor Recognition in West Mexico
Feasting Resources
The Fertile Highlands of Jalisco
Agave tequilana Weber
Eating Agave
Agave Fiber
Tools for Working Agave
Agave Based Ritual Drinks
Pulque (fermented fresh agave juice)
Mescal, Tesguuio, and Tequila (fermented cooked agave juice)
Tequila Volcano Obsidian
A Regional Network
Trade Route
Exported Goods
Obsidian
Mineralogical Specimens
Ceramic Wares
Agave Products
Imported Goods
Greenstone
Turquoise
Coastal Resources
Exchange with South America
Summary
69
69
71
72
73
74
76
77
78
79
82
87
87
89
91
93
95
98
98
100
102
103
104
105
106
107
107
108
110
110
111
112
113
116
Chapter m . West Mexican Ceramic Architectural Models. ................. 117

118
Prehispanic Traditions of Modeling Architecture
132
Formulating the Study Sample
135
Identifying Provenience
137
R ecognizing Forgeries and Reconstruction
141
Data Collection And Recording
142
Previous Classification of Ceramic House Models
146
Architectural Elements
146
Elements o f Analysis
146
Dimensions
viii
Floor Plans
Basal Platforms
Superstructures
Roofs
Lower Chambers
Chamber as Tomb
Four Groups of Ceramic Architectural Models
Summary
Human Figurine Elements
Methods
The Art of Genealogy and Kinship
The Art of Biological Differences
Gender
Age or Generational Differences
The Art of Social Identity
Jewelry
Headgear
Cloaks
Facial Scarification
The Art of Identifying Membership in Social Groups
Clusters of Social Labels
Male Labels
Female Labels
Labels for Male and Female Couples
The Art of Social Inequality
The Art of the Ancestors
Prone Figurines
Chamber Figurines
The Founding Ancestors
Summary
Animal Figurines
Conclusions
147
147
147
148
148
149
151
154
155
155
156
157
157
160
162
163
164
165
166
168
168
169
171
173
175
177
177
178
179
181
182
188
Chapter IV. The West Mexican Art of Consumption.................................... 191

Prehispanic Feasts for the Dead
192
Aztec Annual Feasts for the Dead
192
Dia de los Muertos in West Mexico
194
Tarascan
195
Tarahumara
199
Huichol
202
Feasting Imagery in West Mexican Art
204
Food Depictions
205
Serving Ware Depictions
209
Empty Vessel Depictions
210
Scenes of Consumption in the Ceramic Architectural Models
213
ix
Models with Food Depictions

Models with Empty Vessels
Models with Mortuary Feasts
Feasts with Prone Figures
Ritual Consumption in the Lower Chamber
Models with Jars
Models without Consumption Imagery
Summary: Ritual Feasts or Domestic Consumption
Other Forms of West Mexican Art of Consumption
Feasts in the Mesoamerican Calendars
Competitive Feasts
Ritual Drinking
Ballcourts
The Acocote Tool for Pulque
The Agave Heart
Drinking Vessels in the Shape of Houses
Summary
213
215
216
217
218
220
222
223
227
227
230
233
234
23 5
235
23 7
237
V. The Community o f Huitzilapa.................................................................. 239

Kinship in the Archaeological Record
239
Huitzilapa Salvage Archaeology Project
242
The Current Fieldwork
246
Kin Imprints in the Huitzilapa Community
251
Prevalence o f Domestic Architecture
252
Patio Groups
257
Rectangular Groups
259
Circular Groups
261
Corporate Kin Group Behaviors
262
Descent Group Interaction
272
Ritual Use of Space
278
Domestic Altars
278
Open T erraces
281
Ballcourts
283
Domestic Burials o f the Ancestors
284
La Mina Shaft Tomb
285
Huitzilapa Shaft Tomb
285
Summary
292
VI. Ritual Consumption at Huitzilapa........................................................ 295
West Mexican Tomb Wares
297
Atemejac Valley Tomb Wares
297
Tequila Valley Tomb Wares
301
Huitzilapa Tomb Wares
303
Summary
305
Introduction to the Surface Ceramics
306
X
Methods
Limitations
A Functional Classification
Individuals Serving Vessels o f Prestige Wares
Artistic Representations and Texts
At Huitzilapa
In Mesoamerica
Food Serving Vessels for Feasts
Artistic Representations
At Huitzilapa
In Mesoamerica
Pulque Jars
Artistic Representations and Texts
At Huitzilapa
In Mesoamerica
Large Plains Vessels o f Utilitarian Wares
At Huitzilapa
In Mesoamerica
Summary
Spatial Distribution o f Ceramic Groups
The Ceramic Sherd Parameters
Ballcourt - Juego de Pelota (IP)
Patio Group F 12 West (F12W)
La Robleda [G1 (1-6), G2 (1-4), G3 (1-2]
Patio Group F2
Patio Group F7
Patio Group FI 1
Patio Group F10
Patio Group FI
Conjunto Circular
Plaza West (F4)
Conclusions
307
309
310
311
311
315
317
319
319
320
321
322
322
324
326
327
328
328
330
330
331
334
337
339
340
341
342
343
344
346
352
355
VIL Summary And Conclusions..............................................

A Model of Late Preclassic Period Sociopolitical Organization
A Discussion o f Findings
The Significance of the Current Study
.357
357
361
370
References.
,377
Appendix A. West Mexican Study Sample

of Ceramic Architectural Models..................
.444
XI
LIST OF TABLES
Tables
3.1
Contents depicted in the lower chambers of ceramic models.
150
3.2
Broad categories of figurines.
160
3.3
Restricted imagery of jewelry as depicted on male and female figurines. 163
3.4
Figurines wearing same social labels.
169
3.5
Distribution o f cloaked figurines.
171
3.6
Frequency distribution o f figurines in ceramic model groups.
176
3.7
Figurines in lower chambers.
179
3.8
Animal figurines in ceramic models.
186
4.1
Frequency of servings o f each food type in the ceramic models.
205
4.2
Frequency of container types in ceramic models.
210
4.3
Frequency of empty vessels in ceramic models.
211
5.1
Characteristics o f individual architectural features.
253
5.2
Variation in rectangular patio groups.
261
5.3
Variation in circular patio groups.
261
5.4
Characteristics of patio groups, listed in order of largest patio.
270
5.5
Archaeological features by cluster, with population estimates.
273
6.1
Raw frequencies of ceramic sherd groups.
333
6.2
Ratios for Ceramic Analysis.
336
i
LIST OF FIGURES
Figures
Title page
West Mexican ceramic figure holding empty bowl
1.1
Map o f Prehispanic West Mexico
1.2
West Mexican architectural model showing ritual feasting
1.3
Portion o f the Bebedores or Pulque Drinkers Mural from Cholula
1.4
Aztec illustration o f Huey M iccaylhuitl
30
1.5
Diagram o f shaft tomb construction
44
1.6
Middle Preclassic Period bule jars and stirrup spout jars
46
2.1
Map o f Tequila Volcano Region
55
2.2
Photograph o f Tequila Volcano
56
2.3
Site Map o f San Felipe
58
2.4
Schematic diagram o f guachimonton built environment
60
2.5
Site Map o f El Arenal
61
2.6
Site Map ofL aN oria
62
2.7
Site Map o f Ahualulco
64
2.8
Site Map o f Teuchitlan-Guachimonton
66
2.9
West Mexican sculpture depicting funerary procession
85
2.10
Modem and ancient maguey scrapers used for pulque
96
2.11
Acocotes for pulque production
97
3.1
a. Zapotec architectural models from Monte Alban, Oaxaca;

b. Small Mezcala stone temple model from Guerrero
120
3.2
Stone house model from Copan
121
viii
28
!
I
3.3
Moche ceramic model o f altar with feline deity figure
122
3.4
Circular temple models
123
3.5
Aztec architectural models with deity icons
124
3.6
Clay architectural model from Tlatilco, Mexico
125
3.7
Abstract architectural vessel from Colima
126
3.8
Ceramic vessels in shape o f patio groups
127
3.9
Incense burner lids in architectural shape
127
3.10
Moche ceramic model without figures
128
3.11
West Mexican ceramic architectural model
130
3.12
Illustration of different roof shapes and design motifs
131
3.13
Moche ceramic model with curing scene
132
3.14
Illustration of mound shapes associated with ceramic model groups
152
3.15
Illustration of costume elements worn by figurines
158
3.16
Facial scarification scenes in West Mexican art
167
3.17
West Mexican ceramic bloodletting scene at funeral
174
3.18
Joined Male and Female Pair o f Figures
181
3.19
Colima style dog and parrot sculptures
187
4.1
A Tarascan mortuary feast
196
4.2
Stages in a Tarascan funeral
197
4.3
Categories of food groups, Maya tamales
206
4.4
Aztec depictions of feasting
207
4.5
Depictions of cups and serving wares portrayed in models
210
4.6
Depictions of jars in ceramic models

xiv
212
|
|
i
4.7
West Mexican mortuary feast for one dead
220
4.8
Mixtec and Maya feasting scenes
225
4.9
Ceramic model o f West Mexican feasting ceremony with pole
229
4.10
Aztec drawing of Great Feast for the Dead
231
4.11
West Mexican ceramic art depicting competitive feasting
232
4.12
West Mexican ceramic model o f ritual drinking
233
4.13
Maguey carved at El Tajin ballcourt panel
234
4.14
West Mexican figure carrying agave heart
236
5.1
Map of archaeological sites in the Huitzilapa region
243
5.2
Map of Huitzilapa in 1980
245
5.3
Photograph o f platform mound with cut stone construction
249
5.4
Classification o f architectural features
256
5.5
Staircase at large platform mound
257
5.6
Map of Huitzilapa site center
260
57
El Zapote site map
263
5.8
Huitzilapa site map
266
5.9
Map of western area of Huitzilapa
267
5.10
Map of northern area o f Huitzilapa
268
5.11
Map of southern area o f Huitzilapa
269
5.12
Site Maps of La Robleda and La Mina
275
5.13
Illustration of the north chamber o f the Huitzilapa shaft tomb
286
5.14
Illustration of the south chamber o f the Huitzilapa shaft tomb
287
I
i
!
f
6.1
Cholula Pulque Drinkers mural
6.2
Photograph o f maguey scrapers from Huitzilapa
325
6.3
Pottery figures of West Mexican dancers
347
313
XVI
CHAPTER I
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Prehispanic peoples o f Mexico commemorated life and death events and

brokered political and economic deals in a milieu o f ritual consumption.
Feasting
integrated diverse elements o f society by providing local and regional opportunities for
social interaction, and for the sharing of foods and the exchange o f goods and services.
While traditions o f ritual consumption are well known and documented historically for
many Mesoamerican societies, the focus o f this study is the feasting strategies used by
the ancient Teuchitlan people o f West Mexico. My thesis is that in West Mexico,
from 200 B.C. to A.D. 250, members o f descent groups protected their rights to
property and essential resources using feasting strategies that recognized and
honored their ancestors.
Like other Late Preclassic peoples o f Nayarit, Colima, and Jalisco (Figure
1.1), the Teuchitlanos dug shaft tombs, and buried chosen dead with ceramic vessels,
food, and other offerings. The Teuchitlan settlers, however, lived on the flanks o f
Tequila Volcano where soils nurtured the growth o f native Agave tequilana.
contend that agave provided Teuchitlanos with reliable food, drink, and fibers for
subsistence, feasts, and trade. From the local obsidian deposits, they fashioned the
tools necessary to work agave. I look for evidence that the resources o f the Tequila
valleys permitted feasting opportunities that enriched the founding families and
We s t e r n Me x ic o
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Figure 1.1. Map o f Prehispanic West Mexico (by K. Butterwick 1998).
*! A
encouraged the formation o f descent groups. My reconstruction o f prehistory is

strengthened by evidence from the Late Preclassic Period shaft tombs around Tequila
Volcano that arguably mark genealogical claims to agave lands, rights o f the
ancestors passed on through descent group membership.
A RESEARCH DESIGN
The objectives o f my study into ritual consumption and ancestor worship in

ancient West Mexico are twofold. The first focuses on the general theoretical problem
o f understanding the basis and organization o f social structures in prehispanic West
Mexico during the Late Preclassic Period, from 200 B.C. to A.D. 250. The second
objective is to develop a method for examining ancient social structures using the
artistic and archaeological records o f West Mexico. The course o f investigations
applies to the central problem, which is: did descent groups form to control the
restricted agave lands of the Tequila valleys? And if so, how did strategies o f ritual
consumption and ancestor recognition benefit members of descent groups in one
Late Preclassic Period West Mexican community? These objectives are pursued in a
five step research design.
The first step in the research design is the review o f literature pertaining to
ritual consumption, descent group formation, and ancestor recognition. Variances in
the meaning and practice of these (frequently) interrelated behaviors are explored
with ethnographic and archaeological references. Ethnohistoric references focus on
indigenous Tarascan, Huichol, and Tarahumara peoples o f West and Northwest
Mexico.
The West Mexican ethnographic materials are particularly useful for
comparative material on agave utilization, and in some instances for historic

accounts o f ritual and mortuary behaviors.
A few factors, however, make it necessary to broaden the scope o f inquiry to
find appropriate ethnographic models outside the West Mexican geographic region.
One factor is that the lack o f established cultural continuity from the Tarascans,
Huichol, and Tarahumara to the Late Preclassic Period peoples o f West Mexico
(Weigand 1985b) weakens the use o f direct ethnographic analogy. A second factor
is that archaeological data presented in this study indicate that during the Late
Preclassic Period the Teuchitlan people lived in ranked and middle range societies
unlike the egalitarian Huichol and Tarahumara peoples, and unlike the stratified state
society o f the Tarascan Empire.
Thus, in order to draw appropriate inferences
regarding the early societies o f West Mexico my analysis also relies on problem
oriented ethnohistoric studies from structurally comparable societies worldwide.
The search for appropriate ethnographic analogies focuses on the main issue
regarding the complex relationship between ancestor veneration, corporate control of
essential resources, and descent group formation. It uses classic studies o f ancestor
worship and lineages in traditional societies (Merton 1957; Middleton and Tait 1968;
Morgan 1877; Murdock 1949; Radcliffe-Brown 1952; Service 1971; Tainter 1978),
in China (Ahem 1973; Freedman 1967), Africa (Evans-Pritchard 1940; Glazier
1984), Europe (Antonaccio 1995; Pearson 1993), and Andean South America
(Bawden 1995; Demarest and Conrad 1983; Hastorf 1993), but concentrates on
studies o f ranked, agrarian societies with descent reckoning (Fortes 1953; Goldstein
1976; Meggitt 1968; Saxe 1970), in Polynesia (Firth 1968; Kirch 1991; Sahlins
1968), and lower Central America (Bray 1984; Helms 1979). The ethnographic
literature helps to identify social, economic, and political aspects associated with
ancestor veneration, access to resources, and descent reckoning that previously have
not been explored in West Mexican prehistory.
The search for ethnographic material that might be analogous to ancient West
Mexican practices o f ritual consumption identified numerous seasonal and mortuary
feasting practices am o ng Mesoamerican groups, ancient (Brumfiel 1987; Carmichael
and Sayer 1992; D. Carrasco 1990; Clark and Blake 1994) and contemporary
(Collier 1975; Nutini 1988; A. Miller 1995), seasonal feasts o f the Tewa Pueblos
(Ortiz 1969), and other indigenous peoples o f the American Southwest (Blinman
1989; Lightfoot 1984; Lightfoot and Feinman 1982), competitive feasting strategies
proposed for the chiefdoms o f P anam a (Helms 1979), the American Southeast (Blitz
1993; Welch and Scarry 1995), the Pacific Northwest (Hayden 1995; S. Kan 1989),
and the mortuary and competitive feasting in the historic chiefdoms o f Panama
(Helms 1979), and in the ranked societies o f Polynesia (Damon 1989; R. Foster
1989; Lewposki 1989; Macintyre 1989). This body o f problem oriented data led me
to investigate also associated kinship systems, mortuary behaviors, and other social
nuances useful in building inferences regarding ancient West Mexican societies.
The literature review situates the ideologies o f West Mexico in a
Mesoamerican framework. This serves two purposes. It addresses the false but
prevalent imp ression that the cultural traditions o f the West were isolated from
prehispanic M eso am erica,
In addition, knowledge accumulated from years of
research into the Aztec, Mixtec, Maya, Zapotec and other Mesoamerican societies
can be used judiciously to make informed conclusions about the lesser known, yet
equally vibrant, West Mexican societies.
The second phase o f the research design establishes the archaeological and
environmental settings of highland West Mexico, where my study takes place
(Figure 1.1). This phase uses primary published and unpublished field studies. One
goal o f this research phase is to outline a regional settlement context for the Tequila
valleys, in which the present settlement analysis o f Huitzilapa, a Late Preclassic
Period community, can be placed and understood. A second goal of this research
phase is to understand the social custom o f ancestor recognition in prehispanic West
Mexico by examining the underground built environment of shaft tombs and
accompanying mortuary behaviors. A third goal o f this research phase is to clarify
that the Tequila valleys contained reliable yet restricted resources essential for
hum an survival and for early societal developments. The widespread presence today
o f Agave tequilana in these valleys gives rise to the likelihood that in prehispanic
times this resource produced food and drink for ritual consumption, and fibers to
weave textiles. In addition, archaeological materials, local and foreign, found at Late
Preclassic Period sites in the Tequila valleys support the possibility for regional
competitive feasts and interaction via the Rio Santiago trade corridor.
The third step in my research is an analysis o f West Mexican ceramic art
dating to the Late Preclassic Period.
The data for the analysis derive from
measurements and attributes o f 82 ceramic architectural models originally interred in

shaft tombs and now part of museum collections (Figure 1.2).
The purpose o f this
research phase is to define how early West Mexican sculptors, using the medium of
pottery, communicated the social realm, ritual feasts, and the underworld home of
the dead. The analysis o f groups o f human figures attached to the models pertains to
the second objective regarding methods o f identifying social structures in the artistic
record o f West Mexico.
The fourth research phase involves field investigations in the Huitzilapa area,
where the remains o f the Late Preclassic Period occupation consist o f four sites in a
four km2 region on the flanks o f Tequila Volcano. The research is conducted and
presented in two parts. The first concerns the identification o f settlement patterns
using data derived from field notes, scale drawings, excavation logs, and maps from
the survey and excavation of Huitzilapa, a project directed by archaeologist Jorge
Ramos de la Vega. My analysis concentrates on recovering the kinds of settlement
data from which elements of ancient social organization can be reconstructed for the
Late Preclassic Period Huitzilapa community.
My analysis pertains to the two
primary research objectives by identifying descent and corporate kin groups, and by
proposing methods to recognize kinship behaviors in the archaeological record.
A subset o f the fourth research phase is the analysis o f sherd materials
excavated from the living surfaces o f two Late Preclassic Period sites in the
Huitzilapa area. Data for this research phase derive from laboratory analysis o f the
sherds involving classification o f rim sherds into functional types, the counts of
sherd types per excavation unit and level, and the provenience o f each sherd noted
from the excavators logs. These data are then entered into a relational database
program for statistical and spatial analysis.
The intent o f the ceramic analysis is to
Figure 1.2. West Mexican ceramic model showing ritual feasting (h=30.5 c m ),
see Record No. 14 o f Appendix A
(courtesy o f the Los Angeles County Art Museum # M.86.296.30).
investigate the presence, venues, and purposes o f feasting strategies in the Late
Preclassic Period society occupying the Huitzilapa region. A brief review o f the
findings from the Huitzilapa shaft tomb published by Ramos de la Vega and Lopez
Mestas Camberos (1996) reinforces my contention that members o f a descent group
conducted mortuary feasts and participated in regional exchange.
The final phase in the research design constructs a model o f sociopolitical
o rg anization for one Late Preclassic Period West Mexican community. The model
combines my interpretations o f the ceramic art (research phase three) and data from
the Huitzilapa region (research phase four) with the ethnographic exploration into
kinship, feasting strategies, and agave exploitation and lands (research phases one
and two). The use o f ceramic art and ethnohistoric sources to interpret the
archaeological evidence in many cases fails to develop firm conclusions in my study,
and instead leads to inferences and suggestions (per Helms 1979). In the final phase
o f model building I thus attempt to separate these iines o f inferential reasoning from
the hard data. My goal is to advance our understanding o f the social and economic
structures utilized by some early West Mexican peoples.
DEFINING THE RESEARCH THEMES
This section defines the main themes o f my argument, ancestor veneration and
ritual feasting, and explains their significance to ancient West Mexican socio-economic
structures. The discussion demonstrates the roles that ancestor veneration and ritual
I
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10
feasting play in the development o f human groups, including the Late Preclassic Period
societies o f West Mexico, when access to restricted land and resources are at issue.
The Ancestors
Although many Mesoamerican archaeologists have proposed a cult o f the

dead as a facet o f the prehispanic West Mexican belief system (P. Furst 1966, 1974;
Gallagher 1983; Long 1966a, 1966b; Meighan and Nicholson 1989; Toscano et aL
1946; Weigand 1974), its utility to predict social structures or to explain human
behaviors has gone largely unappreciated (perhaps a moral reaction by scientists to
all looted things, including the shaft tomb homes of the ancestors).
During the
seminal years o f West Mexican archaeology, scholars surmised that the ancient
societies practiced ancestor worship and had ancestor-oriented religious practices
rather than dedication to high gods (Weigand 1974:125; P. Furst 1974:135, 1975:64).
More recently, investigators have downplayed the impact that ancestor worship had in
structuring early West Mexican societies. They suggest that it is the anthropologist,
rather than the aboriginal peoples, who are obsessed with a cult o f the dead
(Pickering 1997:44), or with funerary cults (Weigand 1990a:25). I believe that a
reappraisal o f the concept o f ancestor recognition addressses this explanatory shift,
and more importantly, illum inates societal elements basic to early West Mexican
peoples.
The societal elements o f ancestor worship examined here are the formation o f
I
descent groups, ancestral deities, and the hereditary rights to status, property and
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II
I
resources.
These concepts are central to my investigation into the sociopolitical
organization o f early Teuchitlan peoples o f West Mexico. Ethnographies, written

texts, and archaeological evidence suggest that the ritual celebration o f the ancestors
does not represent a static worldview, a simplistic society, a religious sect, nor a
cosmic preoccupation limited to egalitarian or tribal people. Instead, the practice o f
honoring chosen dead underlies complex socio-economic structures through which
an individuals roIe in society is established and validated.
The following discussion supports my thesis that in prehispanic West Mexico
members o f descent groups protected their land rights with shaft tombs, mortuary
feasts, and other rites that recognized the ancestors. The terms used in the study are
first defined, and the heuristic value o f investigating ancestor worship in Late
Preclassic Period societies o f West Mexico is then made clear.
Definitions. In the literature on West Mexican prehistory, the phrases, cult
o f the dead, funerary cult, and ancestor worship, are used interchangeably and
often without definitions, to describe the mortuary behaviors o f Late Preclassic
Period peoples o f West Mexico (Beekman 1996b: 135; Cabrero 1995, Dwyer and
Dwyer 1975a; Gallagher 1983; Meighan and Nicholson 1989; Long 1966a; B.
Nelson et a l 1992; Oliveros 1992; Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos
1996; Weigand 1974, 1990a). In order that we might communicate more effectively
about West Mexican prehistory, I propose a refinement in the use o f such terms,
following researchers o f Greek, Chinese, and Mayan civilizations. They critique the
use o f cult as a confusing and inadequate term, especially to describe variations in
ancient mortuary rituals (Ahem 1973; Antonaccio 1995:6-7; J. Brown 1975, 1977,
12
1981; Chapman et al. 1981; Fortes 1987; McAnany 1995; Nutini 1988; Tainter
1978). Further, in contrast to established religions that honor gods, cults may
evoke meanings o f fringe sects (reference the modem tragedies o f the Hale-Bopp
and the James Jones cults), o f religious beliefs held by only a small sector of a larger
society. In a like manner, the word worship may carry extraneous meanings with
particular association with Judeo-Christian usage.1
My use of worship and
veneration is intended to reflect neutral acts o f recognition or respect in a religious or

supernatural context (see Steadman et aL 1996:64).
A basic difference between the terms o f ancestor worship and cults o f the
dead concerns the degree to which all deceased persons are revered. In cults o f the
dead, practitioners conflate all dead spirits into a category o f nebulous beings
(Fortes 1987:67) who they honor as a group. The term ancestor, on the other hand,
specifies a deceased person who is recognized as an important or great kin
member, such as a leader, land owner, or lineage founder (Service 1971:162). My
study therefore uses the terminology o f ancestor worship for reverence paid to those
deceased persons chosen and recognized by the living as the esteemed, worthy, and
honored dead (McAnany 1995:11; Nutini 1988:56).
The essence o f ancestor veneration is a belief that communication exists
between the living and the souls o f the dead, and that the living access the
supernatural through the spirits o f the dead (Steadman et aL 1996:64). The living
pray to their ancestors, and ask that the spirits speak to the gods on their behalf.
Conquest Period documents from the Aztec o f Central Mexico describe the dead as
A sentiment explained to me by Jill Leslie McKeever Furst and Peter Furst.
13
mediators between the gods and humans (Nutini 1988:73).
Ethnographic data
gathered at Maya and Mixtec communities support the premise that daily
communication with the dead spirits is practiced, with the dead buried under house
floors, or more recently, in nearby cemeteries (Byland and Pohl 1994; McAnany
1995; A. Miller 1995).
The human need to communicate with the ancestors has been described by
psychologist Norman O. Brown (1959:100) as an elemental flight from death
emotion at the heart o f all religions since the times o f the earliest cave men, who kept
their dead alive by dyeing the bones red and burying them near the fam ily hearth. This
psychological interpretation may apply to the widespread custom o f painting skeletal
remains in prehistoric America, including West Mexico. Beginning as early as 7020
B.C., the Chinchorro people o f the Chilean north coast painted and then wrapped
certain o f the dead for mummification (Arriaza 1995a, 1995b; Dillehay 1995). Later
groups, like the Chavm (900 to 200 B.C.) and the Paracas people (700 B.C. to AD.
200) continued the rites o f ancestor mummification and also painted human skeletal
remains red (Bushnell 1963:50). Farther north, on Mexicos Gulf o f Mexico coast, an
Olmec tomb at Mound A-2 at La Venta, dating from 1000 to 500 B.C., contained
human remains that had been covered with a vermilion paint (M. Coe 1984:75). Across
m ainland Mexico, this practice persisted in Western Mexico beginning in the Preclassic
Period, as discussed in Chapter II, and into the Postclassic Period. At the Postclassic
Period site o f Guasave along the Pacific Coast, excavations at Burial 29 revealed that
the skeletal remains o f the principal male figure and two accompanying skulls had been
painted in a red ochre (G. Ekholm 1942:43). In addition to painting the dead blood red
14
and communicating to them, peoples maintain access to their ancestors by giving

human companions to the deceased, and by providing them with sustenance in the
grave.
Tombs from Mesoamerica illustrate that chosen ancestors did not journey
alone to Xibalba, the underworld. At Teotihuacan in Central Mexico, the enormous
Temple of Quetzalcoatl, built from approximately AT). 1 to 350, overlies a mass
buriaL Located at the southern, and symbolic underworld part o f the Avenue o f
the Dead, the Temple contained the rem ains o f 200 hum an sacrificial victims
(Sugiyama 1993). O f these, a cluster o f twenty individuals was buried beneath the
temple center, possibly as companions to the principal personage. For the Classic
Maya, commonly three, but on occasion up to six youths accompanied the burials o f
chosen dead. This pattern repeats at the Mexicanized Maya site o f Kaminaljuyu
dating to approximately A.D. 400; at a Tikal temple in A.D. 457; and at Palenque, in
A.D. 683, five or six youths accompanied Lord Pacal on his journey to the
underworld (M. Coe 1987:70ff).
In deep shaft tombs, the West Mexican peoples
also interred the ancestors with companions during the Late Preclassic Period, as
detailed in Chapter n.
Historic records from South America may explain the prehispanic behavior
o f burying companions with the dead. Andean peoples believed that the ancestors
never disappeared, but were vital players in the affairs o f the living (Bawden
1995:262). To them, the dead spirits were able to feel, eat, and drink (Benson 1992:
311), and participate in daily life (Bawden 1995; Donnan and McClelland 1979).
Therefore, the ancestors required the same attendants in death as they had in life, as
15
seen in the rem ains o f commoners and rulers interred together in the royal tombs at the
Moche site o f Sipan (Donnan and Alva 1993). Colonial documents from Colombia and
Peru demonstrate that the practice o f burying spouses, children and servants, possibly
still alive, in shaft tombs endured into historic times. Texts record that the attendants
imbibed chicha (fermented com juice) and were inebriated upon their burial
The
Spanish explorer Cieza de Leon (1864; cited in Dwyer and Dwyer 1975b: 145)
chronicled the juxtaposition for the Inka between the dead and the living, at
approximately AX). 1530:
In these valleys the custom is very general o f burying precious things
w ith the dead, a s w ell a s m any w om en and the m ost confidential
servants p o sse sse d b y the c h ie f w hen alive. In form er tim es they used
to open the tombs, and renew the clothes and fo o d w hich were
placed in them. . .
The purposes o f recognizing the dead are not limited to fulfilling the
psychological needs o f the living, nor to their participation in elaborate mortuary
rites that address the needs o f the ancestral spirits. By honoring chosen dead, the
living exalt their heritage and lay claim to the privileges and properties held formerly
by the deceased (McAnany 1995). For the living, their blood rights o f inheritance
are conferred during rituals that recognize the ancestors.
Social Implications: Genealogy and Kin.
By definition, the naming o f
ancestors follows rules o f descent that recognize genealogy as an organizing

principle in kinship and social structure (Friedman and Rowlands 1978:211; Nutini
1988:58; Pearson 1993; Saxe 1970:119).
My premise that early West Mexican
peoples recognized their ancestors (an hypothesis examined fully in Chapter II) does
not specify a particular kinship or descent system. Rather, it identifies a range of
16
possible descent principles and social group expressions for further investigation.
The term descent group used here applies to an entire multigenerational, exogamous
clan, kindred or lineage that may or may not have residential associations. The term
corporate kin group denotes a branch o f the larger descent group, generally with
residential and landholding associations.
Descent is a principle used in some societies to describe the generational
relationships among male and female social members. Criteria for membership in
descent groups varies by recognized parentage, by the consistency o f practice, and
by the intensity o f application. Members can include descendents o f a common
ancestor or founding pair, reckoned either lineally or nonlineally (Buchler 1980:370371; Service 1971:19).
Genealogy is the basis for lineal descent groups whose membership forms
exogamous entities with varying corporate and residential functions. Lineal
principles recognize the vertical or generational relationships in either a maternal or
paternal bloodline.
Lineage members can recite their genealogical relationships
among living kin, and even back to the long dead (Firth 1971:35; Fortes 1953:26 fif
1987:16; Middleton and Tait 1968). Members o f lineal descent groups validate their
lineage and their place in it by tracing their generational steps to, and recognizing a
blood ancestor or pair o f founding ancestors (Fortes 1987:16). Clan members also
recognize a common set of ancestors, although the genealogical chart is not recited nor
necessarily inclusive of every descent group member (Service 1971:115-116).
Reckoning ancestry through lineal descent serves the legitimization o f childrens
birthrights, identifies exogamous marriage partners, and directs the transmission o f
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
17
property, office, and status through the social group o f the mother or father (Ahem
1973; Buchler 1980; Evans-Pritchard 1940; Firth 1968; Meggitt 1965; Saxe 1971).
The social emphasis in societies organized by kinship is the corporate group
and community, as opposed to the individual or the independent family. Corporate
refers to social entities whose members hold land and resources in common, settle
disputes among members, share and store food, and join forces in labor cooperatives
and regional alliances (Service 1971:19,20, 113).
Social systems that are organized by lineal descent groups experience a
choice not only in the ways (e.g., maternal or paternal) that kinship is reckoned, but
also in levels or intensity o f participation (Fortes 1953; Kramer 1982).
Evans-
Pritchard (1940), in his classic study o f the Nuer o f Africa, demonstrated that those
descent groups followed strict rules o f unilineal membership and exogamy, and
guided political segmentation. Lineages o f the ancient and contemporary Chinese
also adhered to rigid rules o f descent (Ahem 1973; Freedman 1967). On tablets
safeguarded in temples and halls o f the dead, the Chinese preserved the names o f the
most venerated ancestors in exact genealogy, beginning with their founding
members. Even today, lineage members conduct rites that recognize their founding
ancestors, some as distant as 40 generations (approximately 800 years) away (Ahem
1973:116-117; Freedman 1967:86-87).
In these rigid social systems, lineage membership is immutable and fixed at
birth. The marriage custom o f lineage exogamy maintains genealogical integrity for
the societal entity.
Thus, the social composition o f the group includes the
permanent core of lineally related persons and also their married-in spouses who
18
belong to other bloodlines (Service 1971:113, 124).

Other kinship systems adhere to flexible principles o f descent reckoning. For
example, anthropologists working with Polynesian societies found open rules o f
kinship recruitment, with bilateral descent recognized from both parents (Firth
1968). Ordinarily it was lower ranked people who switched allegiance to kin groups,
or were not aware o f their genealogy.
According to Firth (1968:214-216),
Polynesian kinship systems permitted the individual to align temporarily with

different descent groups to suit diverse situations and were more com m on than the
unalterable or irreversible type.
Marriage and residence choices in the less rigid
descent systems also have flexibility that allow for situational responses.
Membership in bilateral and nonlineal (or cognatic) kin groups depends upon
descent from either or both mothers and fathers relatives, and the perception o f
ones heritage (Service 1971:124, 19-20). Recognition o f kinship does not depend on
actual consanguine determinations, but may involve parentage, age, sex, generation,
residence, or marriage.
Notions o f kin and kinship do not necessarily denote
consanguinity between individuals, instead they may exist only in human consciousness
(Levi-Strauss 1969). Kinship can thus refer to cultural (pater-mater) rather than
physical (genetic) bonds (Buchler 1980: 347-348; Firth 1968; Merton 1957;
Radcliffe-Brown 1962).
The varied prehispanic social systems formed by indigenous American
groups were founded in descent principles with some flexibility permitted.
Decisions regarding recruitment into some prehispanic descent groups were
determined by social rank, as well as by consanguine relations. Documents show,
19
for example, that the Aztec nobility, unlike the citizenry, recorded their bloodlines
and adhered to lineage-like structures to justify their social station (Couch 1985;
Nutini 1988:58). Those bom to the lower social ranks were able, in rare instances, to
earn and achieve elite status (P. Carrasco 1971, 1976; Nutini 1976). Hieroglyphic
texts o f the Classic Maya record that elite sectors of society reckoned kinship within
a general framework o f patrilineal descent (Haviland 1963, 1968, 1977, 1988). The
bloodlines o f the males united extended fam ilies of the Maya. These combined into
descent groups, which together formed clans, whose members shared a distant
common ancestor (Scheie and Freidel 1990:84).
The variance that bilateral social systems permit is known for several
prehispanic societies including the Tewa Pueblos (Ortiz 1969) o f the American
Southwest, the Zapotec o f Oaxaca (A. Miller 1995), and the Inkas (J. Moore 1995).
These kinship systems frequently combine the founding lines begun by brothers, or
by sibling pairs. For example, in Hopi communities sister and brother pairs hold
power (Lowie 1929). According to Richard Townsend (1992:58-62, 117), the Aztec
held that before the world appeared there were primordial masculine and feminine
creative forces called Two Lord and Two Lady. Legendary ancestral deities, the
brother and sister pair o f Huizilopochtli and Malindlxochitl, were considered heads
o f early Aztec groups that migrated into the Valley o f Mexico. The Zapotec may
also have recognized bilateral descent principles (Urcid and Winter 1989). In murals
painted in ancient Zapotec tombs, Arthur Miller (1995) identified, in the portraits of
four individuals, two male and female marital couples. Inferring that each was a
founding pair o f an ancestral lineage, Miller (1995:240) suggested that the Zapotecs
20
reckoned genealogy bilaterally.
Ancestor Deities. In the underworld, the most venerated ancestors became
ancestral deities who resembled the gods and goddesses (J. Brown 1975; Pearson
1993; Service 1971:162). Not uncommonly, members of dynastic lineages deified
the founding ancestors and ascribed to them supernatural personas (Service
1971:140, 162). Such was the case for the pantheon o f Aztec deities that mimicked
rules o f social stratification.
When the dead passed into the afterlife, chosen
ancestors entered a house o f an Aztec god, and thereby acquired, in addition to their
human rank, the rank o f the host deity. The resulting hierarchical order o f deities
mirrored the social structure of ordinary humans, including ones position in the
kinship group, as well as the lineage rank.
Royal members o f the Classic Maya conducted bloodletting rituals that
established genealogical ties with divine ancestors (M. Coe 1987:173, 187; Scheie
and Miller 1986).
Association with ancestral deities enhanced the status o f the
nobles and their descent group by proclaiming divine hereditary privileges (M. Coe
1987:173).
Hereditary Status. In ranked societies with pronounced ancestor veneration,
the presumption can be made that social inequality is institutionalized and hereditary
(Drennan 1976; Drennan and Uribe 1987, Feinman 1995; Friedman and Rowlands
1978; Hodder 1982; McAnany 1995). An imbalance in status and wealth which
accrues in the founding family o f descent groups is the basis for social inequality that
marks ranked societies (see Clark and Blake 1994:21-28). Such was the case for
many social hierarchies o f prehispanic Mesoamerica. As interpreted for the ancient
21
Maya, the principle o f inherited status permeated the entire society and affirmed the
legitimacy and prerogatives o f the most exalted, as well as the most humble, o f
societys members (Scheie and Freidel 1990:85).
Societies organized by lineal descent are not invariably ranked, hierarchical,
or socially stratified. Descent groups exist where all members o f the lineage...are
full members and equally related to the ancestral figure (Service 1971:112).
Egalitarian societies that recognize ancestors and have lineage social structures are
associated with agrarian social groups or tribes (Saxe 1971; Steadman et al. 1996).
Ethnographic research in New Guinea indicates that the emergence o f lineages with
ancestor recognition varies with the pressure on available land resources (Meggitt
1965:51), and on the value o f the farmland held by the corporate group. The data
indicate a correlation between an increase in competition for arable lands and the
development in descent groups o f hereditary claims to territory and status.
Hereditary Authority. Leadership by ascription is a political consequence o f
inherited status. Hereditary roles o f authority follow genealogical order of nearness
to ruler (Drennan 1996; Earle 1987, 1989, 1991; Johnson and Earle 1987).
In
chiefdoms, for example, the pathway to power is the shortest number o f steps
reckoned to the chief. A chief occupies the top position o f a lineage that ranks above
other extant, and competing, lineal descent groups. The hierarchy o f lineages is
determined not solely on nearness to the founding ancestors, but on accomplishments
o f kin leadership as well. For example, Conquest Period documents from P anam a
suggest that lineage chiefs and nobles continually honed their practical skills,
leadership and personal qualities to keep talented challengers at bay (Helms 1979:30-
22
31). Without a competent chief a lineage can wilt and die and its membership
gradually aligns itself with other rising lineages (Firth 1968:214, quoting Gifford
1929:29ff). A lineages strength is bound not only to an individual leader but also to
the economic value o f the properties and relative wealth held by members o f descent
groups.
Economic Implications: Hereditary Rights to Land.
The economic
significance o f recognizing ancestors lies in rules o f property inheritance. Descent

groups honor their ancestors to control access to land and essential resources. The
rights to land, livestock, women and other resources. . .[are] usually vested within
the descent group concerned, as a corporation (Middleton and Tait 1968:156-157).
To control agricultural lands and important resources, families claim lineage
seniority (Rice and Puleston 1981:141), or the closest tie to the original ancestors or
founding family (Ashmore and Wilk 1988:19; Collier 1975; Hayden 1996; McAnany
1995:116-117).
The control o f land and resources by the founding family attracts others to
reside with the corporate group. The related fam ilies live together as a residential
subsistence based corporate group (Hayden 1995:37). The head o f the founding
family is the house chief or titular owner o f the residential unit (Hayden
1995:59, 1996:37).
The economic basis for descent group formation is the corporate control o f
land, resources, and trade (Feinman 1995:272; Goldstein 1976; Hayden and Cannon
1982; Middleton and Tait 1968; Saxe 1970). Corporate kin groups only develop in
resource rich environments, where the pooling o f labor is necessary to produce a
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surplus (Clark and Blake 1994:19; Hayden 1995; Hayden and Cannon 1982). Within
the community, the control o f resources is concentrated in the founding family and
its corporate kin group (Hayden 1995:59).
The founding ancestors, whether real or deified, anchor the oldest and highest
ranked descent groups, because their priority of arrival gives them rightful ownership
o f lands and resources (Byland and Pohl 1994:44; P. Carrasco 1976; Freedman
1967:140; Fried 1967; Glazier 1980; Goldstein 1976; Hastorf 1993; Howell and
Kintigh 1996; McAnany 1995; Pearson 1993; Saxe 1970). By reckoning descent to
the founding ancestors, kin members are linked to the original land claims (Anderson
1994:68; Feinman 1995:2726).
Members o f highly ranked or prominent descent groups calculate their
genealogy carefully because their inheritance of significant land and status is at stake
(per Service 1971:148).
This idea is exemplified by the Zapotec tomb murals,
discussed above, in which portraits preserved the rules o f inheritance and legitimized
property rights (A. Miller 1995:240).
Generations later, the Mixtec o f the Late
Postclassic Period also honored a lineages rights to ancestral lands (Byland and Pohl
1994).
Powerful Mixtec lords o f Oaxaca manipulated their genealogies when
competing for land and power within the community. Recorded in their codices, the
Mixtec nobles wrote genealogical accounts o f their histories, kin relations, and land
claims. They predicated their territorial rights upon a royal lineage that they traced
back nearly a millennium to the Zapotec founding ancestors (Byland and Pohl
1994:220). On a regional level as well, genealogy was crucial to Mixtec nobility
because the division o f land was defined and justified by the mythical and historical
24
events involving the founding ancestors (Byland and Pohl 1994:44).

Tombs as Markers. The shaft tombs o f West Mexico signal that land issues
were critical to members o f descent groups by the Late Preclassic Period. The grave
marks the ancestors, and thus the kindreds, territorial rights in many societies
(McAnany 1995; Meggitt 1965; Pearson 1993; Saxe 1971; Whalen 1983, 1988).
The practice in West Mexico, and in prehispanic Mesoamerica generally, of burying
the ancestors within the perimeter of a residential compound, or under house floors
(McAnany 1995:50) further emphasizes the family claim to land. The proximity of the
grave permitted not only daily communication with the ancestors, but ensured property
inheritance.
The pattern o f domestic burials is exemplified by mortuary data from
Teotihuacan in Central Mexico. During the early centuries o f the first millenium AD.,
the Teotihuacanos buried adults under the floors o f domestic apartment compounds.
Only a portion o f the adult population was selected for domestic burials, with others,
especially women, buried elsewhere (Manzanilla 1996:242).
These observations
suggest that at Teotihuacan only certain dead were chosen as ancestors, and that
those selected for domestic burial held property rights that the living inherited.
In Inka communities too the remains of ancestors secured property rights. The
dead were interred in cemeteries built to look like towns, described as the same house
of the dead, in the old highland village (Salomon and Urioste 1991:79). Jesuit priest
Francisco de Avila wrote in the late 1500s that mum m ified ancestors lived in houses
with square towers (Salomon and Urioste 1991:79-80), much like the residences o f
their living heirs. The ancestors o f the Inka became actual landowners. Rather than the
25
living, the royal mum m ies held property rights (Demarest and Conrad 1983:389).
Naming a property-owning mummy as ones own ancestor gave kin access to essential
resources and land. On a regional level, Inka lords used live burials to demarcate
boundaries o f their empire that spanned thousands o f square kilometers. In elaborate
state-sanctified rituals, called capac hucha, priests buried children, stupefied by chicha
beer, alive in tombs or placed them on Andean peaks with rich offerings (McEwan and
Van de Guchte 1992:360-363). The bones o f children, placed at hundreds of sacred
shrines, mountain tops, and islands, thus marked genealogical and ancestral ties to land.
The gravesites mapped the sacred geography o f the Inka Empire, and the placement o f
the chosen dead represented a model o f kinship or dynastic politics (McEwan and
Van de Guchte 1992:369). Although Andean societies seem to have utilized the dead
to extreme measures, the fundamental principles of the living using deceased family
members to claim authority and territory may, by ethnographic analogy, apply to West
Mexican mortuary traditions.
Feasting Strategies
This section explores the significance and purpose o f feasting strategies in

ranked and/ or kin focused societies like those proposed for the Late Preclassic
Period o f West Mexico. As presented here, feasting involves ritual eating, drinking
and competitions rather than subsistence and daily consumption (Hastorf 1991:134).
Feasting unifies society in private and communal rituals, and in political and
economic strategies.
26
Several ethnographic sources, discussed above, on ritual feasting are

compiled here.
They include descriptions o f prehispanic practices, as well as
scholarly analyses o f the purposes and structure o f feasting in ranked societies from a
wider geographic range.
Combined, they offer general explanatory insights for
ethnographic analogy, whereas Chapter IV focuses on specific ethnohistoric

accounts o f memorial feasts in West Mexico.
The Social Element of Ritual Consumption. The social aspects o f feasting
emerge on two levels, the private family level and a public level for all social
members. Not coincidentally, the Maya word for head o f the banquet translates
into honored lineage leader (McAnany 1995:31). The private or family aspect o f
feasting is accentuated at mortuary feasts, as discussed below. The public or societal
level o f ritual consumption involves the participation o f all families in a community
(Nimis 1982).
Community feasts often are structured by the annual round o f food surplus
and periods o f low stocks that mark the agricultural cycle. This observation applies
to the sharing o f food supplies at seasonal community feasts. For example, the
S um m er and Winter moieties o f the Tewa Pueblos contribute to community feasts
seasonally.2 These dichotomous social groups exchange authority seasonally, and

"own" their namesake season.
During each Sum m e r or Winter season, the
appropriate social division, headed by its own chief, is responsible for the harvests,
feasts, and rituals o f the community (Ortiz 1969).
Richard Townsend provided this reference to the feasting cycle of the Tewa Pueblos.
27
In prehispanic Mexico, the seasonality o f agriculture guided an annual round

o f community feasts (Sahagun 1950-81, Book 2). An early prehispanic depiction o f
a seasonal feast is the Bebedores or Pulque Drinkers mural that dates possibly
from A.D. 200 to 300 (per Marquina 1971:32), or to the Epiclassic Period
(McCafferty 1996a, 1996b) (Figures 1.3, 6.1).3 Located inside the Cholula pyramid
in the Central Mexican Highlands, the mural o f a pulque feast demonstrates that
intoxicating beverages were a significant component of the prehispanic feasting
cycle.
Pulque, the mildly intoxicating beverage made from fermented agave sap,
was a sacred drink to the Aztecs. One legend, recorded during the sixteenth century,
tells the story o f the first Aztec feast where gods and elders drank pulque (Sahagun
1950, cited in de Barrios 1970:14-16):
...w h en a n abundance o f pulque had been prepared, a call w a s
se n t out to all the lords, the chiefs, the elders, th e experienced.
They all w ent to th e hill o f Chichinaia, there th e banquet w a s
held. A nd there hom age w a s paid to th e gods in w h a t the
elders did and said. A ll drank fo u r tim es to the gods, then th ey
m ade offerings a n d pla ced th e pulque before each one, fo u r
jicaras or fo u r p o ts d id each one drink...
Throughout Mesoamerica, the indigenous prehispanic calendars gave cosmic
design to the annual cycle of feasts that involved the participation o f all social
members, and maintained social solidarity (Couch 1985; Leon-Portillo 1971;
Townsend 1992:122-128, 212-215).4 The annual cycle included proscribed periods
3 The murals grace an early construction of the Pyramid of Cholula. Originally painted
around a building facade, now only four mural panels of approximately 32 meters in length survive
(Marquina 1971:32).
4 There were two calendars widely used jointly in prehispanic Mesoamerica, one an ancient
260 day almanac, and die other a 36S day calendar with scheduled feasts (see references).
28
o f fasting that preceded many annual feasts. Fasting may have acted not only as
penitence hut preserved feasting supplies too. Prior to harvest, when stocks were
low, Aztec lords held a feast to sustain the populace, at which they served atole
(sweetened com gruel) and several types o f tamales (Caso 1958; Duran 1971;
Nicholson 1971:431-435).
At harvest, scheduled feasts were opportunities to circulate the seasonal
surplus and express gratitude to the specific deities and ancestors who had provided
the bounty. The grandest feast o f year was Huey Miccaylhuitl during the tenth
month, featuring the volador or flying ceremony, that commemorated the long dead
(Figure 1.4) (Nutini 1988:53; Sahagun 1950-81:Book2, part 111:111). The intricacies
Figure 1.3. Portion o f the Bebedores or Pulque Drinkers Mural

from Cholula (from Marquina 1971).
29
o f this Grand Feast for the Dead, and its commemoration in West Mexico and in
contemporary Day o f the Dead feasts are discussed in Chapter IV.
Anthropologists
investigating indigenous peoples (G. Foster 1948:218; Nutini 1988:53-76) concur

that the modem Mexican celebration o f Did de los Muertos (or the Day o f the Dead
which falls annually on All Saints Day) acquires its exuberance from a heritage o f
feeding the dead and o f agricultural rites that dates back to approximately 1000 B.C.
The Social Element o f M ortuary Feasting. Funerary feasts have particular
significance in ancient West Mexico where the rem ains o f feasts, and the personages
to whom they were offered, survive together in shaft tombs.
This association
provides an unambiguous opportunity to investigate the social underpinnings o f

ritual feasting in West Mexico, comparable to anthropological studies o f
contemporary mortuary feasting strategies.
In general, the social element o f ritual consumption is made apparent at
mortuary feasts where family members gather to commemorate and bury their dead.
Cross-cultural accounts corroborate that funerary feasts, where both the living and
the dead (apparently) consume and commune, allow people to shake off death and
begin the processes o f social renewal (M. Coe 1975). The living offer bowls o f food
and pitchers o f drink at the grave to provide nourishment for the afterlife, to persuade
the dead spirits to go away, to later entice them back to communicate with the
ancestral spirits and gain influence from the underworld.
Ethnographies document that mortuary feasts bring members o f kin groups
together and create social unity and economic security. They function to
symbolically reconstruct the social order and to m aintain continuity in societal
Figure 1.4. Aztec illustration o f the Huey Miccaylhuitl

or Grand Feast for the Dead, from the Codex Borbonicus.
31
structures (Ahem 1973; Glazier 1984; A. Miller 1995:240f). There are two kinds o f
feasts for the dead, those at the grave o f the newly dead, and those commemorating
the long and famous dead (Antonaccio 1995; Carmichael and Sayer 1992;
Huntington and Metcalf 1979; Nutini 1988; Turner 1982).
Feasts for the recently
deceased are conducted in a timely manner coinciding with the burial. A sponsor or
host for the feast first volunteers (Damon 1989; R. Foster 1989; Lewposki 1989;
Macintyre 1989; Merrill 1988). Hosts o f mortuary feasts are family, descent group
members, or distant kin o f the dead. A family may owe another family a feast, or a
family may choose to sponsor a funerary feast to claim the wealth o f the deceased
(Collier 1975:91). Sponsors o f funerary feasts are not necessarily the deceaseds
closest relatives, but may belong to extended kin groups.
For example, the
sponsorship o f mortuary feasts in Tlingit communities o f the Pacific Northwest (S.

Kan 1989:260), and in Tewa Pueblos societies (Ortiz 1969) belongs to descent
groups distantly related to the dead, and to the matrilineage o f the deceased among
Marquesan societies in Polynesia (R. Foster 1989; Damon 1989). In the Mayan
community o f Apas, female heirs provide food for mortuary feasts, while male heirs
supply cash for funerary expenses (Collier 1975:90). Descent groups reciprocate
responsibilities for hosting each other's mortuary feasts, bound in an informal
exchange of obligations (Hayden 1995).
An initial feast is held immediately concurrent to the burial o f the newly dead
(Nutini 1988). In most instances, kin carefully choose the burial (and mortuary
feast) site because the grave marks their rights to land ownership (R. Foster 1995:99,
214). At the grave, relatives arrange food and drink around the corpse (Craine and
32
Reindorp 1970; Lewposki 1989; Macintyre 1989). Offerings range from lavish to
modest.
For example, at Chavin de Huantar in Peru, occupied during the first
millennium B.C., elaborate funerary feasts were held in subterranean chambers. The
vast underground Ofrendas Gallery contained hundreds o f decorated ceramic bowls
for eating and drinking that were filled with the remains o f abundant faunal bone
from fish, llama and humans (Burger 1992; Lumberas 1993). In some societies,
special cuisine, such as the favorite dishes o f the deceased (Merrill 1988) and
traditional funerary foods (Ahem 1973; Damon 1989), is served. Over time, these
offerings found in the archaeological record are testimony to feeding the dead.
Following interment, kin and friends gather to continue the feast.
They
commonly consume different foods than those prepared for the dead, and imbibe
alcoholic beverages to ease the grieving process or for other reasons (R. Foster 1995;
Lewposki 1989; Merrill 1988:172). Mortuary feasts can be lively and noisy affairs
where drink and music integrate the activities (Huntington and M etcalf 1979:46;
Antonaccio 1995; Carmichael and Sayer 1992; Turner 1982).
During the conquest
o f Central Mexico, a Spanish priest wrote that in all this land were the songs and
dances, both to solemnize the feasts. . .and for private enjoyment and solace
(Mendieta 1945, cited in Townsend 1992:162). Spanish accounts o f Panama during
the sixteenth century describe special songs prepared upon the deaths o f chiefs and
sung at mortuary festivals (Oviedo 1548, cited in Helms 1976:186).
After the graveside feast, the host family frequently sponsors a sequence o f
feasts to honor the deceased over a period o f time spanning days, weeks, months and,
if an especially revered ancestor, up to 20 years (Damon 1989:3; Merrill 1988;
33
A.Miller 1995:245). The economic burden o f hosting a series o f memorial feasts

may exceed the means o f any single family or corporate kin group.
Continued
negotiations for sponsorship o f feasts ensure protracted social interaction and social
solidarity (R. Foster 1995:214; Lewposki 1989:200; Macintyre 1989:147; Merrill
1988). It sometimes takes decades to balance the interests that shift with each death.
With the passage o f time, when the memory o f the deceased no longer exists
among the living, the dead, in some societies, then acquire the abstract qualities
consistent with concepts o f the original ancestors or the ancestral deities. In those
societies, the commemoration o f the dead continues in a cycle o f feasts for the long
dead, such as the Huey Miccaylhuitl or Grand Feast for the Dead, now All Saints
Day, in Mesoamerica (Nicholson 1971; Nutini 1988). Today in Mayan communities
the ritual obligations o f the heirs o f the dead continue year after year, as the dead
return to their homes on the Feast o f All Saints. Then, each group o f heirs is
brought together in this remembrance o f the dead, which inevitably reaffirm s the
solidarity o f the living (Collier 1975:91).
The Politics of Ritual Consumption. The identification o f ancestor worship
and feasts for the dead in West Mexico suggests that kin leaders used feasts for
political, as well as for economic and social, power. In traditional societies giving a
feast is a primary means for leaders to gain and maintain political power.
The observation that ritual and politics meet in food (Feeley-Haraik 1985:
288) applies to the many ancient and contemporary societies mentioned above. In
each the political motivation to increase authority and power by attracting people and
goods remains constant. The production, distribution, and control o f food surplus
34
necessary for staging feasts coincide initially with emergent or ranked societies, and
continue multifold in complex stratified states (Arnold 1996; Earle 1987; Fried 1967;
Hayden 1995,1996; Steward 1955; Willey 1962).
The political or competitive edge o f feasting is apparent when rival leaders
vie for constituents.
A faction, or group o f supporters, is a leaders source o f
political and economic strength (Brumfiel 1994; Hayden 1995:66). Leaders cultivate
certain plants for food supplies and to create the advantage o f serving alcoholic
beverages at their feasts (Antonaccio 1995; Clark and Blake 1994:30; Bray 1984).
By holding feasts, drinking events, gift-giving, and other public displays o f wealth,
aspiring leaders demonstrate the advantages o f joining them. Simply put, the winner
has more followers.
Drawing followers into the faction begins locally, because
without supporters, even neighbors and kin, there is no power. Common folk, for
basic survival purposes, align themselves with generosity and wealth, that is, with
the person holding the biggest feasts and give-aways (Clark and Blake 1994:20-21).
In egalitarian or newly emergent societies, ambitious individuals use feasts to
promote themselves above others, achieving temporary authority and social status
over their peers (Blitz 1993; Clark and Blake 1994; D'Altroy 1994; Damon 1989;
Feinman 1995; R. Foster 1994; Friedman and Rowlands 1978; Hayden 1995, 1996;
S. Kan 1989; Kirch 1991; Lightfoot and Feinman 1982; Sahlins 1968; Spencer
1994).
Bigman is the common title for these newfound authority figures. The
individual authority that they achieve lasts for a limited time, at most for their
adulthood (Spencer 1994:31). The ephemeral nature of their power impedes Bigmen
from naming a successor or establishing a permanent political office that transcends
35
the individual. However, in many societies, Bigmen are able to consolidate power
into a family structure (Clark and Blake 1994:19), thereby transforming authority
from an individual role to a corporate and perpetuating institution, frequently the
descent group (Friedman and Rowlands 1978:211).
In a political sense, descent groups are like factions or other social corporate
groups. Ambitious chiefs fortify their power base by attracting, with feasts and other
wealth displays, distant kin and the disenfranchised. For example, historic records
from Panama describe that powerful leaders would sponsor drinking and feasting
events for up to a thousand guests and kin to publicize their generosity and worth
(Helms 1979:29). Even in the state level societies o f South America, Inka lords
conducted public and political feasts to cement their authority. Sherds from large
serving plates and from chicha vessels at the Late Postclassic Period site o f Huanuco
indicate the persistence o f competitive feasts into complex state societies (Browne et
al. 1993; Glowacki 1996:440, 453; Hastorf 1991; McEwan 1984; J. Moore 1989;
Morris and Thompson 1985:83, 90-91).
In societies where both Bigmen and chiefs operate, Bigmen may have more
power since their support is broader based than the chiefs whose status may be
limited to kin (Anderson 1994:76; Fried 1967; Service 1971; Yoffee 1993). Bigman
feasts may produce remains distinct from those resulting from smaller scale feasts
for kin., as a ceramic analysis from the Mississippian site o f Moundville illustrates.
Vessel remains from feasts held at restricted kin locations, represented by a singular
mound, were less impressive in terms o f numbers o f people fed and in terms o f the
size o f serving ware, compared with sherds associated with the public banquets of
36
Bigmen (Welch and Scarry 1995:414-415). The Marquesans o f Polynesia held great
feasts to honor the death o f the Bigmen, which rivaled or exceeded the feasts held
for the hereditary chiefs in that society (Kirch 1991:131). Yoffee (1993:64, citing
Lilley 1985) describes the absurdest o f situations in Melanesia when the goal o f
chiefs is to become Bigmen whose higher rank is achieved by success on the trade
network. The politics o f feasting on a regional level include strategies o f alliance
building and competitive rivalries.
The Economics of Ritual Consumption. Feasting occurs in redistributive
economic systems and in certain environmental conditions. Societies with feasting
strategies have in common the ability to produce agricultural surplus from a resource
rich environment (Clark and Blake 1994; Hayden 1995). The presence o f Agave
tequilana as a botanical resource at Tequila Volcano capable o f producing not only
food, but intoxicating beverages for feasts may have been an economic fecus in ancient
Teuchitlan societies. It also explains the value o f the lands to kin members who may
have gained prominence through political feasting strategies, and corporate control o f
agave lands. Another economic component of feasting strategies is geographic access
to a regional exchange network.
The archaeological evidence for West Mexican
feasting traditions is examined in Chapter II, and here general economic principles o f
feasting are explored.
Negotiations for goods and services at ritual consumption events generate the
possibility o f wealth for a leader or aggrandizer. Traditional leaders, including
Bigmen, chiefs, and lords, who predicate their feasting and other forms o f generosity
on returns for the future, fell under the term aggrandizer (Clark and Blake 1994;
37
Hayden 1995:18, 25, 1996; Sahlins 1968). Ultimately, feasting for an aggrandizer
can be an economic security system comprised o f debt obligations and circulation of
wealth.
Binding constituents in a complicated debt structure is an aggrandizer*s
economic goal (Hayden 1995:21).
His or her prosperity is proportional to the
magnitude o f reciprocal favors owed.
The followers, by attending feasts and
accepting gifts, are obligated to repay the host. Ambitious leaders emerge from
feasting events economically secure, knowing that they have a set o f future
obligations in place.
Self interest rather than altruism may motivate the hosts
generosity (Hayden and Gargett 1990). Aggrandizers accumulate wealth not simply
to share or redistribute, but to enrich themselves and to feed their attendant families
(Hayden 1995:23; Hayden and Gargett 1990:3; Yoffee 1993:62).
Labor is one o f the aggrandizers preferred payments o f debt (Hayden
1995:38-41). Repayment in hard work may build him a bigger house, a surplus at
harvest, or provide the talent to extract resources, and to craft specialties. As Robert
Chapman (1996:37) states: the basis o f emerging elite power is control over human
labor. Thus the faction or group o f supporters comprises one end o f a spectrum of
unequal labor relations made to enrich the aggrandizer (Brumfiel 1994:8; Chapman
1996:37; Tilley 1984:112; J. Arnold 1993). In the case o f descent groups, however,
the com m unal labor required to produce a food surplus may lead to corporate control
o f agricultural resources (Clark and Blake 1994:19; Hayden 1995; Hayden and
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Cannon 1982).
Food surplus, another primary method o f repaying debt, is an obvious
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condition o f consumption strategies. Ambitious leaders accumulate repayments in

food to control and redistribute community surplus, to gain personal or corporate
wealth, and to host bigger competitive feasts. The redistributive aspect o f feasting is
well known from the potlatches o f the Pacific Northwest.
For the Kwakiutl,
competitive feasting is an economic act o f wealth circulation (Hayden and Garrett

1990; S. Kan 1989). By bestowing his personal stores o f food and goods, a Kwakiutl
chief expects to gain prestige and followers who will pool their economic resources
with him.
Regional E xchange and Competitions. Competitive feasting strategies tend
to expand regionally, as leaders strive to consolidate power and build regional

alliances (Kobishchavow 1987).
An interacting exchange network, staged at
reciprocal consumption events, is a feature o f entrenched feasting strategies.

Leaders hold feasts with increasingly distant allies or heads o f related kin
groups on an exchange network to promote their status at home and regionally
(Brumfiel 1987; Clark and Blake 1994; Earle 1987:296; Helms 1979; Macintyre
1989). Interaction in an exchange network provides aggrandizers, and their kin, the
opportunity to build alliances, expend surplus, reciprocate and create debt
obligations, and restructure the network in the event o f death (Damon and Wagner
1989; R. Foster 1995).
To obtain these goals, participants exchange brides,
information, labor, and goods (DAltroy 1994). They acquire and give rare gift
items to reinforce their mutual status.
Access to foreign goods, peoples, and
ideologies in the exclusive hands o f aggrandizers seals personal authority, kin status,
and cements regional alliances.
39
Not only leaders but descent groups compete among each other for regional
prominence (Hayden 1995:51), or choose to combine kinship forces against distant
outsiders. Descent groups forge alliances with increasingly distant kin using trade,
exchange, and marriage (Service 1971:117).
Hayden and Cannon (1982:149)
propose that economic control over trade strengthens corporate groups, and that:
When trade goods became available to all individuals, corporate groups
disintegrated into their component nuclear families." Descent groups that produce a
large surplus and engage in regional trade tend to avoid rival competitions and prefer
alliance building that protects their trading interests (Hayden 1995:53).
As leaders and corporate groups compete for followers and resources, locally
and regionally, the parallels between warfare and feasting strategies emerge. Both
processes are competitive and promote individuals (and their followers) into
positions o f power and authority (Friedman and Rowlands 1978).
In some
prehispanic Mesoamerican societies, warring leaders staged competitions and self

promotions in the setting o f public consumption events (Helms 1979:29-30; Pohl and
Pohl 1994:140-141). Using the arena o f the ballcourt, they ritually enacted political
conflict and warfare (Day et aL 1996:149-153; J. G. Fox 1996; Weigand 1991). John
G. Fox (1996:494) suggests that after rival leaders publicly acted out their conflicts
in a ballgame, they feasted in the ballcourt, as a claim to resolution and an attempt
to transform competition and conflict into coordination and allegiance.
Aggrandizers publicize their regional prominence at feasts with displays o f
acquired exotica, and then may take it with them to the grave. Upon the death o f a
network participant, funerary feasts are occasions to bury the accumulation o f
40
exotica. The surviving partners in the exchange call on family or kin members o f the
deceased to locate a replacement, to reconstruct the alliances, and to pay or realign
the debt o f the deceased (R. Foster 1995:100-109; Macintyre 1989:135).
INTRODUCTION TO THE ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY

OF WEST MEXICO
My study into ancestor recognition and ritual feasting employs a conjunctive

perspective using data from both West Mexican art and archaeology. The conjunctive
approach, as originally outlined by Walter Taylor (1948), brings together divergent
lines o f evidence to bear on archaeological problems, and provides a social context for
material culture. In Mesoamerican prehistory, the conjunctive approach combines
investigations into art and iconography with the archaeological record in a selfcorrecting strategy (Fash and Sharer 1991:170). Although archaeologists working in
other regions o f Mesoamerica successfully integrate varied data (Lowe et aL 1982;
Scheie and Freidel 1990), in West Mexican scholarship this avenue o f investigation has
been lacking. Working in an archaeological region dominated for years by art historical
interpretations o f looted art, modem West Mexican researchers have focused on field
investigations at the expense o f the artistic record (see Pollard 1997; Weigand
1985a:47-51). Now however, a conjunctive perspective, com bining insights gained
from recent archaeological discoveries and iconography, is possible.
41
Ceram ic A rt
In place o f the codices, hieroglyphs, and historic documents that provide

information on the Aztec, Tarascan, Mayan, and other prehispanic societies, the
West Mexican peoples o f the Late Preclassic Period left a legacy o f ceramic
sculpture that is a source o f cultural information to modem scholars. The West
Mexican ceramic art is a finely crafted medium, intended for mortuary rituals, that was
produced across a wide geographic area. Like other Mesoamerican artistic traditions, it
may have unified isolated or politically separate regions (Earle 1989; Friedrich 1970;
Willey 1962). The imagery repeatedly depicted by artists from Nayarit, Jalisco and
Colima supports the inference that early West Mexican peoples shared beliefs that
were coded in their a rt The contextual placement o f the art in the shaft tombs o f the
dead imparts a sacred m eaning to the sculptures. The purpose o f the West Mexican
ceramic art may correspond to that proffered for ancient Zapotec art (A. Miller
1995:239): to communicate directly to the spiritual and underground world o f the dead.
West Mexican ceramic art includes large hollow figures o f humans and
animals, polished and painted, over a meter tall, as well as miniature clay figurines
and modeled architecture measured in centimeters. They come from looted shaft
tombs in southern Nayarit, Jalisco and Colima that date to the Late Preclassic Period.
Most pieces lack an archaeological context.
Ceramic architectural models, miniature buildings filled with figurines, are a
basis for my research into West Mexican practices o f ritual consumption and ancestor
worship. In detailed architectural, figural, and iconographic elements, the models
42
convey a wealth o f information about the ancient society and about feasting. Ceramic
figurines o f humans, dogs, birds, foods, and vessels occupy the models. The fine
artistic quality o f the ceramic architectural models and their repository in prehispanic
art collections attracted the attention o f art historians, and to some extent,
archaeologists. Since the early twentieth century the ceramic art o f West Mexico,
including the ceramic architectural models, has been widely photographed and
published in the precolumbian art and archaeology literature (e.g., Borhegyi 1964;
Covarrubias 1957; Day et aL 1996; Kan et aL 1989; Messmacher 1966; Nicholson
1976; Starr 1887; Toscano et aL 1946; von Winning and Stendahl 1968; von Winning
and Hammer 1972).
With a few notable exceptions (Dwyer and Dwyer 1975a, P. Furst 1973, 1975,
1978; Gallagher 1983), researchers o f precolumbian art characterize the West Mexican
ceramic models with human figurines as anim ated or anecdotal sculpture (von
Winning and Ham m er 1972). The immediacy o f the imagery, i.e., clay buildings filled
with figurines, connotes, ideal homes being shared by families, a refreshing glimpse
o f everyday life (Griffin 1990:11, 17), or the w arm th o f everyday life (M Miller
1986:58). Scenes o f eating, sleeping, and drinking have been interpreted as domestic
images (Deraga and Fernandez 1986:381), without trace o f religious or symbolical
concepts (Covarrubias 1957:87).
My study o f the ceramic art o f West Mexico challenges that widespread
view. I make the assumption that early West Mexican artists communicated their
beliefs and social histories in ceramic sculptures, just as other prehispanic peoples
did in their own art (see art historical studies by Bauer 1991; Benson 1975; Berrin
1978; J. Brown 1975; Coe 1981; Day 1984, 1996a; Donnan 1978; Donnan and
McClelland 1979; Fischer 1961; Freidel 1979, 1981; Furst and Furst 1980; Layton
1991; Linares 1977; Muller 1984; Peterson 1990; Quilter 1990; Rappaport 1982;
Stone-Miller 1995; Tillett 1988; Turner 1982). I have been able to read the ceramic
artifacts, these apparent historic texts (von Winning 1974:xiii) and ethnographic
documents (Weigand 1985a), as windows into ancient West Mexican society.
My
study is founded on the notion that the themes o f ritual consumption and ancestor
veneration communicated in the ceramic sculptures held sacred and social
significance to early West Mexican artists and their societies.
Archaeology o f W est Mexico
Around the turn o f the twentieth century, Euroamerican explorer-scientists

traveled throughout West Mexico, documenting the indigenous peoples, ethnic and
ancient curiosities, and archaeological sites (Breton 1903; Hrdlicka 1903; Lumhohz
1902; Starr 1897).
Carl Lumholtz (1902) popularized West Mexico in large
illustrated books that described his encounters w ith the Huichol, Tarahumara, and
other local peoples. He conducted test pit excavations, visited ruins near Ixtlan del
Rio and Tequila Volcano, and collected artifacts housed today in the American
Museum o f Natural History in New York City. That Lumholtz paid campesinos for
artifacts unwittingly helped to inaugurate the profession o f looting the West Mexican
shaft tombs.
Early on, Breton (1903), Galindo (1922) and Disselhoff (1932) published
44
descriptions o f the unusual shaft tombs and their contents. In the main, West Mexican
shaft tombs have vertical shafts, about one meter in diameter, dug to a depth from one
to 18 meters (Figure 1.5). Branching off from the bottom o f these shafts are one or
more burial chambers. These are filled with treasures o f ceramic figures, polychrome
vessels, and the adornments o f the dead fashioned from obsidian, greenstone, and shell.
The 1946 exhibition o f Diego Riveras precolumbian art collection in Mexico
City secured international attention on West Mexican funerary sculpture. This
collection that once belonged to the revolutionary mural painter, now forms the nucleus
o f the Diego Rivera-Anahuacalli Museum in Mexico City (Medioni and Pinto 1941).
Pot-hunters continued to empty the shaft tombs o f Nayarit, and then turned to the tombs
o f Jalisco (Corona Nufiez 1955:7). Major sites, reviewed in Chapter II, like Ahuafulco
and El Arenal in Jalisco, and El Chanal in Colima were all but destroyed by unscientific
Figure 1.5. Diagram o f El Arenal shaft tomb (from Corona Nunez 1955).
45
digging
The subsequent art historical approach to prehispanic West Mexico
paralleled the m ania for its ceramic figures on the international black market (see
Gallagher 1983; von Winning 1955,1974; Kan et aL 1989; M. Miller 1986:53-54). As
hundreds o f West Mexican sculptures emerged from the underground, Mesoamerican
anthropologists and art historians attributed the array o f exquisite ceramic figures to the
Tarascans (Toscano et aL 1946; Kirchhoff 1948), known for their mastery o f metafile
arts, who ruled Michoacan during the Postclassic Period (from A.D. 900 to 1500).
Archaeological investigations challenged the timeline for West Mexican
cultural history th at the looted art inspired. In addition to screening looters backfifi,
investigators focused on building a regional chronology to define Tarascan and other
West Mexican cultural traditions. Eduardo Nogueras (1939) excavations at the El
Openo tombs in Michoacan established an early time depth for ancient West Mexican
cultures that no one had suspected previously (Oliveros 1991). A series o f shell
mounds, including the 25 m high El Calon o f northern Nayarit (Scott 1970, 1985) and
those at Barra de Navidad along the Jalisco/ Colima border (Long and Wire 1966),
confirmed an early habitation o f West Mexico.
Isabel Kellys work (1944,1945,1948,1949) in Colima and the Jalisco-Colima
border region, further defined the Preclassic Period occupation o f West Mexico. Kelly
established two Preclassic Period phases: the Capacha o f the Middle Preclassic Period
and the Ortices phase o f the Late Preclassic Period shaft tomb building. The Capacha
phase is known for the stirrup-spout vessels and bule jars5 interred with the dead
(Figure 1.6).
Although the data are scant, sherds from bule vessels at coastal sites
Bule jars are double-stacked ceramic pots.
46
Figure 1.6. Middle Preclassic Period bule jar (h=35 cm), left, and stirrup-spout jar,
right, found in Colima (from Gallagher 1983:Figures 1,4).
north to Jalisco and Sinaloa suggest Early Preclassic Period expansion o f the Capacha
culture (Mountjoy 1993:2).
Colima ceram ic art generally references the polished and burnished red and
black figures m ade for interment in sh aft tombs during the Late Preclassic Period (Kelly
1978). Architectural remains in Colima are found at some Ortices phase shaft tombs,
but are not present during the prior Capacha phase (Kelly 1980). Large sites like El
Chanal may once have had Late Preclassic Period architecture that looters have since
demolished. At the Morett site on the Pacific Coast along the Colima - Jalisco border,
Clement Meighan (1972) excavated the remains o f a Late Preclassic settlement.
Along the coast and coastal valleys o f Nayarit and Jalisco, archaeologists
identified several small sites from the Late Preclassic Period (Bell 1960, 1971:712;
Mountjoy 1970, 1974, 1978). They have found extensive rock art, stone carving, and
47
stela carvings dating to a later Classic Period occupation as well (Mountjoy 1991;
Williams 1992).
Besides the rich Colima tombs, investigations into illegal digging o f shaft tombs
focused on archaeological sites in southern Nayarit as probable sources for the
increasing amount o f looted ceramic artifacts (Corona Nunez 1955; Nicholson and
Meighan 1974). In 1946, Edward Gifford (1950) surveyed 16 sites in the Ixtlan del Rfo
area for the purpose o f dating a gift to UCLA o f 50 figurines o f uncertain provenience.
Based on relative dating that compared ceramic assemblages, Gifford (1950) concluded
that the Ixtlan figurines fell within two phases: an early Protoclassic one, and a later
Postclassic Period phase. The Late Preclassic Period occupation o f Ixtlan del Rio was
built over by the Postclassic Period occupation by Aztatlan merchants.
A recent
salvage archaeology project directed by archaeologist Gabrielle Zepeda (1994)

uncovered data on Early Ixtlan phase village settlement.
Also in southern Nayarit, Peter Fursts (1966) doctoral research investigated an
area with over 390 shaft tombs. At cemetery sites around Tequilita, Furst (1966)
identified low platform mounds associated with looted shaft tombs. Sifting through the
remains o f the Las Cebollas sacked tomb, Furst obtained materials that dated the
Nayarit tombs to A.D. 100 (Furst 1965; Taylor et aL 1969). Furst (1966, 1973, 1975)
applied an anthropological approach to interpreting the art and mortuary behaviors, and
argued effectively that the ancient West Mexicans practiced shamanism and had
ancestor cults.
In the Atemejac Valley, occupied now by the urban sprawl o f Guadalajara,
archaeologists have found cultural remains from the Late Preclassic Period, mostly in
48
series o f shallow shaft tombs that seem to lack associated settlements (Galvan 1991).
The presence o f talud and tablero architecture at the large sites o f Ixtepete (Corona
Nunez 1960) and El Grillo (Galvan 1975) inspired interest in the chronology o f Central
Mexicos expansion o f the Teotihuacan polity into Western Mexico (Beekman 1996a,
1996b; Kelly and Bran iff 1966; Weigand 1992d). Archaeological studies (Aronson
1993, 1996; Galvan 1991; Schondube and Galvan 1978) have determined that the
remains o f village architecture and Teotihuacan influence into the Atemajac Valley date
to the later Classic Period.
In the expanse o f the Sayula Lake basin south of Guadalajara, archaeologists
have recorded a spotty Late Preclassic Period presence along the extensive lakeshore
perimeter (Schondube 1974; Valdez 1994, 1996). Sherd scatters, slope modification,
and irregular stone outlines characterize settlement remains associated with the Late
Preclassic Period o f shaft tomb building (Schondube 1974). Village sites in the Sayula
basin date to the Classic Period, or later, with many showing evidence o f specialized
salt making facilities (Noyola 1994; Schondube 1974; Valdez et aL 1996).
In northern Jalisco, at a distance 200 km northeast o f Tequila Volcano, Betty
Bells (1972, 1974) excavation o f El Cerro Encantado, found an assemblage o f
decorated pottery, conch shell trumpets, hollow ceramic figures, and pyrite mirrors that
was similar to grave goods from the Tequila valleys.
Although El Cerro Encantado
dated to A.D. 100 to 250 (Bell 1974:158), it had no shaft tombs nor aboveground
1
architectural remains.
Research in the Bolanos Canyon o f northern Jalisco produced results
comparable to El Cerro Encantado for the Late Preclassic Period (Cabrero
i!
i
1984,
49
1991, 1992; Lopez C. and Cabrero 1994). Architectural remains indicative o f village
life do not appear until the Classic Period, as excavations at the site o f Totoate
demonstrate. There, J. Charles Kelley (1974) uncovered a small circular patio group or
guachimonton6 that he dated to A .D. 450. The remnants o f guachimonton architecture
found in various locales in northern West Mexico demarcate a cultural expansion from
the Tequila valleys beginning in the Classic Period (see Beekman 1996a, 1996b).
In Jalisco, Stanley Long (1966a, 1966b) surveyed the rich valleys around
Tequila Volcano. He analyzed grave goods from nine looted tombs at four adjacent
sites (see Chapter II). He formulated a typology o f ceramic figurines that is widely
used by art historians today. His Hating o f m aterials to 100 B.C., and 200 B.C. (Long
and Taylor 1966a, 1966b; Taylor et aL 1969:23) defined a Late Preclassic Period
florescence in the Tequila Volcano region.
Following Longs untimely death (see Nicholson and Meighan 1974:14), Phil
C. Weigand continued archaeological efforts in the Tequila Volcano region. His work
concentrated on the circular patio groups (or guachimonton architecture) o f West
Mexico. Weigands (1974, 1976, 1985a) surveys resulted in his definition o f the
Teuchitlan Tradition, a culture that occupied the Tequila valleys and highland
lakeshores continuously from the Middle Preclassic Period through the Epiclassic
Period (from 1000 B.C. to AX). 900).
According to Weigand (1977, 1989) the
Teuchitlan Tradition, centered at the type site o f Teuchitlan-Guachimonlon in Jalisco,

underwent two cultural transformations. The first was a change to chiefdom village life
during the Late Preclassic Period, and the second a transition possibly to a state during
A unique circular patio group style of architecture found in West Mexico.
50
the Classic Period (A D . 400 to 700) (Weigand 1985a, 1990a, 1992b, 1992e).
Christopher Beckmans (1996a, 1996b) doctoral research addresses the
differential distribution o f Teuchitlan Tradition characteristics for the Classic Period in
a core and periphery framework.
Viewed from the Atemajac Valley, Beekman
establishes the boundaries o f the Classic Period polity using ceramic markers and the
spread o f guachimonton architecture from the T euchitlan-Guachimonton center.
Recent investigations by Jorge Ramos de la Vega and Lorenza Lopez Mestas
Camberos (1996) at Huitzilapa on the western slopes o f Tequila Volcano further define
the Teuchitlan Tradition. Their discovery o f a double chambered, eight meter deep
shaft tomb with lavish goods offered to six individuals is unprecedented in West
Mexican archaeology. It is the first elaborate shaft tomb that archaeologists have found
prior to the pot-hunters. Even the associated settlement remains in the Huitzilapa
region are relatively undisturbed. The Late Preclassic Period architectural remnants at
four sites in the Huitzilapa area are the basis o f my settlement study in West Mexico.
GUIDE TO TEXT
The organization o f my research in the following chapters is outlined here. In

Chapter II, the environmental context and social history o f West Mexico are presented.
The homeland o f the Teuchitlan peoples is Tequila Volcano in Jalisco with its
surrounding lakes and valleys. An examination o f the settlement o f highland West
Mexico gives a social setting to the sites in the Huitzilapa area. Then Chapter II
concentrates on the Late Preclassic Period underground built environment o f West
51
Mexico, specifically the shaft tombs and other relics o f mortuary behavior that honor
the ancestors. Last, the natural resources o f the Tequila valleys, particularly the native
blue agave, are examined in an attempt to reconstruct ancient feasting strategies. Other
resources, including obsidian from Tequila Volcano, are identified and their movement
in an exchange network traced for evidence o f competitive feasting strategies.
Chapter III presents my detailed study o f West Mexican ceramic architectural
models. The analysis o f 82 West Mexican ceramic models examines the architectural
and human and animal figurine elements. The popular notion that they represent
everyday scenes o f domesticity is criticized, and instead the idea that they portray
underworld imagery is advanced. Analysis o f the 655 human figurines attached to the
ceramic models allows for the formulation o f inferences about ancient social structures.
Gender representations, sharing o f costume, and social group labels exhibited in groups
o f attached hum an figurines guide a discussion o f social themes.
Chapter IV focuses on ritual consumption and mortuary feasting as primary
iconographic themes in West Mexican art. The art o f consumption is first placed in a
regional and ideological context by reviewing ethnographic and historic texts that
describe feasting traditions in West Mexico, and in Mesoamerica. Next, the depictions
o f foods and vessels on the ceramic architectural models that I believe unambiguously
connote the theme o f consumption are discussed. Lastly, the apparent depiction o f
mortuary feasts, competitive feasts, annual feasts in the Mesoamerican calendar, and
ritual drinking in West Mexican art is investigated.
In Chapter V, the settlement patterns from the Huitzilapa region are presented.
My fieldwork provides a settlement context for the Huitzilapa shaft tomb, and proposes
52
a descent group basis to explain the patterns o f architectural remains in the Late
Preclassic Period West Mexican community.
Chapter VI is devoted to uncovering evidence for ritual feasting in sherd
m a tfria k from the Huitzilapa area. Data for the ceramic analysis stem from the 19931994 excavations at Huitzilapa, where archaeologists Jorge Ramos de la Vega and
Lorenza Lopez Mestas Cabreros (1996) directed excavations that uncovered over
30,000 sherds, and twice that amount o f worked obsidian materials. A functional
typology o f ceramic rim sherds is established and patterns in their distribution at
Huitzilapa are identified. Spatial analysis o f the ceramic materials is used to reconstruct
the possible differentiation o f domestic from public space, and the likely identification
of family shrines and large houses as loci o f kin based consumption events.
In concluding Chapter VH, the parts o f my research on West Mexican ritual
consumption and ancestor veneration are woven together.
Insights gained from
interpretations o f West Mexican art and from data collected from archaeological
investigations are combined with inferences made from ethnographic analogy to
form a sociopolitical model for the Huitzilapa community. My analyses offer the
perspective that during the Late Preclassic Period, the Teuchitlanos formed corporate
kin groups that negotiated social status, political power, and resource privileges
through feasts, drink, and interactions with the ancestors. Theories associated with
ritual consumption and honoring the dead fit the West Mexican artistic and
archaeological records, and help to resolve key issues in West Mexican scholarship.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
CHAPTER n
THE PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL SETTINGS
OF WEST MEXICO
This chapter establishes a framework for my studies in the Tequila Volcano region
o f Jalisco, Mexico. It has four main components. First is an introduction to the highland
geography o f Jalisco, characterized by the vast lakes and fertile lands that encircle Tequila
Volcano.
The second and third components address the social prehistory o f West
Mexico. In the second component I examine prehistoric settlement patterns in the Jalisco
highlands. This provides a general context for the study o f the Late Preclassic Period
community o f Huitzilapa, and identifies the need for the current detailed settlement
analysis o f the Huitzilapa area. The third component focuses on the Late Preclassic Period
shaft tombs and associated mortuary behaviors that together define variations in West
Mexican practices o f ancestor worship, and the existence o f kin based social structures.
Fourth is a description o f the essential resources that fostered regional settlement
and the formation o f descent and corporate kin groups. The resource emphasis is agave
and the feasting opportunities that agave utilization afforded to Teuchitlan settlers. The
production and exchange o f non-edible resources o f pottery, textiles and obsidians from
Tequila Volcano are also explored as fundamental to competitive feasting strategies.
54
THE HIGHLAND ENVIRONMENT OF JALISCO
Several natural forces combined to produce a favorable environment for the

prehistoric occupation o f highland West Mexico (Figure 2.1). Systems o f faults and rifting
related to plate tectonics created basin topography in the uplands o f Western Mexico
(Luhr and Carmichael 1990:6). Compared to the rugged mountainous terrain o f the Sierra
Madre Occidental to the west, the basins provide a level landscape for human settlement
and agriculture. The range o f annual rainfall from 500 to 1000 mm, and humid temperate
climate (Vivo Escoto 1964:207) are favorable to agriculture in contrast to the surrounding
drier high deserts. The elevational range from 1400 to 2000 meters supports natural
vegetation o f scrub oak, and at higher elevations, deer, rabbit, bird, and snake inhabit the
dominantly pine forest.
Highland Lakes
The highland basins filled with waters that formed the primordial shallow lakes o f
Chapala, Magdalena, Sayula, Zacoalco, and Ameca. The lacustrine environment o f the
Jalisco highlands is reminiscent o f that o f the Valley o f Mexico which for millennia
nurtured intense human occupation (e.g., Coe and Flannery 1964; Sanders et aL 1979;
also Long 1966b:2). In the study area, a series o f lakes, including the expansive Lago de
55
i:.
''--.^ .M a g d a le n a
Tequila
HUITZILAPA
Santa
Quite riaA
rcgufH
Hutetla
Volcano
D Arena!
E tzatfan
Ahuaiuico
Teuchrtfait-
GuachlmontdaA
La Fforfa
Tala
-Hr"
e l e v a t i o n in m e t e r s A o v e s e a '-e v e l
ox.txx i n t e r v a l 5 0 0
m e te r s
Archaeolo9 ical Site

,7? ^ - Prehistoric Lakebed
a Modem Town
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES a r o u n d TEQUILA VOLCANO

Jalisco, Mexico
Figure 2.1. The Tequila Volcano Region o f Jalisco, Mexico (by K. Butterwick).
56
Santa Maria Magdalena de Xuchitepec (now called Laguna Magdalena), once

encompassed the western border o f Tequila Volcano.
Tequila Volcano
Tequila Volcano dominates the natural landscape o f highland Jalisco, as seen in

Figure 2.2. It is part o f a larger chain o f volcanoes variously referred to as the Sierra de
los Volcanes, Mexican Volcanic Belt or the Neovolcanic axis, that includes Popocatepetl
in the Valley o f Mexico and El Chichon in southeastern Mexico (Luhr and Carmichael
1990:4). While Tequila Volcano last erupted approximately 210,000 years B P . (S.Nelson
Figure 2.2. Photograph o f Tequila Volcano, looking east from site ofHuitzDapa
(by K. Butterwick).
57
1986:18), other loci o f voleanism in West Mexico have been active in the course o f human
prehistory (Luhr and Carmichael 1990; S. Nelson 1986). Stratigraphy associated with
Ceboruco Volcano, 70 kilometers northwest o f Tequila Volcano, indicates the possibility
that a major eruption took place during the Late Preclassic Period. A three to four meter
thick layer o f pumice presumably from Ceboruco Volcano sealed off the cultural
stratum at several sites near Ixtlan del Rio in Nayarit (Gifford 1950:1851!). The thick
tephra layer apparently buried the Preclassic Period occupation (similar perhaps to the
stratigraphy o f Pompeii or the Ceren site [Sheets 1992] in El Salvador). The regional
efiect o f that eruption is unknown. Thermal zones in the Atemajac valley, and the
smoking twin peaked Colima Volcano and Nevado de Colima, located 145 kilometers
south ofHuitzilapa testify to continuity o f volcanic activity in West Mexico.
THE ABOVEGROUND BUILT ENVIRONMENT
The distribution o f architectural remains in the Jalisco highlands establishes a

settlement context for my study o f the Huitzilapa region. The subject o f the following
discussion is the Teuchitlan culture area around Tequila Volcano during the Late
Preclassic Period.
In the Jalisco highlands, architectural remains appear for the first time during the
San Felipe phase o f the Middle Preclassic Period, from 1000 to 300 B.C. (Weigand 1989).
Early settlers built low rounded platforms about 30 meters in diameter along the shores o f
58
highland lakes. These rounded Middle Preclassic Period platforms are probably the
antecedent or prototype for the guachimonton architecture of the TeuchitMn Tradition.
Weigand (1989) has surveyed approximately 12 early platforms spaced irregularly
around the highland lakes o f Jalisco. They appear to have functioned as burial platforms,
rather than as residential platforms. Each has at least two shaft tombs, measuring 1.5 to 2
m in depth, and numerous simple graves. Weigands map o f the San Felipe mound
(Figure 2.3) shows its geographic isolation, circular shape, and shaft tomb openings.
The sites o f Santa Rosalia and Hacienda de Santa are other burial sites that belong
to the San Felipe phase, although none o f these early features has been scientifically
SMAPT * TOM
t 2 c h * ifc ri tOM
.n o f lttl
to w c a , t a o o
t o o t op
MQt
u p p i a ic a a a e t
OP MOunO
sNArr-rom
TIM < M p
Figure 2.3. Site Map o f San Felipe (from Weigand 1989figure 4).
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited without p erm ission.
59
or even excavated. Terracing is the predominant form o f buSt environment at these

sites. The mounds and terraces are limited in number and heavily damaged, making the
differentiation o f these early platforms from later simple, platform mounds a difficult task
from surface features alone.
Teuchitlan Tradition
The Teuchitlan Tradition refers to the archaeological remains o f the prehispanie

people that lived in the Tequila Volcano region of West Mexico from approximately 300
B.C. to AD. 900. The presence o f the guachimonton circular patio group, often
combined with a ballcourt, is the architectural trademark o f the Teuchitlan Tradition
(Weigand 1985a:64; 1992d:225). To the archaeologist the term guachimonton refers to a
group o f platform mounds that encloses a circular patio.1 In the center is a round mound.
Frequently, the whole patio group sits on a manmade earthen terrace, also circular in
shape (Figure 2.4).
i
The Teuchitlan Tradition implies cultural continuity and a shared ideology through
time in the Tequila Volcano region. Four temporal phases divide the Teuchitlan Tradition;
the El Arenal, Ahuahilco, Teuchitlan I, and Teuchitlan II phases. The Classic Period state
level developments o f Teuchitlan I and Teuchitlan II phases, dating from A D . 400 to 900
are not included in the current discussion, and are ably described by Weigand (1985).
1The term used by local inhabitants to describe any ancient mound, but a term that
archaeologists use to denote the Teuchitlan form o f circular architecture.
i
I
i1
i
60
S U B -F L O O R
R O O M ________
TERRACE
C L A S S IC
P A T IO
P A V EM EN T
TH A TC H ROOF
S T A IR S a
BANQUETTE
FRONT
W ATTLE,
DAUB O P O S T S ,
R E AR
C L A S S IC
PLATFORM
BAN
F O R M A T IV E
PLATFORM
A c e r
C A P -S T O N E
A \W
CRO S S
SECTION
Figure 2.4. Schematic diagram o f the guachimonton built environment

(from Weigand 1989: Figure 12).
El Arenal Phase. The El Arenal phase, from approximately 300 B.C. to A D .

200, is named for the type site o f El Arenal (Figure 2.5). The phase is synonymous with
the tradition o f shaft tombs in Western Mexico (Weigand 1974:127). The Teuchitlan
pioneers settled along the shores o f highland lakes and on the flanks o f Tequila Volcano
(see Figure 2.2). They built a variety o f settlement forms: isolated mounds, mounds
grouped into
don^stic compounds, and groups o f mounds articulated into a village
arrangement (Weigand 1989:44, 1992d:225). They frequently dug deep shaft tombs
underneath domestic platform mounds.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission of th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
61
N m ag
* 6 '
N.
Figure 2.5. Site Map of El Arenal (from Weigand 1992d: Figure 4).
The small site o f La Nona (Figure 2.6) is an example o f an isolated or independent

domestic compound. Although architecturally simple, the arrangement of mounds at La
Noria exhibits the same rectangular patio lay-out that typifies domestic compounds
throughout Mesoamerica and West Mexico. Larger sites, like El Arenal (Figure 2.5) and
La Providencia show the nucleation o f single patio groups into a larger societal setting. In
62
LA NORIA
n * T W Q fm CQMHOC. t7t
Figure 2.6. Site Map o f La Nona (from Weigand 1989: Figure 13).
the center of their communities, early peoples built baUcourts and guachimontones. At the
type site of El Arenal, archaeologists found two shaft tombs under platform mounds that
were part o f a guachimonton (Corona Nunez 1955). The guachimonton style but not the
Teuchitlan grandeur, developed at Late Preclassic Period sites such as El Arenal,
Ahuahileo, and Huitzilapa. The baDcourts, and perhaps the circular architecture may
express public architecture for the first time.
A combination of factors obstructs an understanding of the Late Preclassic Period
settlement, particularly at the shaft tomb sites. Not only have these sites been plowed for
forming and their
tombs looted, but it is likely that subsequent occupations during the
Classic Period Teuchitlan expansions overlay the El Arenal phase o f construction.

Ahualulco Phase. The Ahuahileo phase, from A D . 200 to 400, was a period o f
63
settlement nucleatkm for the ancient Teuchitlanos. The type site, Ahuahileo, sits on the
eastern flank o f Tequila Volcano (Figure 2.7) and features a ballcourt and over 60
platform mounds (Weigand 1974, 1990a:37). The mounds articulate into patio groups,
four o f them guachimontones. The construction and refinement o f stone architecture
coincides with the Ahuahileo phase, and continues into the Teuchitlan I phase (Weigand
1990a; Table 1). The largest guachimonton at Ahuahileo is centered by a conical mound
that stands nine meters tall and measures 60 by 70 meters across its oval base (Weigand
1974:124). The Ahuahileo inhabitants incorporated the earlier platform mounds into their
building plan. They buflt over the original architecture and over mounds with shaft tombs
underneath, creating over time what McAnany (1995:64) has termed in the Maya area, a
genealogy o f place. Together, the mounds at Ahuahileo and probably those at other sites
represent a lengthy Teuchitlan Tradition occupation o f the Tequila valleys from the Late
Preclassic Period into the Classic Period.
Settlem ents Around Tequila Volcano. At least six Teuchitlan Tradition
sites ring Tequila Volcano and the adjoining lakeshore landscape. These include
Huitzilapa, Ahualulco, Santa Quiteria, Las Pilas, Tala, and the Classic Period center
o f Teuchitlan-Guachimonton (Figure 2.8).
Weigand (1990a:48, 1990e), who has
surveyed the area for over a decade, proposes that during the Classic Period these
sites formed a regional four-tier settlement hierarchy, with Teuchitlan-Guachimonton
ranked as the singular Tier I site.
Position within the settlement hierarchy is
calculated by the number and size o f guachimontones and baflcourts, the depth o f shaft
64
JB P
rniAlc (~t (V1

*O
AHUA1UIC0 cnats
M.CM AND F
The A hualulco c i r c l e s
Figure 2.7. Site Map of Ahualulco (from Weigand 1990a: Figure 7).
tomb burials, the quantity and density o f domestic platform mounds (Weigand
1990a:29ff), and distance from the center (Ohnersorgen and Varien 1996).
For Mesoamerican archaeology, including West Mexico, the weak link in
establishing regional settlement patterns is dating platform mounds to establish
chronological correlation o f architectural remains.
In this regard, dating the
65
prehispanic mounds o f the Tequila valleys is no exception, with occupation o f the

region spanning the entire 1000 B.C. to A.D. 900 range.
Weigand (1985a:70, 1990a:29,48) bemoans the shaky chronological markers
upon which the proposed settlement hierarchy is founded. The temporal placement o f
the more than 1400 residential patio groups is especially problematic. As many as 95
percent o f the domestic platform mounds around Tequila Volcano cannot be dated,
due to their poor condition and the limited number o f artifacts and ceramic markers
available for relative dating.
The scarcity o f reliable, radiocarbon dates for not only the domestic platform
mounds and public ballcourts, but for the Classic Period center o f their civilization,
the type site o f Teuchitlan-Guachimonton (see Beekman 1996a:92), emphasizes the
need for extensive excavations in the Tequila Volcano region. Until recently, the only
radiocarbon dates for the Teuchitlan Tradition came from the looted shaft tombs
around Tequila Volcano, with an age range from approximately 200 B.C. to A.D. 250
(see review by Beekman 1996a:862-867). These dates refer to occupation o f the
Tequila valleys primarily during the El Arenal phase o f the Late Preclassic Period,
and not to the proposed four tier regional hierarchy o f the Classic Period expansion o f
the Teuchitlan state.
In the Huitzilapa area, the newly obtained dates from the Huitzilapa shaft
tomb (100 A.D.), and from the Huitzilapa guachimonton (A.D. 160 and 290) (Ramos
de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996: Table 3, Conjunto Circular A), make
66
S C84II
siigtffino
P1fU
JfQU
rrrat^
rtiS S H F rUTTOtli
GUACHltiONTOM COHftBTlEUCHItUJl JAUSCOt
Figure 2.8. Site Map o f Teuchfflan-Guachimoiitdn (from Weigand 1989:Figure 11).
67
the occupation o f that site too early to be relevant to the Classic Period settlement
hierarchy, as others have proposed (Ohnersorgen and Varien 1996). The inherent risk
o f co nflating settlement data prematurely is combining mounds that do not belong
together into social-temporal units, rather than identifying real patterns o f prehistory.
Considering the current state o f archaeological excavations, and especially the
lack o f chronological controls at Teuchitlan sites around Tequila Volcano, the
hierarchical settlement pattern, population estimates, and chronological placements o f
the six or more sites around Tequila Volcano must be regarded as a hypothetical
model o f the complexities o f the Teuchitlan Tradition during the Classic Period, in
need o f testing. My study o f the Huitzilap a area therefore does not attempt, at this
time, to establish a regional settlement hierarchy, and instead focuses on a single Late
Preclassic Period community.
Regional Settlement of the Late Preclassic Period
. . .concerning dw ellings, there are deplorably fe w data.

Isabel Kelly 1949:189
... w e appear to lack detailed inform ation concerning the
dom estic lifew ays in th e villages occupied b y the
excavators o f the shaft-cham ber tom bs.
Meighan and Nicholson 1989:58
Although neighboring peoples inhabited other environmentally favorable basins in

parts o f Jalisco, Nayarit, and Colima, village sites like Ahualulco or household architecture
68
associated with shaft tombs are virtually unknown for the Late Preclassic Period outside o f
the core Teuchitlan area.
The paucity o f known Late Preclassic Period settlements throughout West Mexico
may exemplify a low prehispanic population density, or highlight the differential
development o f the Teuchitlan Tradition (per Weigand 1985a, 1990a). Alternatively,
looters may have destroyed most architectural remains (Hosier 1994:16), investigators
may not have taken the time to record the surface architecture, the ancient inhabitants may
not have built clusters o f platform mounds, or Late Preclassic Period village sites simply
await future documentation or discovery.
The later choice, given the lack o f
archaeological survey and excavation in West Mexico, seems likely. Certainly the West
Mexicans, who had mastered ceramic sculpture, the building o f deep underground tombs,
and regional exchange networks by the Late Preclassic Period, were capable o f
constructing villages.
As investigations into West Mexican prehistory continue, the discovery and
excavation o f new sites will hopefully improve the vague picture ofLate Preclassic Period
settlement currently available, and summarized earlier in Chapter I. The lack o f regional
settlement data available to archaeologists studying the Late Preclassic Period o f West
Mexico is compensated in part by the comparative wealth o f information stemming from
the underground built environment.
69
THE UNDERGROUND BUILT ENVIRONMENT
This section will demonstrate that the West Mexican shaft tombs and associated
mortuary behaviors give witness to the Late Preclassic Period practice o f ancestor
worship. This is an important factor to establish in understanding the social principles o f
the early West Mexican peoples. It is a premise o f my study that patterns identified in the
variety ofLate Preclassic Period practices o f treating and burying the dead offer social
information on hereditary status and descent reckoning that can then be investigated with
other archaeological data from ancient West Mexican societies (per Saxe 1970).
The proliferation o f shaft tombs, which appears initially in Michoacan at
approximately 1500 B.C., are geographically restricted in the New World to West Mexico
and northern South America. In the following section, diverse West Mexican mortuary
behaviors from the Middle and Late Preclassic Periods describe the variations in how the
living honored their dead, and how they treated chosen ancestors.
West Mexican Shaft Tombs
Shaft tombs are one variety o f Late Preclassic Period burial practices in West
Mexico, with a range o f forms and burial contents. Marry scholars have described the
physical characteristics and variations in West Mexican shaft tombs (Baus Czitrom 1989;
Bell 1971, 1972, 1974; P. Furst 1966; Gallagher 1983; Galvan 1976, 1991; Kelly 1978;
70
Long 1966a, 1966b, 1967; Meighan and Nicholson 1989; Rosoff 1985; Schondube 1980;
Weigand 1985a). Undertaken with wooden or stone tools, the digging o f shaft tombs
must have been a daunting task. Vertical shafts measure about a meter in diameter, and
they are square or round in cross-section. Shafts range in depth from one meter, to an
astounding 18 meters (Weigand 1985a). However, the mean depth o f West Mexican shaft
tombs is two and a half meters. The straight and neatly dug shafts act as vertical conduits
to underground tombs. Sometimes a few short steps or stone blocks lead from the base of
the shaft into the chamber.
The burial chamber is a rounded underground space or room that is perpendicular
to the shaft. The chamber floor is flat and horizontal In general the chambers measure
about three to four meters in both length and width, and are about one meter high. Faint
remnants o f mural painting decorate the interiors o f a few chambers (Weigand 1974:123).
Chambers, which usually number one or two, and rarefy have up to five, branch off from a
singular shaft. A capstone seals the point o f articulation between shaft and chamber. A
flne-grain pumice ash Alls the shaft. This distinctive fill material seen on the surface or in
excavations, can serve as a marker for locating shaft tombs. Sometimes a ring of stone
demarcates the upper circumference o f the shaft entrance.
Regrettably, for over a century, rural inhabitants o f Western Mexico have looted
shaft tombs. In the past, the discovery o f shaft tombs was the domain o f looters, while the
work of archaeologists focused on salvaging information from looters backfill and
interviews with the footers. Despite the feet that footers discover most shaft tombs,
71
archaeologists have recovered a considerable amount o f information about the under

ground built environment and about the contents o f the shaft tombs.
Stemming from the early El Openo tombs, the primary epoch o f shaft tomb
building and other elaborate burial practices in West Mexico dates to the Late Preclassic
Period, from approximately 200 B.C. to A.D. 250 (Beekman 1996a:862fi; Boehm de
Lameiras and Weigand 1992; Harbottle 1975; Long and Taylor 1966a, 1966b; Meighan
1974; Meighan et aL 1968; Taylor 1974; Taylor and Berger 1968; Taylor et aL 1969;
Tolstoy 1978; Weigand 1990a, 1992a).
Variations of W est Mexican Burial Practices
Different forms of shaft tombs and burial practices that accompanied the
veneration o f ancestors appear in a broad zone in West Mexico from the north coast o f
Nayarit to the south coast of Colima and east past Lake Chapala and into Michoacan. The
concept o f a shaft tomb area presupposes a commonality to West Mexican mortuary
rites for the dead, when in feet, the Late Preclassic Period funerary remains are diverse.
Peoples throughout West Mexico honored their ancestors using varied mortuary
behaviors
A review o f these practices identifies the pervasive practice o f ancestor
recognition throughout the Preclassic Period o f West Mexico including: 1) early

manifestations o f shaft tomb building at El Openo in Michoacan, 2) the looted landscape
o f Colima sites, 3) the southern Nayarit region known for its shaft tomb cemeteries, 4) the
i
!
I
72
Pacific Coast with varied shaft tomb practices, 5) the Atemajac Valley and Sayula Basin
regions with shallow shaft tombs, and 6) the Tequila Volcano region, home o f the
Teuchitlan Tradition and deep shaft tombs.
El Openo. A cemetery o f nine shaft tombs at El Openo in Michoacan marks the
eastern extent o f shaft tombs discovered in Mexico. The El Openo tombs are also the
earliest dated ones in the New World.
Their chronological placement in the Early
Preclassic Period derives from corrected radiocarbon dates of 1360 to 1200 B.C.
(Harbottle 1975; Kelly 1980; Oliveros 1974; Tolstoy 1978). The form o f the El Opefio
tombs differs from the later vertical shafts that are more common during the Late
Preclassic Period. The El Openo shafts are inclined and stepped, and the chambers feature
benches or platforms carved into the bedrock (a welded tuff called tepetate). The dead
were placed on the burial platforms along with offerings (Oliveros 1974:184).
Eduardo Noguera (1939) first investigated two looted tombs at El Opefio, and
subsequently opened seven more tombs (Noguera 1971), assisted by Jose Arturo Oliveros
(1974, 1992). The skeletal remains were poorly preserved. Based on looters information
and on remains from the undisturbed tombs, archaeologists determined that all nine tombs
were multiple burial sites, and that some bones had been painted with red ochre
(Chadwick 1971:667; Gift 1985; Noguero 1971; Oliveros 1974:185-186, 1991).
Excavators Noguero (1971) and Oliveros (1974) identified the remains o f over 26 male
and female deceased people, six as primary burials. Secondary burials consisted o f several
stacks o f long bones and twenty isolated crania.
73
Five o f the nine tombs were undisturbed by looters (Oliveros 19921245). The
grave goods from the undisturbed five tombs were lavish.
Offerings included jade
earspools, greenstone beads, numerous obsidian tools and points, kaolin pottery, shell
pendants, and armbands o f a moHusk unique to the Caribbean. Sea (Chadwick 1971;
Noguera 1939,1971; Oliveros 1974, 1992). Looters gave Noguera (1939) a greenstone
figurine carved with a downtumed Olmec-style mouth. Burial offerings o f two ballgame
figurines and a small yoke must have commemorated a ball players life (Day et aL 1996).
The interment o f traditional female goods, such as solid clay figurines and manos and
metates, lends support to the proposition that women, as well as men, were buried in the
El Openo tombs arxi held high status in the ancient society (see Guillen 1993).
Colima. The early burials o f the Capacha phase date from the Early to Middle
Preclassic Period, dated to 1870-1720 B.C. (Harbottle 1975; Kelly 1978, 1980). The
early Colima graves are not shaft tombs. They are shallow, 50 centimeter deep, burials
now heavily looted for their ceramic contents. Distinctive ceramic vessels from the
ransacked tombs include the tecomates or gourd shaped vessels, stirrup spout jars, and
bules (see Figure 1.6) (Bans Czitrom 1978; Brush 1965; Kelly 1948, 1974; Messmacher
1966). These forms are similar to the shapes o f ceramic vessels made at Tlatilco, Mexico
(Coe 1965a) and in coastal Ecuador around 1500 to 1000 B.C. (Kelly 1980).
The second epoch o f ritualized mortuary activity, defined by Isabel Kelly (1945,
1948, 1949), is the Late Preclassic Period Ortices phase (350 B.C. to A D . 200). The
single chambered and boot shaped tombs o f this phase have vertical or slanting shafts that
74
range in depth from one to two meters (Kelly 1978). Although the Colima shaft tombs
are shallow and stow little variation in size, they contain rich offerings o f distinctive
ceramic wares (Gallagher 1983:29-31). Kellys (1978, 1980) analysis o f the pottery
remains revealed that prehistoric peoples frequently emptied and reused the chambers.
The shaft tombs in C olima occur in clusters or cemeteries, sometimes in
association with a village site. The site o f El ChanaL, for example, has architectural
remains in addition to an abundance o f looted tombs. It is possible that the Colima
cemeteries each represents a burial ground o f a specific lineage (e.g., Goldstein 1976; Saxe
1970). While no conclusive evidence has come to light o f this practice in West Mexico,
descent group cemeteries have been suggested to explain similar burial patterns at the Zuni
site o f Hawikku in the American Southwest (Howell and Kintigh 1996).
Southern N ayarit Shaft tombs in southern Nayarit are concentrated in hilltop
cemeteries, each one with tens o f burials. Early in the 1900s, pot-hunters discovered the
abundant and rich tombs o f southern Nayarit (Corona Nunez 1955:7). During this period,
Gifford (1950) located one possible shaft tomb cemetery at the site o f ViHita near the
modem town o f Ixtlan del Rio. According to local sources, looters had found a cemetery
with several pottery offerings located six meters below the surface. In the chamber, three
principal skeletons were located with several other human skeletal remains distributed in
an arc around their feet. Due to their placement and undisturbed nature, the principal
burials were considered by the footers to be contemporaneous. Vertical stone slabs placed
by their heads marked the three principal figures, all o f which were in extended position
75
(Gifford 1950:191). Cremations were another burial option that Gifford observed.
Recent investigations at Ixtian del Rio, associated with the superhighway
construction from Guadalajara to Tepie, did not uncover any shaft tomb cemeteries.
However, Gabrielle Zepeda (personal communication 1994) excavated one small shaft
tomb that had been dug adjacent to a Late Preclassic Period domestic platform mound.
An example o f the geographical density o f shaft tombs in southern Nayarit comes
from the munieipio o f San Pedro Lagunillas, west o f Ixtian del Rio. There, Peter Furst
(1966:228, 232) identified 24 cemeteries containing 390 looted tombs, and estimated that
another 1500 shaft tombs are undiscovered. The 24 cemeteries oddly lack a known
settlement context, although large platform mounds, that have not been investigated, exist
in the town o f San Pedro.
At the Las Cebollas site near Tequilita, Furst investigated a sacked tomb with
double chambers and a shaft 5.25 meters deep. Fursts (1966) reconstruction o f the tomb
was based on interviews with the looters, a viewing o f the looted material prior to sale,
and excavation o f the chambers and backfill. Furst (1966:90) estimates that the grave
goods o f the Las Cebollas tomb included 83 ceramic vessels, a house model, 25 slate
mirror backs, slate beads and pendants, 65 shell bracelets, 46 shell beads, ceramic flutes,
and 125 complete or fragmentary conch shells. All but one conch shell originated from
the Gulf Coast, and 111 were cut to form trumpets. Inferring religious and ritual
significance to the exotic offerings o f conch trumpets, flutes, and mirror backs, Furst
(1966:78) suggests that a shaman, or other important person, was interred in the tomb
76
together with members o f his family o r retainers. Although looters had disturbed the
poorly preserved skeletal remains, it appeared to Furst (1966:86-87) that at least nine
individuals were interred. Most were placed in a primary, extended fashion, but a few
were positioned in a vertical, standing position.
The hundreds o f looted shaft tombs in southern Nayarit show a standard range in
size. The shaft extends from two to a maximum o f six meters below the surface, and
about halfthe tombs are double-chambered (P. Furst 1966:290). Although the tomb form
is standardized and the shafts moderate in depth, Furst (1966:76ft) argues that the
offerings are just as rich as those grave goods recovered from the deep shaft tombs in the
Tequila Volcano vicmity.
Pacific Coast. Archaeological investigations at Late Preclassic sites on the Pacific
Coast o f Western Mexico (Florance 1989; Meighan 1972; Mountjoy 1982) have exposed
various burial practices. Shaft tombs, as well as other burial options, occur along the
Jalisco coastline. The few shaft tombs in the Banderas Valley o f Puerto VaGarta have
vertical shafts that measure less than two meters deep. The shaft tombs generally have
only one chamber. A rare shaft tomb has three chambers, and some tombs are more like
small niches than full chambers (Mountjoy 1996). White stones occasionally mark the
location of the shaft entrances. Frequently, the prehispanic inhabitants dug the shaft tombs
underneath the earthen floor o f their residences.
The variability o f mortuary practices in the Banderas Valley applies to prehispanic
treatments of recovered skeletal remains as wefl.
The coastal inhabitants frequently
77
cremated the dead. In other cases, Mountjoy (1996) believes that they allowed corpses to
dry, and then placed the remains in large, ceramic urns for interment. Ceramic cups often
accompany the dead, and sometimes small bowls cover the orifices o f large pots. The
amount o f grave goods reportedly interred in coastal shaft tombs is substantially less than
that reported from shaft tombs o f highland West Mexico.
Atemejac Valley. In the Atemejac Valley, the urban sprawl o f Guadalajara has
eclipsed the surface archaeological features but modem construction has exposed several
underground burials (Aronson 1993, 1996; Castro-Leal and Ochoa 1975; Diehl 1976;
Galvan 1976, 1991; Pina Chin and Taylor 1976; Schdndube and Galvan 1978). Luis
Javier Galvan Villegas (1991) has conducted salvage archaeological investigations at 23
disturbed shaft tomb locations in the Atemejac Valley. Like the Colima tombs, most o f
the one chamber tombs are boot shaped with shafts less than two meters deep (Galvan
1991:117ft).2 The disintegrated condition o f the skeletal remains from the Atemejac
Valley shaft tombs precludes detailed physical analyses (Galvan 1991:230).
The
population was primarily adult, although at feast five fetuses were also interred in the shaft
tombs. Galvan was able to identify seven instances of multiple burials in his investigations.
Biological and archaeological data gathered at the excavations indicate to Galvan
(1991:240) that each multiple burial represents a single mortuary event.
The material contents o f the Atemejac tombs include large hollow ceramic figures,
greenstone figurines and beads, shell ornaments, and obsidian lancefets. These grave
2 The box tombs of the Atemejac Valley are not discussed here because they postdate the El
Arenal phase of shaft tomb building.
78
goods are especially prevalent in the multiple burials where proportionally lavish offerings
identify one skeleton as a principal personage (Galvan 1991:234). Like the mortuary and
settlement patterns o f Colima and southern Nayarit, few architectural remains accompany
the shaft tomb sites in the Atemejac Valley.
They apparently functioned as small
cemeteries o f possible descent group association.

Sayula Lake Basin. The flat landscape and diverse resources of the Sayula Lake
Basin attracted prehistoric settlement. Sayula Lake lies within the generalized shaft tomb
arc, and has been an important prehispanic salt-making center since prehispanic times
(Reyes 1992; Schondube 1980; Valdez et aL 1996). The basin is an expansive corridor
bounded by Colima to the south, Guadalajara to the north, and Tequila Volcano to the
w est Otto Schondubes (1974,1980) investigation o f 70 sites along the shores o f Sayula
Lake yielded only one shaft tomb. At the site ofL a Caseta, a three meter deep shaft tomb
contained the remains o f two or three infants and four adults.
A recent research program o f the settlement prehistory o f the Sayula Basin, has
identified 120 prehistoric sites around the shoreline (Valdez 1995, 1996; Valdez et aL
1996). The extensive surveys and testing resulted in the discovery o f only one new
shaft tomb in the Sayula Basin.
Excavations revealed th at five individual*;., three
males and two females under age 35, were initially buried in the shaft tomb chamber.
Greenstone and obsidian flakes had been placed postmortem into the mouths o f the
five deceased individuals, a funerary practice also known to the Maya (Coe 1988) and
Aztec (Townsend 1992). One primary male figure wore a slate belt and ceramic
79
earrings. Later, but still in prehispanic times, the tomb was looted and reused. In the
second burial event, five more interments postdate the initial interment (Valdez 1995,
1996; Valdez et aL 1996).
Tequila Valleys. The deep shaft tomb was a restricted and specialized form o f
ritual burial found exclusively in the Teuchitlan region, contrary to a pervasiveness implied
in the label the shaft tomb culture. In feet, the early peoples of West Mexico dug
monumental shaft tombs only in the Tequila Volcano vicinity.
This differential
development suggests to some (Weigand 1990a) that sociopolitical factors affected the
depth o f the shaft tombs. Another explanation, that the depth o f shaft tombs is determined
by the level o f the soft tepetate layer in which to carve the chamber (Bell 1971), is also
possible. A test of the later hypothesis, such as a systematic comparison of the tepetate
depths radiating from the Tequila Volcano apex, has not been conducted.
Weigand (1974, 1989, 1990a) has determined that all known shaft tombs that
measure over eight meters deep (n=l 1), and all known shaft tombs that measure from four
to eight meters deep (n=26) are confined to the Tequila valleys. The recent discovery of
the 8.5 m deep Huitzilapa shaft tomb is discussed in Chapter IV. The burials and offerings
from a restricted zone around Tequila Volcano are the deep shaft tombs for which, the
societies ofLate Preclassic West Mexico are most well known. The ancient TeuchitMnos
also dug most o f these deep shaft tombs underneath or within domestic architectural
platforms (Weigand 1992d).
An estimated 71 percent o f the 128 shaft tombs that Weigand (1990a:43) has
80
investigated in the Jalisco highlands are single event burials with interment at less than four
meters below the surface. Hundreds more, up to 90% o f all human interments o f the Late
Preclassic Period, filled shallow graves (Weigand 1985a:64). Weigand (1989) interprets
this differentiation in burial elaboration and shaft depth as mirroring social and settlement
hierarchies. The most elaborate o f the shaft tombs are at the most complex regional sites
o f El Arenal, Ahualulco, and San Sebastian, discussed below.
At El Arenal, the type site mentioned previously, archaeologist Corona Nunez
(1955) documented one o f the first known, as well as one o f the deepest, West Mexican
shaft tombs in the region o f Tequila Volcano. The El Arenal tomb had been sacked by the
time that Corona Nunez learned o f it. The El Arenal tomb has an 18 meter deep vertical
shaft that is square in cross-section (see Figure 1-5). It leads to three separate chambers.
Each o f the large chambers measures nearly four by four meters, and approximately 2.5
meters in height. A local teacher obtained photographs of some o f the looted ceramic
figures before they disappeared on the black market. Photographs show ceramic figures:
one nearly a meter tall, one figure seated on a stool, one ballplayer, and one pregnant
female. Archaeologists found jade beads in the footers backfilL
At Ahuahileo, another type site described above, Weigand (1974) examined the
remains of numerous looted tombs. Pot-hunters had ransacked several deep and complex
shaft tombs which were dug below platform mounds, presumably residential in function.
No specific artifacts are known from the Ahualulco tombs, although Oconahua Red on
White was the predominant ceramic ware. Based on conversations with looters, Weigand
81
(1974) surmised that the Ahuahilco tombs once held many different styles of ceramic art,
and that they may have served as lineage crypts (Weigand 1989:43), with the major
mounds possibly representing] the burial mounds o f paramount lineages of the entire
valley polity (Weigand 1974:125). The impressive built environment, both above and
below ground, suggests that the Ahuahilco site was a regional center for the Teuchitlan
people during the El Arenal phase.
Archaeologists have successfully reconstructed the entire contents of only one
looted shaft tomb.
Compiling several sources o f information, Stanley Long (1966a,
1966b) reported the complete contents o f one 5 meter deep tomb from San Sebastian,
located near Etzatian, to the southeast o f Tequila Volcano. In this angular case, the
footers sold the entire contents o f the San Sebastian tomb to a private individual who then
donated the tomb collection to the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum
(Nicholson and Meighan 1974:12-15). The San Sebastian grave goods consisted o f 18
large hollow ceramic figures o f various styles, obsidian points, ceramic bowls, spindle
whorls, and three mollusk shells, one o f which came from the Caribbean Sea.
Subsequently, Long (1966a) excavated the floor o f the San Sebastian tomb for
artifact rem nants and skeletal remains
H um an skeletal remains from the San Sebastian
tomb included those o f nine adults (possibly two males, five females, and two pregnant
females), and an unusual collection o f six long bones, all left tibia. The assimilation o f data
from radiocarbon dates, scientific tests on the skeletal material, and the variety o f ceramic
82
styles, contributed to Longs (1966a, 1966b) conclusion that the San Sebastian tomb
served as an active family crypt reused for a period o f over 200 years.
Although reuse of West Mexican shaft tombs was an occasional practice noted in
Colima and the Sayula Ffastn, the actual construction o f shaft tombs ceased hi West
Mexico by the Teuchitlan I phase o f the Early Classic Period. In the Classic Period,
shallow trench interments replace the ritualized construction o f shaft tombs (Weigand
1992e:31). These had little or no grave furniture (Long 1966b:55), nor large ceramic
figures. Instead new ceramic wares including pseudo-cloisonne vessels prevailed during
the Classic Period (Holien 1974,1977; Weigand 1990a, 1992b).
Ancestor Recognition in West Mexico
The review o f Late Preclassic Period mortuary behaviors identifies several

practices that West Mexican peoples used to recognize chosen dead. Ethnographies and
other studies have shown that the ideology o f ancestor veneration is determined in the
archaeological record by the presence o f mortuary practices that are evident in the West
Mexican data: protracted burials, reuse o f tomb chambers, ritual burial practices, variety of
tomb types, and interments o f adults and children (Binford 1971; J. Brown 1971, 1975,
i
1981; Chapman et aL 1981; Dillehay 1995; Dwyer and Dwyer 1975b; Hodder 1982;
McAnany 1995; Nelson et aL 1992; Saxe 1970; Tainter 1978).
i
|
Protracted burials are exemplified in West Mexico by desiccated remains,
83
secondary burials, and the not uncomm on practice o f interring partial skeletons. These
m ortuary behaviors indicate that certain bodies were held, awaiting interment, perhaps
until the death of a named ancestor or important leader. On the Pacific Coast (Mourrtjoy
1996), some corpses appear to have bear desiccated and placed in ceramic urns prior to
interment in shaft tombs.
Chambers containing stacks or piles o f bones indicate secondary burials and reuse
o f the chambers. Secondary interments found in West Mexico were noted at El Openo
(Oliveros 1974), and in the Nayarit tombs at Ixtlan del Rio (Gifford 1950) and Las
CeboHas (P. Furst 1966). The selective interment and veneration o f ancestors' long bones
and crania began at the earliest burials at El Openo.
The collection o f six left tibias
interred in the San Sebastian tomb (Long 1966a) testifies to the continuation o f this
behavior into the El Arena! phase. The explanation given for collecting crania and long
bones am ong the prehispanic Maya and Zapotec may apply to an interpretation o f West
Mexican behaviors. In the Maya preoccupation with the underworld, the long bones and
crania represent the venerated ancestor. In the iconography o f the Zapotec o f Oaxaca,
long bones symbolize the ancestor (McAnany 1995:12, 60-61; Lind and Urcid 1983).
Perhaps stacks of bone symbolized ancestors among West Mexicans also.

A second trait characteristic o f people who venerate the dead is the reuse o f burial
sites (McAnany 1995:115). In some cases, investigators distinguish the reuse o f shaft
tomb chambers by stratigraphic layering o f skeletal remains in tombs, such as those
documented in the Sayula Basin (Valdez et aL 1996), and in southern Nayarit (P. Furst
84
1966). Kelly (1978) suggested die Colima tombs were reused prehispanically based on
her discovery o f disturbed human remains and chronological discrepancies in ceramic
materials.
Reuse is further indicated in secondary burials where bones are stacked in piles
around primary extended qketetal remains. This pattern o f mortuary behavior, noted at
San Sebastian (Long 1966a) and El Openo (Oliveros 1974), may represent famify crypts,
where chambers were opened, skeletal remains pushed to the side, and the main chamber
floor reused for a succession o f family interments.
A third characteristic o f ancestor recognition is ritualized mortuary practices. In
West Mexico, perhaps the most profound rite performed for the dead was the building and
maintenance of shaft tombs. At the Michoacan site o f El Opefio, the burial platforms are
an additional specialized funerary construction. Perhaps labor h i construction emphasized
the underground built environment rather than surface building at these sites.
In addition, as artistically portrayed in shaft tomb ceramic art and suggested
in archaeological remains, corpses were wrapped, placed on litters, and paraded about
prior to interment (Figure 2.9).
Evidence for ritual offerings to the dead include
lavish grave goods, incense burners, chambers stacked with bowls, cups and pitchers for
feeding the dead and at Sayula, as mentioned earlier, the placement o f greenstone and
obsidian chips in the mouths o f the dead (Valdez et aL 1996).
Fourth, differential treatment o f the dead characterizes ancestor-focused lineal
descent groups (McAnany 1995:115). Burials o f regular family members, as opposed to
85
Figure 2.9. West Mexican Ceramic Depiction o f Funerary Procession, h=16 cm

(from von Winning and Hammer l972:Figure 87).
a chosen ancestor, have few grave goods and a comm on grave and location. The
differential construction in shaft tombs, and the prevalence of shallow graves in West
Mexico may underscore a ranking in treatment o f the dead. This concept may also explain
the hierarchy of shaft tombs that Weigand (1974,1989b) describes, in the Cauca Valley
o f Colombia only lineage leaders held the privileged status that permitted their interment in
a shaft tomb chamber (P. Furst 1966:237).
Fifth, recognition o f chosen dead is graphically demonstrated
hl the
multiple
burials o f numerous shaft tombs. In the tomb chambers, proportionally rich grave goods
demonstrate that the living distinguished a primary person using adornments (Galvan
1991; P. Furst 1966; Ramos de la Vega y Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996). At the tombs
o f IxtMn del Rio, the vertically placed stones may mark specific ancestors (Gifford 1950).
86
Sixth, multiple burials with children, women, and men buried together in the shaft
tombs clarify the social and fanrilial aspects o f elaborate funerary rites. Such kin-focused
mortuary behaviors reiterate the importance for the living to verify their blood right to
status and resources once held by the dead (McAnany 1995:163). Oliveros (1992:240)
interpreted the El Openo tombs as family crypts, or homes of the ancestors. This
appraisal stems from the interment o f both males and females in primary and secondary
context (Oliveros 1992:240).
Shaft tombs in the Atemqac Valley (Galvan 1991) and Sayula Basin (Schonduhe
1974; Valdez 1996) reportedly contain skeletal remains o f children and fetuses. Few
references to skeletal rem ains of children come from the deep shaft tombs o f the Tequila
valleys. This may be the result of wanton looting, or reflect an emphasis on adults as
venerated ancestors in the core shaft tomb area.
In sum, the variety and pervasiveness o f elaborate mortuary behaviors support the
premise that the veneration o f the dead was widespread and practiced by different social
groups and ranks.
Ancestor recognition in West Mexico was not limited to cult
participation but semis to have existed as a shared social phenomenon.

Taken together these practices clarify the importance o f mortuary patterns for
understanding social structures (Binford 1971; Howell and Kintigh 1996:552; Saxe 1971).
If my study has accomplished the first step in developing an understanding o f ancient West
Mexican social systems by defining ancestor worship si the mortuary data, then the next
steps can be taken. As discussed earlier, social practices that correlate with the ancestor
87
recognition include hereditary social status and descent reckoning. The direction o f my
study is to next determine the environmental impetus for claims o f hereditary rights and
the formation o f descent groups in an early West Mexican society.
FEASTING RESOURCES
Feasting strategies can develop hi societies situated in environments with the

potential to feed a large populace. This requires the production o f a surplus o f food
and drink suitable for ritual consumption (e.g., Clark and Blake 1994; Hayden 1995).
In addition, the regional exchange and alliance building inherent in competitive
feasting strategies require control over distribution o f non-local goods and over
access to restricted resources and lands.
Significantly., the formation o f lineage
groups is tied to valued agricultural lands. The necessity o f pooling labor to produce
food and beverage surplus can lead to corporate control o f arable plots (Collier 1975;
Hayden 1995). The premise that I try to establish is that the cooperative labor necessary
to cultivate the native agave at Tequila Volcano led to the formation o f corporate kin
groups during the Late Preclassic Period.
The Fertile Highlands of Jalisco
Documents from Francisco Cortes 1524-1525 Spanish entrada into West Mexico
88
record the indigenous adaptation to the fertile and rich environment around Tequila
Volcano (Cronicas de la Conqufeta 1963; Bans Czitrom 1982, 1985; Gerhard 1972:156158; Tamayo 1964:109-111). Native Nahua and Otonn speaking peoples inhabited the
comm unity o f Tequila, the lakeshore towns o f EtzatMn and Magdalena, and two islands in
Laguna Magdalena. They used reed canoes to navigate the fresh, water and marshes in
search o f geese, duck, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, and reeds (Armillas 1964;
Avekyra 1964; Solorzano Barreto 1964; Weigand 1989:39). The shallow waters o f
Laguna Magdalena were renowned for a reliable stock o f fish called pescado bianco.
Large quantities o f pescado bianco, dried and sold in the market places, fed the entire
Guadalajara kingdom (Mota y Escobar 1940:74).
In the towns o f Tequila and Magdalena, indigenous peoples grew maiVe, beans,
cacao, maguey, squash, chile, cotton, and yucca (Bell 1971; Brand 1971; Speck 1951;
Tello 1945).
Unfortunately, few scientific data have surfaced to substantiate Late
Preclassic Period dietary or agricultural practices. However, the presence o f manos and
metales, the remains o f a settled village lifestyle, and the depiction o f foods on the ceramic
art from the Late Preclassic Period confirm that early West Mexicans were agriculturalists
(e.g., Linares 1977; Peterson 1990; Schondube 1995; Soto de Arechavaleta 1992). Otto
Schondube (1995) has identified elements o f the physical world modeled on vessels,
including plant foods o f cacao, squash, maize, agave leaves, agave hearts, and native
fruits, and faunal foods o f shrimp, crayfish, and dogs. The modeling o f food on ceramic
89
vessels suggests a range of possible food sources for Late Preclassic Period peoples.3
In the 1950s, the highland lakes were artificially drained and their bottomlands
prepared for modem agriculture.
The reclaimed lakebeds, fertile with millennia o f
lacustrine deposition, today support a variety o f Suits and vegetables (Stevens 1964;
Weigand 198939). Minerals Sum decomposing volcanic ash have further enriched the
soils of the Tequila valleys. The recent discovery o f Classic Period sherds in association
with the visible remnants o f canals and raised fields around laguna Magdalena suggests to
Weigand (1992e:5) that Teuchitlan peoples constructed a chmampa or raised field
agricultural system from A D . 400 to 700. The prehispanic rather than historic attribution
o f the manmade features has been questioned (Butzer 1996), however ongoing
investigations by Glenn Stuart o f the University o f Arizona may resolve the issue.
Agave tequilana Weber
In the study area, fields o f blue agave create a distinctive landscape around
Tequila Volcano. The modem predominance o f cultivated Agave tequilana Weber serves
as a botanical reminder o f the past The growth o f agave had the potential to supply a
reliable food resource to sustain populations, to provide surplus food and drink, and
fibers for weaving fabrics.
Presently, the region is tequila country, or Agavekmd
(Gentry 1982:3).
Chapter m discusses the portrayals o f food presented at ritual feasts.
90
The genus Agave, a plant native to the Mesoamerican highlands, embraces

197 taxa to which the famous maguey, mescal, tequila, and century plants belong.
Comparable to how the prehistoric Plains Indians relied on the buffalo, ancient
peoples o f Central, Northern, and Western Mexico depended upon agave as a
regional resource that singularly provided the essentials o f indigenous life (Bahre and
Bradbury 1980; Gentry 1982:3-8; Parsons and Parsons 1990:276). According to
Lumhohz (1902256), the Tarahumara o f Northwest Mexico call agave "the first
plant created by God."
Agave tequilana Weber grows today in the non rich red soils that occur around
Tequila Volcano. Whether the Tequila valley soils were equally suited to the growth o f
Agave tequilana during the Late Preclassic Period is an untested yet viable hypothesis.
Climatological data indicate mild fluctuations in weather patterns over the past 1500 to
2000 years (Aveleyra 1964; Tamayo 1964; Vivo Escoto 1964). Further, ethnobotanist
Howard Gentry (1982: 556, 562) has observed that plants closely related to A.
tequilana grow wild on the semiarid slopes west and south o f Tequila... [they] closely
resemble the cultivated form s...one would suspect that the tequila growers made their
original selections for p lanting from am ong these wild stocks. The cultivation o f
agave is an uncomplicated and nearly foolproof enterprise, involving either o f two
methods o f reproduction.
Agave shoots, sim ply stuck hi rocky soils and left
untended, grow roots in a year or two. Seeds o f the agave can also be planted, with
91
those from the best plants selected for agriculture (Gentry 1982:4; Parsons and
Parsons 1990:18-19).
The early peoples around Tequila Volcano may have adapted to an
environment rich in the restricted red soils where the Agave tequilana thrives.
Evidence for the prehispanic use o f agave, for food, fabrics, and ritual drink, has
survived in archaeological remains and in ethnographic accounts from Western and
Northwest Mexican peoples (Zingg 1935:148-149; Bourke 1893; Lumhohz 1902:1:
256; Parsons and Parsons 1990:277; Pennington 1963:129-130, 152-154; Rangel
1987:14). Archaeological clues to utilization o f agave are the stone lined baking pits
for roasting agave (Greer 1965), weaving tools such as large spindle whorls for
spinning coarse maguey fibers (Parsons and Parsons 1990:362), and lastly, a toolkit
for digging and chopping, and for scraping the heart to increase the flow o f sap
(Parsons and Parsons 1990:28,289-293, 352).
E ating Agave. Agave was first and foremost a source o f food (Bye et al.
1975:86) that, along with maize and beans, sustained diverse Mesoamerican peoples.
Human consumption o f agave dates to as early as 7000 B.C., based on investigations
in the Tehuacan Valley o f Central Mexico (MacNeish 1967; Gentry 1982:5). Early
peoples consumed the sap, the heart, and the leaves for food. They imbibed the
nutritious sap or aguamieV that accumulates in the hearts o f mature plants, fresh or
extracted it for processing. From the sap, they made vinegar, sugar syrup, medicmes,
and they fermented the aguam iel to produce pulque (octli in Nahua).
I
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To eat the imposing plant, the flesh is softened by roasting the agave heart and
leaves for a few days in stone line pits (Zingg 1935:148). The roasting o f agave
hearts in earth ovens is, one o f Mesoamericas oldest and most persistent activities
(Winters 1976:29). Its reliability as a food source may have been revealed during
droughts that threatened maize crops. Evidence from the site o f La Quemada in
Zacatecas (A.D. 600-900) indicates that indigenous peoples exploited the wild agave
for its sap, and later cultivated the plant and consumed the roasted leaves (B. Nelson
1992:369ffi Nelson et al. 1992).
In Western Mexico in general, and in the Tequila valleys specifically,
investigators have uncovered features that resemble prehispanic agave ovens. Near
Etzatlan, on the shore o f Lake Magdalena, Michael Glassow (1967) describes
archaeological features that fit the description o f agave ovens. At Huistla, an Early
Postclassic Period site dating from A.D. 800 to 1200, Glassow (1967:65) excavated
two stone lined bucket-shaped enclosures adjacent to culinary areas. Associated
with the stone lined depressions were sherds from large ceramic vessels, and ceramic
spindle whorls o f undisclosed dimensions.
Archaeologists have identified the stone lined pits for roasting agave to the
east o f the Tequila Volcano.
Francisco Valdez (personal
communication 1996)
working in the Sayula Lake basin o f Jalisco recently excavated a stone lined baking
pit tentatively dated to the Late Preclassic Period. Valdez believes that agave was
roasted in the pit for purposes o f eating.
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Considered a delicacy by the Tarahumara (Zingg 1935:148), the freshly

roasted agave tastes like cooked sweet potatoes drenched in honey both in
appearance and flavor (Hutson 1995:26). The Tarahumara also take the cooked
heart and boil it for an hour to mix with com gruel, or allow the boiled pulp to
ferment to make alcoholic beverages (Bye et aL 1975:88-89; Zingg 1935:149). The
Tarahumara also collect the sweet flowers that sprout near the top o f the agave heart.
These are cooked, and eaten alone, or ground up and mixed with maize dough to
make tortillas that are considered especially tasty (Bye et aL 1975:90,95).
For travel and exchange, baked agave is processed into forms that do not
spoil. The Tarahumara take the cooked heart, and to remove the fibers, pound it with
a wooden sledge and grind it on the metate, after which the fiber can be strained out.
The resulting solid and sweet meat is then shaped into little round cakes, exactly like
cheeses...They are thus convenient to carry in the little barrel basket...to be
exchanged (Zingg 1935:149).
The roasted agave meat is dried, ground on the
metate, and then shaped into cylindrical cheese form and placed in the sun to dry for
a week (Bye et aL 1975:89; Parsons and Parsons 1990:347). The dried agave
product lasts for she months without spoilage.
Agave Fibers. Early West Mexican people may have used agave as a source
for textile fibers. In making rope, nets, bags, baskets, mats, sandals, brushes, and
cloth, many prehispanic peoples recognized the strength and utility o f the henequen
fibers inside agave leaves and hearts. The finest agave fibers came from inside the
94
agave heart where aguamiel collects (Gentry 1982:16-17; Parsons and Parsons
1990:178-179). To spin coarser fibers into threads for weaving fabric, women used
heavy spindle whorls that weigh more than 10 grams each. In the archaeological
record o f Mesoamerica (Parsons and Parsons 1990:355-357, 362) and o f West
Mexico (Lister 1955:39), ceramic spindle whorls o f any size are considered rare
before the Postclassic Period (L Johnson 1971:301). Yet, in Late Preclassic Period
shaft tombs around Tequila Volcano, ceramic spindle whorls, weight unspecified, are
common. The San Sebastian tomb reportedly contained five ceramic spindle whorls,
an El Arenal tomb had two, and the Santa Maria tomb contained two plain spindle
whorls (Long 1966b:29-33,Table 1). As discussed in Chapter V, the Huitzilapa
shaft tomb also contained spindle whorls.
In the Postclassic Period, the Tarascans o f Western Mexico paid tribute to the
Aztec with henequen fabric woven from ixtle, or maguey fibers. O f nine communities
that supplied henequen fabric to the Aztec, six were Tarascan.
Based on their
examination o f the Aztec Tribute lists recorded in the Codex Mendocino, Parsons and
Parsons (1990:353-355) suggest that late Postclassic specialization in maguey syrup

and fiber production (and perhaps even pulque) was staged outside the Aztec urban
zone at, for example, the Higher elevations along the Tarascan frontier.
A continuity o f weaving agave fibers in Western Mexico was documented by
Isabel Kelly (1944). She reported contemporary weaving o f fine cloth from agave
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fibers in the Jalisco towns o f Chiquilistlan and Mazatan.4 Kelly (1944:108) suggests
that the exceptional ixtle fabric woven in these small villages, presumably represents
the survival o f an old, perhaps preconquest, craft. The agave fibers used to create
the fine fabrics come from several distinct kinds o f wild agave growing nearby. The
fine ixtle fabrics are woven on a backstrap loom using unspun, delicate fibers,
extracted from the inside o f agave hearts (Kelly 1944:109, 110). Kelly (1944:110)
concludes that, [t]he natives may have been quite handsomely garbed if their
weaving was on a par with that o f modem Chiquilistlan."
Tools for W orking Agave. In the Tequila valleys, discoidal obsidian scrapers,
whose function was limited to scraping agave hearts, are common (Figure 2.10). The
rounded scrapers, called ocaxtles, have a special discoidal shape. Now made o f iron
or copper, prehispanic ocaxtles were made from obsidian (Bruman 1940:113). Their
presence in the archaeological record denotes unambiguously the ancient process o f
making pulque. To obtain aguam iel for pulque, skillful scraping o f the agave heart is
the all-important task (Parsons and Parsons 1990:36). Once the flowering stock is
removed from mature agave plants, the flow o f aguamiel into the agave heart begins.
Workers open the heart, and continuously scrape the inside cavity to stimulate the
flow o f aguamiel. Those who attend to aguamiel production are called tlachiqueros,
from the Indian word to scrape (de Barrios 1971:30; Litzinger 1983:305).
4 Otto Schtodube provided me with this reference to Kellys ethnographic work.
96
Figure 2.10. Modem and ancient maguey scrapers used for pulque
(from Parsons and Parsons 1990:311).
Aguam iel is extracted daily to deter fermentation and souring within the
cavity. A dried, elongate gourd, implemented like a straw, is used to extract the
aguamiel from the agave cavity (Bruman 1940:114; de Barrios 1971:30-35; Parsons
and Parsons 1990:43). The suctioning tool, called an acocote (or acocotli),5 has not
survived in the archaeological record, except, as discussed in Chapter IV, as an
artistic depiction. A contemporary acocote is shown in Figure 2.11, along with a
West Mexican ceramic figure holding an acocote in one hand, and a cup in the other.
The clear rendering o f a tool used to extract aguamiel in the Late Preclassic Period
5 The acocote is a lowland gourd of the species Lagenaria siceraria (Parsons and Parsons
1990:43) or Lagenaria vulgaris (Bruman 1940:114).
97
ceramic art reinforces the idea that early West Mexican people produced pulque.
Although they may have consumed aguamiel in its fresh form, and for its nutritious
Figure 2.11. Actual acocote, and ceramic figurine holding acocote and cup
(left from Parsons and Parsons 1990:Plate 39;
right from Gallagher 1983:Figure 126, h=49.5 cm).
98
and medicinal qualities, it is equally likely that early West Mexicans fermented the
aguam iel to produce ritual pulque as did other prehispanic peoples. Indeed, when the
aguamiel dried up, they may have extracted the fine fibers from inside the heart to use
for weaving their best fabrics.
Agave Based R itual D rinks
Prehispanic groups living at Tequila Volcano had access to the native growth
o f Agave tequilana that they may have harvested for the production o f beverages to
serve at ritual feasts. Certainly the later peoples o f Western and Northwest Mexico
produced a variety o f native beverages including pulque (fermented agave sap),
tesguino (fermented com and/ or agave juice), and mescal and tequila (made from
juice o f baked agave).
In this section, indigenous processes o f producing agave
beverages, and the accompanying residual materials that might be amenable to the
interpretation o f West Mexican archaeological remains, are explored.
Pulque (ferm ented fresh agave juice). To make pulque, fresh aguamiel is
poured into animal hide vats (originally deer, but now cow hide vats or oak storage
tanks) and allowed to ferment for seven to 14 days. Different herbs and starters that
change the flavor and fortify the alcohol are added during the fermentation period.
The Aztec used herbs to make over 400 variations o f pulque (Day 1992:25; Hutson
I
i
i
i
t
99
1995:14), although the root bark ocotil, Acacia spp., is the main additive (Litzinger
1983:12).
By modem standards, the Agave tequilana Weber is not considered a species
that provides aguamiel for pulque. It is smaller by a third and has thinner leaves than
the traditional thick leafed pulque magueys (de Barrios 1971:46-47). At the
Conquest, the finest pulque came from a light colored agave with thin leaves that
thrived in temperate climates (Speck 1951:331-334, cited in Parsons and Parsons
1990:274), rather than from the approximately 30 giant species o f agave used today
for pulque production (de Barrios 1971:29). Accessibility, rather than size, may have
determined aguamiel extraction in prehispanic times.
The ocaxtles or scraping tool for pulque has a limited spatial distribution in
Jalisco that corresponds to the present growth o f Agave tequilana. Otto Schondube
(personal communication 1996) observes that the obsidian discoidal scrapers are
found only at archaeological sites around Tequila Volcano. The appearance o f the
tools for making pulque at sties in the Huitzilapa area, and historic records o f pulque
production in the West, suggest that pulque was a beverage option available to
prehispanic societies o f the Tequila Volcano region.
Historic references from West Mexico indicate that indigenous peoples did
extract aguamiel from the wild tequila agave to make pulque. According to Hildel
(1967, cited in Gonsalves de Lima 1990:57), at the time o f the Conquest, the
inhabitants o f Tequila, Jalisco prepared pulque, a fermented drink, from a wild agave.
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The wild agave appeared to the Spanish to belong to a different species and variety
than was used in other parts o f Mexico to extract pulque.
Spanish documents confirm that in Western Mexico pulque was made from a
variety o f agave species. The Tarascans, in addition to weaving ixtle fabrics, used
agave to prepare pulque. The Chronicles o f Michoacan state: "we have wine here
that was made in the very stump o f the maguey;" and, "an official tavern keeper,
called Atari, [receives] all the maguey wine that was made for the feasts" (Craine and
Reindorp 1970:203, 13; Warren 1985). Historic records suggest that pulquerias, or
pulque drinking establishments, may have existed prehispanically in small Tarascan
villages (Litzinger 1983:12; Litzinger and Leslie 1994). The first Spaniards recorded
that aguamiel wines were made in the Jalisco towns o f Nuchistlan and Tlaltenango in
1584; in Cora villages o f Nayarit during the 1650s; and in the 1770s for the town o f
Autlan near Colima Volcano (Bruman 1940:102-106; 145-146).
Moreover, the
Opato and Pimo Bajo o f the Northwest deserts collected aguamiel from small agaves
for the purpose o f making pulque (RefF 1991:59).
Mescal, Tesguino, and Tequila (ferm ented juice from cooked agave).
Fermenting the juices from roasted hearts and leaves o f Agave tequilana was another
option available to prehispanic residents o f the Huitzilapa area. The method begins
much like that for roasting agave for food, and can involve just the heart (called pina
or mescal), just the leaves, or both. The cooked agave is shredded and the juice is
then squeezed out for fermentation (de Barrios 1971:47).
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Producing alcoholic beverages from cooked agave is well known in Western

and Northern Mexico (Litzinger 1983:20ff). An eighteenth century source (cited in
Rangel 1987:13) describes mescal production for indigenous peoples o f Sonora.
Sonorans still make mescal in the traditional manner, using juices from two wild
species, Agave pacifica and Agave palm eri (lechuguilla) (Bahre and Bradbury
1980:391).
The Chontal o f western Oaxaca conduct a ritual over the agave heart when it
is buried in the pit oven for making mescal (P.Carrasco 1960:114). Even the
pulque loving Aztec made a beverage from roasted agave hearts that apparently had
medicinal properties (Parsons and Parsons 1990:282-284).
The Tarahumara native brew, tesguino, is a fermented drink made from juice
squeezed from sprouted com (Bruman 1940).
Given a choice, however, the
T arahum ara prefer tesguino made from agave, as it is sweeter and tastier than that
made from the com (Litzinger 1983:28-30; Zingg 1935:149). The Tarahumara have
a variant method o f obtaining juice from the agave. They first mash the heart and
leaves to extract the juice, which they then boil. Fermentation that takes two to three
days can be speeded up by adding the juice o f sprouted com (Bye et aL 1975:88-89).
They also imbibe a libation comprised o f the two tesguino types mixed together
(Zingg 1935:149; Pennington 1963:154).
The modem process o f preparing tequila is remarkably similar to that
described for baking agave for mescal fermentation. With tequila, only juices from
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the heart are utilized. Juice, derived from mashing the roasted agave hearts, is then
distilled to increase the alcohol content.
In the mam, experts agree that distillation techniques came to the Americas
historically, and to Jalisco in the seventeenth century (Hutson 1995:21). However,
the uniqueness o f indigenous West Mexican stills for alcohol production has led
scholars to suggest the possibility for prehispanic processes o f spirit distillation among
the Tarascan and Huichol (Bahre and Bradbury 1980; Bourke 1893; Bruman
1940:229-231; Litzinger 1983:10-11; Litzinger and Leslie 1994). In his classic work,
Aboriginal Drink Area in New Spain, Bruman (1940:133-134) opined that the
modem prominence o f tequila production speaks o f an unbroken tradition o f mescal
baking and fermenting for the indigenous peoples in the region o f Tequila, Jalisco.
Archaeological data to determine whether Teuchitlanos preferred the fresh sap or the
juice o f baked Agave tequilana Weber to make ritual beverages are not currently
available.
Tequila Volcano Obsidian
Obsidian from Tequila Volcano was a main resource o f the Teuchitlan peoples.
The andesitic stratocone produced extensive obsidian deposits o f black, red, and flow
banded appearances (S. Nelson 1986:28).
Evidence for human exploitation o f the
obsidian of Tequila Volcano dates from the Late Preclassic through Postclassic Periods.
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Surface collections at sites around Tequila Volcano show that during the Late Preclassic
Period four to five sources o f Tequila obsidian were mined and worked (Beekman
1996a;747; Darling 1993; Spence et aL 1980; Weigand and Spence 1982, 1989).
Prismatic blades, discoidal scrapers, elongate points, and fine ornaments define the early
Iithic assemblage. The analysis by archaeologist Jorge Ramos de la Vega o f the obsidian
workshops, mines, and tools found at sites in the Huitzilapa area will add insights into the
organization o f the Late Preclassic Period lithic industry.
A REGIONAL NETWORK
The competitive feasting strategies that I propose for the Late Preclassic
Period Teuchitlan people require an interacting exchange network.
At regional
competitions, aggrandizers or leaders of kin groups build alliances through the

exchange and giving o f goods, marriage partners, and labor (Clark and Blake 1994;
DAhroy 1994; Earle 1987:296). Differential access and control o f foreign goods serve
in the development and maintenance o f social inequality and positions of authority (e.g.,
Drennan and Uribe 1987; Earle 1987, 1991; Feinman 1991; Freidei 1979; Hirth 1984,
1992; McGuire 1986; F. Plog et aL 1982; S. Plog 1989, 1993; Publ 1985; Sabloff and
Freidei 1975; Sabloff and Lamberg-Kartovsky 1975; Sanchez and Baus Cztoom 1980;
Voorhies 1973,1989). Participation in an exchange network occurs on several levels
depending on the individual or social group involved, the distance covered, local or
104
regional, and the type o f goods and services exchanged (per S. Plog 1993). Below I
examine the evidence for local, regional, and distant exchange networks in prehispanic
West Mexico, and the possible resources and imports available to the Teuchitlan peoples.
Trade Route
Tequila Volcano is situated close to one o f Mexicos primary trade corridors, the
Rib Lerma - Lake Chapala - Rio Grande de Santiago waterway (see Figure 2.1). From
Huitzilapa, the topography drops dramatically to the waters o f Rio Santiago nearly 1000
meters tower in elevation. The Rio Grande Santiago runs through a deep canyon just ten
kilometers north o f Tequila Volcano on its course to the Pacific Ocean. Beginning in the
Valley o f Mexico, the Rio Lerma flows west for 500 kilometers to Lake Chapala, and
reemerges on the lakes west side as the Rio Grande. The riverine corridor has probably
always been navigable, as still today small craft gain passage to the ocean impeded only by
sand bars at the rivers confluence with the Pacific Ocean (Tamayo 1964:105).
Since the Late Preclassic Period a complex and sophisticated system of
exchange" (Mountjoy 1978:132) operated from the Pacific Coast to the highland West
Mexican societies (Braniff 1977), probably along this and other riverine corridors.
Documents testify to the importance o f the Rio Grande Santiago route for prehispanic
long distance exchange (Feldman 1978; M Foster 1986:57; Mountjoy 1974, 1978).
During the Postclassic Period, Toltec and Aztec merchants traveled the length o f the
105
corridor from the Valley o f Mexico to the Pacific Coast, and back (Amsden 1928; Beals
1932; Gorenstein 1985; Hrdlicka 1903). Ixtlan del Rio in Nayarit, one o f the largest
Postclassic Period highland sites, probably benefited from its central location along the
trade route between the Valley o f Mexico and the Pacific coast.
At the routes terminus, the Pacific coastal sites o f the Aztatlan culture functioned
as Central Mexican outposts (Brand 1971; Publ 1985; Sauer 1932; Sauer and Brand 1932;
von Winning 1956). The Postclassic Period mercantile expansion is demarcated at the
sites o f Aztatlan (Sauer and Brand 1932), Guasave (Ekhohn 1942), Chametla (Kelly
1938), Culiacan (Kelly 1945a), and Amapa (Meighan 1976; Bell 1960), and in the coastal
valleys o f Jalisco and Colima (Mountjoy (1991a, 1993).
The Rio Santiago exchange route may have branched from the coast, northward
toward the American Southwest (Kelley 1974, 1986:82-83, 1995; McGuire 1980; F. Plog
et aL 1982). Shell and shell ornaments from the Pacific Coast of West Mexico occur in
the archaeological record of the Southwest, beginning as early as A.D. 150 at Hohokam
sites (Bradley 1993; Cordell 1984; Ferdon 1955; McGuire 1980, 1986, 1993:96; F. Plog
1974).
Exported Goods
The Jalisco highlands contain many natural resources used by early Teuchitten
peoples for exchange. These include materials that survive in the archaeological record,
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such as rocks, minerals, and pottery, and less durable products, like textiles, foods and
organic goods, that do not Archaeological data that support the reconstruction o f a Late
Preclassic Period regional exchange network are reviewed here.
Obsidian. Of the resources available in the Tequila valleys, none is more apparent
in the archaeological record than the high quality obsidian. Although data do not currently
exist that support widespread export o f Tequila obsidian during the Late Preclassic Period,
pieces o f volcanic glass found in coastal burials have been visually identified as the red
obsidian from Tequila Volcano (Mountjoy 1978:125,1995:80). Chemical identification o f
these obsidian pieces is under analysis (Joseph Mountjoy, personal communication 1996).
The rarity and restricted context o f the red obsidian objects suggest that, early on, the
Tequila obsidian was exchanged as gifts rather than serving as a major export commodity.
The importance o f Tequila obsidian in regional exchange did intensify in the
Classic Period, and peaked as a commodity in the Postclassic Period. Trace analysis
studies indicate that the primary market for the Tequila obsidian existed on the Pacific
Coast (Darling 1993; Weigand and Spence 1982, 1990; Zeitlin and Heimbuch 1978).
One study found, for example, that obsidian tools at the large, inland sites o f La Quemada
and Totoate, dating from AX). 400 to 800, derived from local sources, not from the
Tequila Volcano obsidian (Trombold et aL 1990).
By the Postclassic Period, tools made from the La Joya source o f Tequila obsidian
occur at the Aztatlan coastal sites o f Amapa, San Bias, Culiacan, and Guasave (Weigand
and Spence 1990:210). Weigand and Spence (1990:210-211) suggest that these came
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission o f the copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout perm ission.
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directly from the island site o f Las Cuevas in Lake Magdalena (see Lumhoitz 1902:1:315).
Sherds from the Pacific Coast and from the Rio Grande Valley o f New Mexico, and
turquoise from the American Southwest found at Las Cuevas (Weigand and Spence 1990)
help to delimit the late regional trade along and beyond the Rio Santiago corridor.
Mineralogical Specimens.
The mountainous zones o f the West Mexican
highlands contain colorful minerals o f malachite, azurite, opals, ochres, and pyrite. These
sources also provide substantive evidence for prehispanic trade (Hosier 1994:21; Weigand
1974). Small, worked mineralogical specimens were not only rare but their non-perishable
and portable qualities encouraged their exchange and gift giving. Quartz crystals, highly
valued today by the Huichol as emblematic o f the ancestors (Perrin 1996:408, 421), occur
in the area (Weigand and Spence 1990:211). On the Pacific Coast, burials that date from
200 B.C. to A D . 500 contain artifacts made from highland resources, including
mineralogical specimens, quartz crystals, red obsidian tools, and fine ceramic vessels
(Mountjoy 1978:125,1995:80; Weigand 1989:43).
Ceramic Wares. Data exist to support the notion that the fine polychrome
ceramic wares and figures made by artists o f the West Mexican highlands were exchanged
locally and regionally during the Late Preclassic Period. The local exchange o f ceramic
figures, objects that cannot be transported easily for great distances, is detected in the
pervasive pattern o f mixed figurine styles found in many West Mexican shaft tombs.
Although scholars have suggested an exchange o f figures (P. Furst 1966:240-260;
Long 1966b; Weigand 1974:127), it is also possible that West Mexican leaders gave
108
pottery as gifts to commemorate a specific feast or a political alliance, as did Maya

hosts (McAnany 1995:32-33).
Because o f the extreme looting which marks the
uncontrolled recovery o f ceramic art from most shaft tombs, the exact movement o f
ceramic goods is not yet established (Aronson 1993).
Evidence for the regional export o f pottery vessels from the West Mexican
highlands during the Late Preclassic Period is found at sites along the Pacific Coast.
Sherds are found from the finest ceramic wares that were made in the highlands, although
specific source areas are not currently known.
At Amapa in Nayarit, excavations
uncovered Late Preclassic Period sherds from finely made highland wares (Bell 1960). In
the vicinity o f San Bias, a sudden influx o f highland ceramics at 20 o f 46 investigated sites,
dating from 200 B.C. to A.D. 500, indicates the importation o f fine ceramic wares
(Mountjoy 1970, 1974, 1978:125, 1995:80). Meighans (1972) excavations at Morett
found sherds from the fine ceramics o f highland Colima that flirt her substantiate the use o f
ceramic wares for regional exchange during the Late Preclassic Period.
Agave Products.
If, as my study has proposed, the early inhabitants o f the
Tequila valleys used Agave tequilana to make a variety o f products, then they may
also have traded some agave products. My interpretation is strengthened by the
evidence from the Aztec tribute lists. Tarascan tribute to the Aztec clearly indicates
that agave products made in West Mexico were valued and exchanged
prehispanically.
For the Late Preclassic Period peoples, textiles, food, and drink were possible
109
agave based export items. The presence o f spindle whorls in Late Preclassic Period
shaft tombs m the Tequila valleys is testimony that agave and/ or cotton fibers
presumably for textile production were made locally. Fine textiles, woven from the
delicate agave fibers, would have been valued gifts, as would have products like
baskets, mats, nets, and rope, made from coarse agave fibers. The sun dried agave
cakes, or the sweet mescal cakes that the Tarahumara make for exchange, could have
been prepared from the tequila agave plant and also traded.
Due to heavy transport and spoilage, the exchange o f pulque or mescal
beverages would have been highly localized. Litzinger (1983:32) notes that aguamiel
can be reduced to a potent syrup called pulque amarillo. Before consumption, it is
mixed with water.
The syrup is more easily transported than fresh pulque.
Its
transport allows pulque consumption in places where the agave plants do not grow.
In his ethnohistoric research, Weigand (1985b:141) ascertained that the
Nayarita, the indigenous people occupying highland Nayarit after the Conquest,
exported mescal. Interestingly, Parsons and Parsons (1990:349) speculate that agave
drinks may have been transported prehispanically by canoes in the Central Mexican
lake districts.
Viewed from the Tequila valleys, it is possible to imagine visiting
groups coming to the shores o f Lake Magdalena or directly to Teuchitlan

communities to imbibe.
These ethnohistoric accounts o f agave use allow the
supposition that Late Preclassic Period peoples o f the Tequila valleys may have traded
a variety o f agave products.
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Imported Goods
Assemblages o f non-local materials found in shaft tombs o f the Teuchitlan

Tradition add to the reconstruction o f an active exchange and gift giving network during
the Late Preclassic Period. The source o f foreign goods is speculative in some cases, but
in others, known source locations help to further delimit a sphere o f regional interaction
for the Teuchitlan people. Perishable imports probably included rare foods, dyes,
textiles, furs, and feathers.
In the archaeological record, the distribution and
exclusivity o f engraved and cloisonne shell trumpets, slate mirror backs, shell
bracelets, and worked pieces o f greenstone refine the extent o f each players influence
and importance on a regional West Mexican network.
One can reflect upon the
public displays of wealth that would have conferred status to the owner in life and to
his kin group at his death.
Greenstone. Several types o f non-local chalchihuites, or greenstones, carved into
beads and figurines, found their way into the shaft tombs o f the Tequila valleys. Bright
green jade beads and jade carvings occur in small quantities in the shaft tombs around
Tequila Volcano. The bright color o f the jade suggests the Sierra de las Minas jade source
in Guatemala. Jane Day (personal communication 1996) also notes that some of the
bright green jade pieces from the West Mexican shaft tombs are finely made, and show
similarity to the high quality o f jade craftsmanship known from prehistoric Costa Rica.
More common in the Teuchitlan shaft tombs are mirror backs and pendants carved
Ill
from serpentines and grayish green slates from the Pacific Coast o f Jalisco (Mountjoy
1995:81). Another greenstone, one that is a dark blue-green jade, is also commonly found
in Teuchitlan shaft tombs. This dark greenstone probably comes from an unknown source
along the southern coast o f Guerrero in Western Mexico. It is believed that the early
Olmec first exploited the proposed western source o f greenstone for producing small,
portable carvings. The actual location or outcrop o f the dark blue-green jade in Guerrero
remains unknown (Gay 1972; Gay and Pratt 1992; Jones 1987).
Although the Late Preclassic Period offering of greenstone beads and carvings
appears to be restricted to shaft tomb burials (e.g., Lange and Bishop 1988:73), it is
disconcerting that looters have effectively eliminated our ability to know the actual
distribution, quantity, and prevalence o f the valued greenstone in West Mexican burials.
This factor, combined with the lack o f information on the Guerrero source, has
undoubtedly exacerbated the lack o f scholarly works on the West Mexican jades and other
chalchihuites discovered in shaft tombs.
Turquoise. A few shaft tombs reportedly contain pieces o f imported turquoise
(Harbottle and Weigand 1992; Weigand and Harbottle 1993:160,172). Turquoise may
have come from Cerriflos, New Mexico, where it was mined and traded as early as A D .
200 (Karasik 1993; Kelley and Kelley 1975:186; Weigand et aL 1977). Local sources for
turquoise do not exist, although the ancient mining zones of the Sierra de Ameca contain
turquoise-colored stones, such as cuprite and malachite, that occur in Teuchitlan shaft
tombs.
112
Coastal Resources. The Pacific coastal environment produces many resources

exotic to the Tequila Volcano highlands, such as shell, pearls, tropical plumage and foods.
Evidence for prehispanic trade o f feathers or foods has not survived in Teuchitlan shaft
tombs. However, the abundant shell artifacts that occur bear witness to the import of
coastal goods to the Tequila valleys during the Late Preclassic Period- Ornaments made
from clam, oyster and conch shell are the predominant marine exotics appearing in
highland shaft tombs (Long 1966a, 1966b). The single known Late Preclassic Period shell
working site in coastal West Mexico is near Puerto Vallarta (Mountjoy 1995:72), and is a
possible source for the worked shell ornaments. In addition to ornaments made from
shell, specimens o f pearls, Sportdylus shell, and conch shell appear in West Mexico.
Lustrous pearls come from several Pacific oyster species, although their
occurrence in the shaft tomb record is rare. According to Otto Schondube (personal
communication 1993), one shaft tomb in highland Colima, dating to A D . 300, contained
pearls, and a mask made o f mother o f pearl (see also Mountjoy 1995:77). The pearls
were probably harvested from the Sea o f Cortez.
Spondylus princeps shell, prized among societies o f prehispanic South America
since 3000 B.C. (Cordy-Collins 1990:395), thrives in discontinuous pockets o f warm
water in the Pacific Ocean from Ecuador to the Sea o f Cortez (Hosier 1994:102).
Scholars suggest that the search for the Spondylus shell, a purple colored thorny oyster,
attracted prehispanic South American traders to reach the warm waters off West Mexico
(Cordy-Collins 1990,1994; Hosier 1994:102-103).
i
ii
i
i
II
113
Aztec tribute lists indicate that Spondylus princeps was collected from residents of
Cihuatlan, a Late Postclassic Period village on the West Mexican coast (Anawalt 1997:
52). However, given the High regard paid to the Spondylus shell by ancient Andean
peoples, worked pieces o f the shell are found infrequently in shaft tombs, and restricted
primarily to those in the Colima area. Nor apparently is the Spondylus shell modeled in
the ceramic art, as are other types o f shell, such as the conch.
Conch shell, natural or worked into trumpets and jewelry, was a popular offering
in the Tequila valley shaft tombs. Most o f the conch found in Teuchitlan shaft tombs,
sometimes in great quantities, was a Caribbean conch species (P. Furst 1966; Kelley
1995:125). The Caribbean conch fixes the eastern extent o f exchange possibilities, either
directly or through intermediaries, for Late Preclassic Period peoples o f West Mexico
(Long 1966b:48,51). The waters o f the Pacific Ocean sustained at least one species o f
conch, Strombus peruanus, found, although in lesser frequencies, in highland shaft tombs
(Mountjoy 1995:72).
Conch shell had significance throughout Mesoamerica.
The
mortuary offering o f conch shell by West and Northwest Mexican peoples was probably
related to themes o f fertility and rebirth (Ellis 1981; Graham 1989; Hayden and Gargett
1990; Kelley 1995:125; Ramos de la Vega and Camberos Mestas Lopez 1996).
Exchange with South America
No hard data exist that the Late Preclassic Period peoples o f the Tequila Volcano
114
region interacted with Andean peoples far to the south.
However, a proposal by
Gonsalves de Lima (1990) that West Mexican mescal producing technologies were
exchanged to South America (see below) may implicate the prehispanic people o f the
Tequila valleys, and deserve further attention in a discussion o f long distance trade.
Familiarity with ocean transport facilitated a long term, diachronic relationship
among peoples o f West Mexico and o f the northern coast o f South America that began in
the Preclassic Period (Anawalt 1992, 1993, 1997; M. Coe 1960; Hosier 1994; Long
1966a, 1966b:57-58; Meighan 1969; Moseley 1975; Mountjoy 1970; Pollard 1993b; West
1961). The list o f similar cultural traits, which includes shaft tombs, house models,
hairless dogs, and early metallurgy, shared by prehispanic peoples o f West Mexico and
South America is well known.
Historic documents substantiate the existence o f a mercantile system operating
along the Pacific Coast o f the Americas prior to the Spanish Conquest (see Anawalt 1997;
Cordy-Collins 1990:408; Hosier 1994:103; RosofF 1985). In 1525, a Spanish accountant
recorded a history o f long-distance trade for the inhabitants o f Zacatula, a coastal town
located at the mouth o f the Rio Balsas in western Mexico (West 1961:131):
The Indians o f the Zacatula coast sa y that often th ey heard
their fa th ers and grandfathers relate that from tim e to tim e Indians
from certain islan ds toward the south, w hich th ey point to, w ould
come to th is coast in large canoes, and th ey brought there
exquisite things w hich th ey w ould trade fo r local products.
Certainty, metallurgy, as objects and technologies, was introduced from South
America to Mesoamerica via the Tarascans o f Michoacan (Brand 1971; Corona Nunez
115
1957; Gorenstein 1985; Pollard 1993a, 1994), and from coastal West Mexico (Hosier
1994). Indigenously made copper objects first appear in West Mexico by A.D. 600
(Hosier 1988, 1994:45; Hosier et aL 1990; Kelly 1985; Meighan 1969; Mountjoy 1969;
Mountjoy and Torres 1985; Pendergast 1962). Anawalt (1997) speculates that the South
American merchants may also have brought exquisite textiles and garments woven from
fibers spun from llama and alpaca fur, and returned home in their balsa rafts with a variety
o f West Mexican products.
Export products from West Mexico may have included, in addition to the
Spondylus shell, foods for the voyage home. These stocks may have consisted o f a supply
o f hairless and edible dogs, as presented by Cordy-Collins (1994), and agave goods,
proposed here.
Exportable agave foods that could have been produced in the region o f
Tequila Volcano include the sun dried and cheese-like cakes, the concentrated pulque
amarillo, and the dried and ground agave powder. In addition, highland peoples may
have exchanged their technologies for producing agave beverages to South American
traders. This possibility has been proposed by Gonsalves de Lima (1978, 1990:54),
who considers the prehispanic methods o f agave processing recorded for Jalisco and
areas o f northern South America as strikingly similar. Goncpalves de Lima (1990:5457) cites a 1548 document from the Spanish Conquest o f South America (Oviedo
1548: VH, Cap. XXII; lib. XI, Cap. X and XI), to assert that native South American
peoples had the same technology that is used today in Jalisco, Mexico to prepare the
116
fermented sap from which tequila is distilled.6 The prospect o f prehispanic exchange
involving West Mexican agave products and related technologies to northern coastal
South American peoples, although intriguing, requires substantially more investigation.
SUMMARY
This chapter has reviewed the physical setting and prehispanic occupation o f the
Tequila Volcano region of Jalisco. The settlement prehistory of the Teuchitlan people was
discussed in order to establish a cultural framework for my study o f the Huitzilapa area.
Next, funerary practices o f early West Mexican peoples revealed a pervasive social and
sacred belief in honoring the dead and recognizing the ancestors. Lastly, evidence that
early groups participated in feasting strategies focused on the wild Agave tequilana Weber
for food and drink, and the exchange o f goods in a regional network. These discussions
provide a context for the ceramic art o f the Late Preclassic Period, examined next, and
guide interpretations o f the Late Preclassic Period community of Huitzilapa.
6 ...a un pueblo costero sugamericano (Tierra Firmed), en regi6n arida, que utilizaba una
especie de agave del que obtenfa savia por la misma tecnica aun hoy utilizada en Jalisco, Mexico
para la preparacidn de la savia fermentada de la que se destila tequila... (cited in Gonsalves de
Lima 1990:54, translated by Butterwick).
CHAPTER m
WEST MEXICAN CERAMIC ARCHITECTURAL MODELS
Observations regarding shaft tomb burials and mortuary rituals confirm that
ancestor veneration was fundamental to West Mexican societies during the Late Preclassic
Period. This chapter identifies the translation o f those beliefs into a Late Preclassic Period
art form. My premise is that West Mexican ceramic architectural models portray the
underground world of the dead and accompanying social rituals. I argue that these themes
are communicated in West Mexican architectural models by the depiction o f underground
chambers, tombs, a sequence o f funerary rites, and the zoomorphic figurines o f the
underworld. This possibility is reinforced by the accompanying anthropomorphic figures
that may portray the dead, pairs o f founding ancestors, and kin groups comprised o f the
living and the dead. The art of consumption, and the depictions o f feeding the dead are
deciphered in Chapter IV.
The social theme o f this chapter accords with Hasso von Winnings claim
(1974:82) that the ceramic human figures o f the shaft tomb complex are
emphatically representative o f the living, because in descent based societies, the
ancestors spirits continue to live. The dead retain their place in the kinship structure
and in society. The dead spirits live like they had on earth, and thus were buried
with the instruments, utensils, and insignia o f their earthly status (Nutini 1988:71).
118
My study of the West Mexican ceramic architectural models will show that early
artists employed a variety o f artistic devices to portray the ancestors, their
descendents who revered them, their kin groups, and their physical setting.
PREHISPANIC TRADITIONS OF MODELING ARCHITECTURE
The West Mexican architectural models belong to a prehispanic tradition of

rendering architecture in clay and stone (e.g., Estrada and Meggers 1961; Fischer 1961;
Gay 1987; Wiessner 1990). From the Middle Preclassic Period to the Postclassic Period,
artists from Central Mexico, West Mexico, Oaxaca, the Maya area, and the Andes made
small architectural or house models.
The West Mexican ceramic models have been
appraised mainly as representations o f domiciles showing everyday life (Meighan and

Nicholson 1989:58 ; M. Miller 1986:57; Stem 1973:20), whereas the architectural models
made by some other indigenous peoples are regarded as renderings of a sacred landscape
(Houston 1994; McAnany 1994). My study confirms that West Mexican house models
belong to the same prehispanic tradition o f modeling architecture, and that they too
convey sacred and ritual themes. Architectural models were one medium in which artists
could render the physical place o f the ancestors, the underground (McAnany 1994:14;
A. Miller 1986:37). The artistic use o f the house to signify sacred themes associated with
the underworld, or a tomb, coincides with ethnographic accounts. Houston (1994:15)
proposes that indigenous peoples referred to tombs as houses, to houses o f the dead as
119
true houses, and to the domicile as the, everlasting home o f ones own ancestors.
Like the Hopi who go to the House o f the God of Death (Stephen 1936:150-151, cited in
Furst 1975:66): the dead go to the lower stage or story where the houses are as those we
live in. The plan of the house was brought from the underworld and what is called dying
is a return to the early house.
A variety of prehispanic architectural models look like everyday Mesoamerican
houses with thatch roofs and small low platform foundations. Interpretations of these
house models, however, demonstrate that they depict sacred, religious, or ritual space.
The models represent homes or sleeping places of a god (Houston 1994:15), houses
for the hereafter (Jones 1987), a funerary symbol (Benson 1975:134), or temple or
altar models (Heyden and Gendrop 1973). Prehispanic artists conveyed the sacred or
ritual themes within the constraints o f ceramic models by using architectural, symbolic,
and figural elements. For example, stone models from Oaxaca communicate religious
space by miniaturizing the stepped colonnade architecture o f ancient Zapotec temples
(Figure 3.1a) (Heyden and Gendrop 1973: Figures 94, 95). Inside another Zapotec model
from Monte Alban, a bird representing the Sun God, restates the sacred theme.
The Mezcala stone architectural sculptures from Guerrero are said to represent
ancient ritual structures. While some o f the small stone Mezcala sculptures are plain, deity
figures on others designate them as shrines, tombs, or god houses (Figure 3.1b) (Gay
1972, 1987; Gay and Pratt 1992; Houston 1994; M. Miller 1986: 58-59; Williams 1992).
The modem label houses for the hereafter (Jones 1987) expresses the funerary context
120
Figure 3.1a. Zapotec temple models from Monte Alban, Oaxaca

(from Heyden and Gendrop 1973: Plates 95, 94; no dimensions available).
Figure 3. lb. Mezcala stone temple model, h=12 cm

(fromM. Coe 1984: Figure 28).
121
and sacred meaning o f the Mezcala stone sculptures.

Excavations at Copan, a Classic Maya site in Honduras, uncovered three stone
house models (Figure 3.2) (Andrews and Fash 1992). The divine or royalty figures carved
into the facades o f the house models symbolize their sacred meaning. The decipherment
of the inscribed hieroglyphs on one Copan model as, sleeping places o f the god
(Houston 1994:15) reveals further the religious message contained in the Maya models.
Figure 3.2. Stone house o f a god o f the Classic Maya o f Copan, h-50 cm
(from Andrews and Fash 1992: Figures 16, 17).
122
Moche artists of South America also made ceramic architectural models with
enshrined deity figures that signal their portrayal o f a sacred landscape (Figure 3.3)
(Benson 1972). Elizabeth Benson (1975:134) suggests that the simple or basic pottery
house models made by the Moche served as funerary symbols.
Figure 3.3. Moche ceramic vessel with model o f altar with feline deity figure
(from Benson 1972: Figure 2.20, no dimensions available).
123
Using architectural details (Figure 3.4), and deity icons (Figure 3.5), Mexican
artists of the Postclassic Period also encoded sacred meaning in the medium of
architectural models. Dating from AJD. 1300 to the Conquest Period, artists from
Amapa in Nayarit, Tenango del Valle and other primarily Aztec sites in the Basin of
Figure 3.4. Postclassic Period round ceramic temples symbolize the god Quetzalcoatl
(top from Pollock 1936: Figure 8a, b, h=l 1-12 cm; lower from Meighan 1976:
Plate 13, h=22 cm; see Heyden and Gendrop 1973: Figures 298, 60).
124
Figure 3.5. Aztec architectural models with deity icons o f Quetzalcoatl and
Xipe Totec (from Heyden and Gendrop 1973: left to right,
Figure 297, Figure 296 h=32.5 cm, and Figure 301).
125
Mexico, created pottery architectural models in the whirling, circular form o f Ehecati, the
Wind guise of Quetzalcoatl (Leon-Portillo 1971). These small ceramic models have a
central staircase, round shape, and roof comb (Meighan 1976:41-43, Plate 13; Pollock
1936:24, Figures 8-11; Wardle 1912). Masks o f Quetzalcoatl and Xipe Totec further
express the religious meaning o f other Aztec three dimensional architectural models (Day
1992:41; Heyden and Gendrop 1973).
The portrayal of sacred buildings has also been suggested for a group o f plain
models that lacks the communicative powers o f figural and architectural elements. Plain
and empty prehispanic house models may represent sacred space that is characterized by
the, general lack o f human traffic on such structures (Houston 1994:4). One o f these is
the earliest architectural model known from Mesoamerica. Found at the site o f Tlatilco in
Central Mexico, this plain model dates to the Middle Preclassic Period (Figure 3.6).
(\
I.
Figure 3.6. Clay architectural model

from Tlatilco, Mexico
(from M. Coe 1965a:
Figure 80, h=21.5 cm).
!
j
j
j
126
Plain models, representing singular houses or clusters of buildings, made by

Colima artists during the Late Preclassic Period, may convey ritual meaning in their
functional attributes (Day et al. 1996:153-158). Some are vessels for drinking or storing
liquid (Figures 3.7, 3.8), and others, with burnt interior residues, have the shape o f an
incense burner lid (Figure 3.9). That the vessel and lid architectural models come from
Colima shaft tombs indicates their use in funerary rituals.
Figure 3.7. Abstract Colima architectural model for drinking or storing Squids, h=19 cm
(from Gallagher 1983:Figure 108).
Figure 3.8. Abstract Colima architectural models of building groups,

made in vessel form (from Day et al. 1996: Figure 10; Denver Museum
of Natural History, left, AC # 9265 h=10 cm, and right, AC # 8199 h=8.5 cm).
Figure 3.9. Abstract Colima architectural models used as incense burner lids
(National Museum o f the American Indian, left # 23/8590 h=14 cm,
and right # 23/651 h=23 cm).
128
Artists of Andean South America also made plain ceramic architectural models
from approximately A. D. I to 500 (Benson 1972; Stone-Miller 1995). In one example
(Figure 3.10), Andean artists used architectural details and painted designs that may
suggest a sacred landscape.
Figure 3.10. Top portion of prehispanic ceramic vessel with model of plain
architecture from the Moche people o f Andean South America
(from Benson 1972: Figure 5.5, no dimensions available).
Alternatively, the plain and unoccupied models may have been furnished with
perishable objects that gave them meaning, like a modem doll house.1 An account from
the Tarahumara illustrates this option. According to Robert Zingg (1935:98), a pastime
1Barbara Voorhies (personal communication 1997) suggested this alternative explanation

for empty architectural models.
129
of Tarahumara children was to recreate in miniature, the most common recreation
of
the grown-ups, the tesguuiades [drinking feasts], using dolls made of sticks and leaves,
and cup-shaped bases of acoms for tesgumo pots.
The children staged the event
underneath a rock overhang which mimicked a cave setting. That the play involved the
enactment of ritual consumption is a suggestive commentary.
In the last type of ceramic house models, the portrayal of human figures enacting
rituals communicates a sacred meaning (Figure 3.11). The religious significance of some
Moche architectural models is conveyed in the depiction of curing and shamanic acts
(Figure 3.13) (Benson 1972: Figure 5.7; Stone-Miller 1995: Figures 71, 74; Valdez 1992:
Figures 4, 5). All of the West Mexican ceramic models that comprise my study sample
have attached human figurines that primarily portray the enactment of mortuary rituals,
and in architectural details, they communicate the sacred realm of the underworld. Like
the corpus of prehispanic architectural models, the sacred landscapes, meanings and rituals
from the Late Preclassic Period are contained and decipherable in architectural, figurine,
and iconographic elements of the West Mexican architectural models.
Using tempered clay, early West Mexican artists combined techniques of slab
construction and rolled fillet to hand model the sculptures.
They attached all the
architectural and figurine elements, then applied cream or red slips to the models prior to
low firing. Beautifully painted in a palette o f black, browns, white cream, and red and
yellow ochres, the West Mexican ceramic architectural models reflect a rich variety of
styles and artistry. The roofs alone are fantastic, reminiscent of the elaborate roof combs
130
Figure 3.11. West Mexican ceramic model with figural and architectural elements
h=33.4 cm (Denver Museum of Natural History, AC #7288, see Record No. 4).
I
of Maya temples,2 with distinctive shapes, painted in complex designs, and a few topped
with animals (Figure 3.12). West Mexican house models are more numerous than those
made by other prehispanic groups, they have a relatively early Late Preclassic Period age,
and they are finely crafted with attention to detail. These factors reveal the creativity and
originality of West Mexican artists to convey sacred space, the underworld, and mortuary
rituals using ceramic architectural models.
Figure 3.12. Roof shapes and painted designs on West Mexican ceramic models.
Left, examples of saddled roof shapes and designs (from von Winning
1972a: Figure 5); right, pyramidal shaped roofs (by Butterwick).
2 John E. Clark, in 1994, commented on the similarity between the house model roof
designs and the Maya roof combs.
Figure 3.13. Top portion of Moche ceramic vessel with model of architecture
and shaman curing scene (from Benson 1972: Fig. 5.7, no dimensions available).
FORMULATING THE STUDY SAMPLE
The artistic focus of my study is the West Mexican ceramic house models with
figurines that date to the Late Preclassic Period. My initial examination of four house
models (Butterwick 1991) confirmed for me that they embodied coded information about
ancient West Mexican culture. Weigands (1985a:48, 52, 69) view that they had potential
133
for making sociopolitical interpretations, and a richness in detail that allowed the art
to serve as ethnographic documents encouraged me to proceed with the current study.
In a literature search, I attempted to identify every West Mexican ceramic model,
and to locate those in public collections (per Wylie 1995). The comprehensive search
documented nearly 50 models in numerous publications (Baltimore Museum o f Art 1958;
Bell 1971; Bernal et al. 1968; Bettleheim 1975; Cervantes 1978; Cleveland Art Museum
1992; Cornell University 1966; Couch 1988; Dwyer and Dwyer 1975a; Easby 1966;
Easby and Scott 1970; P. Furst 1973, 1975, 1978; Gallagher 1983; Griffin 1990; Heyden
and Gendrop 1973; Ithaca College 1970; H. Johnson 1992; Kan et al. 1989; Kubler 1986;
Leymann 1964; McVicker 1992; Mangino Tazzer 1990; Marquina 1964; Medioni and
Pinto 1941; Moreno de Tagle 1965; Nicholson and Cordy-Collins 1979; L. Parsons 1980;
Petersen 1973; Pina Chan 1959; Pollock 1936; Stem 1973; Taube 1988; Toscano et al.
1946; von Winning 1959, 1968, 1971, 1972a, 1994; von Winning and Hammer 1972;
von Winning and Stendahl 1968; Wardle 1912; Wilk and Ashmore 1988: title page).
Several ceramic models are published repeatedly (see Record No.56) without
reference to prior publications. Twenty of the models in the study sample have, to my
knowledge, not been published (see Record Nos. 2, 3, 46, 47). To guide my search, I
relied on the scholarship o f Hasso von Winning (1959, 1968, 1971, 1972a, 1994), and
used one of his exhibition catalogs (von Winning and Hammer 1972) as a basic reference.
Since the 1950s, von Winning has cataloged, inspected, published, and kept personal files
on most extant West Mexican house models.
134
During a two year search period, I attempted to locate every published and
unpublished authentic West Mexican model. That a majority of models reside in private
collections made it difficult for me to include them in the analysis. In the von Winning and
Hammer (1972) compilation, for example, only 12 of the 41 house models are in museums
and available for public view. However, the need to examine a large sample for my
analysis, resulted in my contacting 220 museums, and by that means, locating another 51
architectural models with public access. During that research phase, I traveled to nineteen
museums in America and Mexico to personally examine the curated models. Another 35
ceramic models are known only from photographs and from other scholars who have
shared with me their documentation of models held by private collectors. Ultimately, my
study identified 98 West Mexican house models in public, private, or unknown venues. In
my judgement, 16 of these models either were fakes, heavily restored, or from other
regions of the Americas, and these were excluded from the study sample.
The resultant sample of 82 house models consists of those that are probably
authentic, and of them, 36 specimens were personally examined. Appendix A is a catalog
of the ceramic model study sample, with a photograph or drawing, floor plan, description,
location, publication, and other relevant data for each model. Other West Mexican
ceramic models of the built environment that were examined in museums include six
village scenes, three ballcourt scenes with figurines, five Colima architectural models in the
vessel shape, and numerous Colima models shaped like lids or incense burners (Figure
135
3.9). They, and other West Mexican ceramic art, are discussed as they relate specifically
to themes under discussion, but are not included in the study sample or data base.
Identifying Provenience
Determining geographic sources of origin for looted West Mexican artifacts,

types, and styles is far from an exact science. Collections are filled with the booty of
generations of pot-hunters who have systematically emptied hundreds o f shaft tombs. As
early as 1896, Lumholtz (1902) witnessed the looting of ceramic figures from shaft tombs
near Ixtlan del Rio, Nayarit. Peter Furst (1973:99-100) cites recovery o f West Mexican
ceramic figures, dating to a 1722 church construction project in Guadalajara. Scholars
estimate that at least a few hundred (Meighan and Nicholson 1989:42) to over 8,000
(Weigand 1974:120) individual large ceramic figures have been looted from the chambers
of well stocked shaft tombs. The ceramic models represent part of the looted booty, all
denied a scientific and cultural context (Diehl 1976:278). What little information exists
about house model provenience comes from two lines of evidence: stylistic grounds, and
archaeological evidence brought to bear on the problem.
Using stylistic and artistic criteria, provenience for the ceramic house models is
generally attributed to the southern Nayarit region of Ixtlan del Rio (Day et al. 1996:154155; von Winning 1972a-17, 1974:7; Gallagher 1983:108), an archaeological zone
discussed in earlier chapters. Extensive and prolonged looting of Late Preclassic Period
136
shaft tombs in the Ixtlan del Rio region has resulted in the use of the term Ixtlan del Rio as
both an artistic style and a provenience (see Meighan and Nicholson 1989:56). The
corpus of ceramic figural art attributed to southern Nayarit is extremely variable as well as
artistically exceptional (Kan I989:20ff, von Winning 1974:22ff).
Art historians
characterize both the large, hollow ceramic figures and the detailed, solid ceramic models
of houses, ballcourts, village scenes, and other clay vignettes with figurines as the southern
NayaritIxtlan del Rio regional style.
Other broad regional styles in West Mexico are Jalisco and Colima, each with
subdivisions named for geographic locales, such as the figurine types called San Sebastian
or El Arenal. Scholars agree that the geographically-derived style names from Nayarit and
Jalisco are misleading, because in reality the styles, whose names denote provenience, are
found together in the tombs (von Winning 1974:17-18,30; Weigand 1974:123). Further,
no archaeological remains indicative of ceramic figurine production have ever
been
identified (Aronson 1993). The stylistic nomenclature has contributed to confusion in the
classification of West Mexican ceramic figures. Michael Kan (1989:19) is explicit that the
ceramic art subdivisions o f southern Nayarit, Jalisco and Colima refer to stylistic traits and
do not connote geographic origins.
References to the recovery of ceramic architectural models in primary deposits
help to establish their chronological and geographic placement. At Las Cebollas in
southern Nayarit, looters told Peter Furst that they had found a ceramic house model, of
the general type familiar from Nayarit but differing to some degree in style in the shaft
137
tomb (P. Furst 1966:85). Sifting though the leftovers, Furst found fragments of small
figurines with basal breaks that supported the looters claim that a house model had been
interred in the Las Cebollas shaft tomb, dated to AX). 100.
In the highlands of Jalisco, Weigand (1974) has identified fragments of ceramic
architectural models during surface surveys at Late Preclassic Period sites. One house
model was reportedly found in a shaft tomb near the modem Jalisco/ Colima border.
Diego Delgado (1969) opened a chamber in San Miguel Tonaya that contained a house
model and a Colima style ceramic figure (von Winning 1974:11; Meighan and Nicholson
1989:38).
These few reports of primary discovery of ceramic architectural models
confirm that at least some were originally placed in chambers of shaft tombs, and that the
models date to the El Arenal phase of shaft tomb building (300 B.C. to A.D. 200).
Recognizing Forgeries and Reconstruction
A challenge to researching West Mexican ceramic models involves authenticating

each model and each pottery element. Forgery of prehispanic art began immediately after
the Spanish Conquest (von Winning 1974:76) with a demand in the Old World for objects
from the New. The popularization of West Mexican art that began in the 1940s (P. Furst
1973:100), created an appetite for ceramic artifacts that renewed looters fervor and their
blatant destruction of sites. The art o f forgery was transformed from a cottage industry to
big business. Since the 1950s, factories in Guadalajara have continued the production of
138
massive quantities of new West Mexican ceramic art (Meighan and Nicholson 1989:41).
Fakes and heavily reconstructed pieces have found their way, inadvertently or not, into
museum and private collections of prehispanic art (Day et al. 1996:157-158; G. Ekholm
1964; Meighan and Nicholson 1989:40-41; M Miller 1986:54; Pickering 1997; von
Winning 1974:76-79).
Established methods in the fields of museology and art history help scholars
recognize fake West Mexican models. The history of a piece is documented by a paper
trail that tracks its acquisition and placement in a collection. Scholars believe that the
longer a prehispanic artifact has been in collections, the more likely it is authentic. Any
piece is suspect if it was accessioned after the international treaties of the 1960s, that
protect a nations claim to its cultural heritage. Only a physical examination of the ceramic
models can discern subtle elements diagnostic of expert forgeries (Meighan and Nicholson
1989:41). My own familiarity with prehispanic collections and with ceramic models in
particular has enhanced my ability to detect nuances of reconstruction and forgery.
Consultation with colleagues, conservators and curators has informed and guided many of
my decisions regarding the West Mexican models and the integrity of the data that I have
collected.
Luckily for scholarship, most forgers are not master artists. Inconsistencies in the
artistry of unusual and incongruous elements, called fanciful fabrications by one expert
(von Winning 1974:76), trigger the recognition of modem replicas (see also Mountjoy
1991b). In fake models the presence of innovative architectural traits, such as doorways,
139
windows, and ledges are modeled in suspect ways. The heavy weight and cumbersome
appearance may expose a fake: the drooping roof seems to sag from the weight of
inappropriate clays or poor modeling techniques.
Frequently, the figurines and
architectural elements on forgeries look unnatural and out o f proportion, in one instance
with birds that are larger than the human figurines. A pack of dogs howl as if under a full
moon on one questionable model. Appendages on fake figurines are rendered in a rubbery
and curvaceous manner, sometimes with exaggerated hand postures. The plasticity and
posturing of hands on fake pieces are inconsistent with modeling techniques of ancient
appendages.
In some instances, ceramic models strongly resemble one another (see
Record Nos. 57, 58, and 69).
In the rare case o f duplicate models, the replica is
discernible from the authentic model by its inferior craftsmanship.

Equally damaging to a models integrity, and more difficult to discern, are bogus
figurines, both ancient or modem, that are added to the original scene (Day et al.
1996:155-156). Criteria used to discern an original from an added figure are that an
added figure may appear o f disproportionate size that differs from the norm (figurines in
the models tend toward equivalent dimensions); it may exhibit incongruities in poses, or in
the area of attachment to the slab, or in the modeling techniques.
Under ultraviolet
examination, the material composition of the added figurine is different from that of other
figures. In authentic ceramic models the hand of a single artist is discernible. That is,
figural elements evince a consistent manufacturing technique and style.
140
The authenticity of the polychrome painting of patterns and designs on the house
models is another area of concern. Painted designs or designs applied in a resist technique
once covered the walls, roofs and stairs of many ceramic models. Modem restorers alter
the surfaces, in some cases darkening and repainting original designs, and in other cases
painting new patterns where none originally existed. Although I can at times recognize
the modem paint or design pattern, there is no independent means of assessment. For this
reason, I have de-emphasized the painted designs in my analysis at least until the problem
of authenticity can be addressed more effectively.
The architectural models, with fragile low fired figurines and inherent structural
weaknesses, are especially vulnerable to damage which later invites repairs and
reconstruction. Often the frame of the model requires extensive repair along the basal
platform, roof and vertical house walls, in order to maintain structural integrity.
Common, too, are basal breaks on the figurines which are reattached to the model with
modem glue. Repairs of this kind are generally easy to detect and do not seriously
diminish the objects value or integrity for scholarly purposes.
My personal examination of numerous architectural models supports the notion
that ancient ceramicists of West Mexico did not make all of the specimens found today in
museums and private collections. However, the scientific community has yet to conduct
tests on the architectural models to determine their authenticity. An obstacle to testing the
models is the bias of sample selection, given the prevalence of modem materials used for
repairs and reconstruction. Nonetheless promising areas for authentication of the ceramic
141
models include:
1) thermo-luminescence testing that has successfully identified fake
hollow figures in West Mexican ceramic collections (Meighan and Nicholson 1989:52;
Taylor 1974); 2) examination of black spots on ceramic surfaces to differentiate real
manganese dioxide from black paint splatter (Aronson 1993; Long 1966a; von Winning
1974:78); 3) CAT scan technology that is used to assess internal structural integrity of
ceramic pieces (Day et al. 1996: 156-158); 4) patination on the surface of authentic
ceramic vessels (Aronson and Kingery 1990); and 5) the presence of insect puparia, the
shell of the pupa after the emergence of the adult fly (Pickering 1997:46), that has been
identified on the ceramic sculpture from the Huitzilapa tomb (Ramos de la Vega and
Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996).
DATA COLLECTION AND RECORDING
Despite their lurid histories in the hands of looters and restorers, ceramic models
embody a wealth of information on the societies of Late Preclassic West Mexico. To
ascertain the kinds of meaning coded in the models, over 100 traits for each of the sample
of 82 house models were recorded (based upon personal examination or study of
photographs, notes, diagrams, and drawings).
The sample, essentially inclusive of
published and currently known models, establishes a foundation for valid statistical
analyses (Walsh 1990:93). Although measurements for many elements such as figurine
height and room dimensions are recorded, the analysis of these measurements, while
142
objective and standardized, had little to add to the thrust of the present study.
My
analysis therefore focuses primarily on stylistic differences in the architectural and figural
elements. In the discussion below, previous scholarship of the West Mexican ceramic
models is reviewed, followed by descriptions o f the architectural and figurine elements.
Previous Classification of Ceramic House Models
My study of the West Mexican ceramic architectural models initially planned to

use the standard von Winning (1972a) typology. That typology distinguishes five classes
of house models, that are ranked Type I to Type V in order from simple to complex. On
the simple end are the Type I models o f small, one room structures mounted on a slab
base. The most complex Type V models are multi-roomed with stairs and a raised stepped
platform. Types n, m, and IV denote the rank order between Types I and V.
However, early in the study it become apparent that the von Winning typology
could not be used in its entirety because its art historical basis did not consider
archaeological remains. Classification in the von Winning typology focused on the
superstructure, which has no corollary in the archaeological record. My research goals
required the ability to compare the ceramic image with the architectural remains in West
Mexico, the latter comprised of platform mounds that once supported long gone
superstructures. However, von Winning outlined his house model typology at a time
when neither settlements nor structural remains attributable to the Late Preclassic
143
Period o f West Mexico was known. He observed that: No archaeological remains

exist of comparable structures...The models, therefore, represent huts and houses
made of sun-dried bricks, wood, and thatch (von Winning 1972a: 17). In contrast,
my study was concerned with the foundation or platform that supports the huts.
Distinctive traits of the modeled superstructure, such as the roof shape, floor plan,
and finish, represent important data about construction technologies from the Late
Preclassic Period of West Mexico. Besides a few ancient wall foundations and roof
fragments (pieces of plaster impressed with thatch), no remnants of these superstructure
elements survive in the archaeological record of West Mexico. Other traits, such as stairs,
stepped platforms, and porches do have parallels in the recently uncovered architectural
remains at the sites in the Huitzilapa region (see Chapter V).
I devised analytical means to encourage comparison between the models and the
newly excavated platform mounds at Huitzilapa, and other architectural remains in West
Mexico. The application o f archaeological principles to the grouping o f architectural
models brought to light weaknesses intrinsic to previous house model studies. First
was the assumption that every architectural model represented a house, with people
in their daily tasks... no religious gods or conquering lords (Stem 1973: 20). To
most researchers, the West Mexicans made models o f houses, or thatched houses (M.
Miller 1986:57), rather than, for example, temple or altar models (see, for example,
Meighan and Nicholson 1989:58). The supposition was that the West Mexican models
represented only one architectural function, that of a house.
144
Archaeologists, on the other hand, examine architectural features for functional

differences, like ritual or public space versus residential use.
The recognition of
functional differentiation in architectural remains derives from the variation known for
human behavior and activities.
Even the label o f domestic to an archaeological
feature implies a variety o f uses, such as kitchen, storage, or workshop.

This assessment raised a second inherent weakness in prior studies, namely, the
assumption that the five house model types represented a ranked hierarchy of residences.
Ranking presumes that the models represent the same building class. It presupposes
that all are domiciles, little house to big house, rather than that they represent
different architectural needs or symbols of society, such as house, kitchen, altar, or
tomb.
Furst (1975:60) addressed the simplistic aspect o f ranking the house models:
I am conm nced th a t th e standard interpretation o f apparently
two-storied h o use m odels in term s o f social differentiation is
much too literal a n d one-dimensional.
Extrapolating that the large ceramic house models represent increased social status
seems obvious. Yet if the complex Type V models represent dwellings for village
chiefs and their families (Meighan and Nicholson 1989; von Winning 1972a: 19), then
in contrast the diminutive Type I models seem like humble abodes whose equivalents
in the field are the stone studded outlines of houses once belonging to members of a
lowly societal station.
145
My analysis of the ceramic models, while recognizing many of the same

stylistic differences as does von Winnings work, eliminates the assumptions that all
models represent houses, and that differences in the models reflect levels of social
ranking. It allows that the small Type I models may portray a small house of the rich,
an altar, or tomb, rather than, or in addition to, houses of the poor. The large Type V
models may represent domiciles that were used daily, as well as community or
corporate kin structures where ritual and politics were staged. In a similar vein, the
small structure on the low platforms of the Type II models occupy a low rung in the
house model ranking. Yet my analysis shows that they depict complex and ritualistic
scenes dominated by high status males wearing elaborate costume, inconsistent with
imagery of domesticity or the lower ranks of society.
These observations agree with findings in household and settlement studies in
archaeology and ethnoarchaeology. The determination of the function of architectural
remains, of designating high status to domestic mounds, and o f differentiating public
from private use of archaeological features, are complicated issues requiring multiple
lines of evidence, not just size (e.g., Cameron 1996; Rice and Puleston 1981; Sheets
et al. 1990). In fact, ethnoarchaeological research (c.fi, Blake 1988:54) suggests that
it is more probable that a given large structure once belonged to a big family unable to
acquire new land or a new home, than it is that the large structure housed a village
leader.
146
ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS
The ceramic models o f West Mexico exhibit variation in architectural elements

that serves as the basis for their analysis, past and present. The following section
describes the architectural elements and a classification scheme useful for my study.
Using prepared forms standardized the collection of data from the 82 ceramic models.
The forms, modified for presentation in Appendix A, address architectural and stylistic
traits, and measurements of the figural and architectural elements. My drawings o f floor
plans and photographs complete the documentary record o f Appendix A
Elements of Analysis
The data from the ceramic models were organized into categories, and entered
into a relational database program for statistical analysis. The most useful architectural
elements for comparative analysis o f the models are discussed below. Four groups of
ceramic architectural models were established: the Compound, Porch, Basic, and
Tomb Models, described further below.
Dimensions. The two measurements of height and area provide a dimensional
framework for assessing variations in the architectural models. The area comprises each
models entire base measurement (width x depth of the base), including the structure and
outdoor space of porches and patios. The portrayal of outdoor space includes the porch,
147
defined as an elevated space that articulates with the core building. A patio, on the other
hand, is an outdoor space depicted at ground level.
Floor Plans. The ceramic models come in two primary shapes, quadrilateral and
round. In the sample of 82 models, 96 percent manifest a quadrilateral basal foundation
and superstructure. Only three are round. The floor plans also reveal the number of
structures or rooms represented in a ceramic model. The predominant floor plan of 82
percent of the models is a single structure. Eighteen percent (n=15) of the ceramic models
have more than one structure.
Basal Platforms.
The ceramic models have two main basal forms: a thin, flat
slab, or an elevated stepped platform. Stairs, with few exceptions, co-occur with the
raised platform. The elevated stepped platform is common to all models except the Basic
Models which have a slab base.
Superstructures. The structures in the sample of 82 models generally exhibit two
to three walls that rise from the base platform to support the roof. Airy, two-walled
superstructures are open back to front; whereas the three-walled structures are closed in
back and open only to the front. Superstructures with windows are unusual, occurring on
only two models. In seven percent of the models (n=6), round columns or pillars replace
the walls. Painted designs decorate most of the exterior surfaces of the super-structure
walls, and some stairs, patios, and interior surfaces as well (see von Winning 1972a,
1974). Graphic designs feature vertical lines painted in colors of black, white, and red and
yellow ochre. A vertical zig2ag motif is a variance on the straight line.
148
Roofs. Observations regarding the roof show that the great majority are the
saddled style (also called thatched, pinched, and twin-peaked) (see Figure 3.13). The term
saddle references the roof lines with a concave, dropped curve in the middle bounded by
higher ends that are knobby or pointy. Of the 107 roofs depicted in the study sample, 86
percent are saddled. Fifteen roofs in the sample are pyramidal-shaped, with four sheds
descending from one central peak. Ten of the pyramidal roofs enhance single models,
while the remaining five occur on smaller structures attached to a central structure.
Painted polychrome designs decorate the roofs. Designs painted on the roofs exhibit such
variety that apparently each is unique. Although the patterns incorporate a shared symbol
set of vertical and horizontal lines, diamond shape lozenges, chevrons, and gods eyes
(von Winning 1972a), no two combinations are completely alike.
Lower Chambers. The lower level chamber is an area defined here as interior
space within the basal platform. My study uses the term chamber to refer only to these
lower level spaces. In the sample of 82 models, 44 have one or more lower chambers.
Altogether, 55 chambers are depicted on these 44 models. Not simply a lower version of
the main upper room, chambers were fashioned either as full floor or niche varieties. Full
floor chambers comprise an entire level or lower floor with a large, empty interior space.
One half of the chambers in the sample are the full floor version (n=28). In some (n=4), a
wall divides the lower room into two chambers, forward and aft (see Record No. 61). The
other chambers (n=27) belong to the niche variety. The latter chamber form is a small
cavity or recessed niche. Niches occur in the sides of the basal platform, and they also
149
appear under staircases. Entrances to niche chambers are round or square. They are not
simply air holes for construction purposes, as many niche chambers contain figurines. A
few models feature from two to four niche chambers, in addition to the full floor chamber.
Chamber as Tomb. The full floor lower chambers on the two-level West Mexican
models represent either the first floor of a two-story house (von Winning 1972a; Taube
1988), or stylized subterranean tombs (Furst 1966, 1975; Weigand 1992e). Although
neither interpretation is entirely verifiable, a basic premise of my study is that West
Mexican artists chose to depict sacred and ritual themes of social significance in the
ceramic models using architectural and figural elements. Therefore, decoding the intent of
the lower chambers may reveal a belief that the ancient West Mexicans considered
important to portray; either the underworld, or daily activities of the ground floor.
The premise can be made that if the upper and lower levels are fundamentally the
same then they represent similar functions, such as activities shared between two levels of
the same house.
Clearly, the full floor and niche chambers are distinct from the
architectural elements rendered on the main level. If the figural scenes in the lower
chamber are significantly different from those shown in the upper level, then different
functions can be inferred, and the possibility that the lower chambers represent tombs is
reinforced.
The content of the lower chambers differs from the main level in that the majority
are empty or have only dogs. In sharp contrast to the main floor which in every model is
filled with figurines, 45 percent o f the 55 lower chambers are totally empty (Table 3.1).
150
Another seven chambers have only dogs. Thus well over half (n=32) of the chamber
sample lack human figurines altogether.
Table 3.1 . Contents depicted inside the lower chambers of ceramic models.
Empty Chambers
Chambers with Dogs Only
Chambers with Figurines Only
Chambers with Feast and Figurines
n
25
7
11
12
Total Number O f Chambers
55
Chamber Contents
%
45%
13%
20%
22%
100%
In addition, feasting scenes in the lower chambers are less common compared to similar
scenes in the upper floor. Figurines are accompanied by images of consumption (i.e., food
or bowls) in 22 percent o f the lower chamber scenes, compared with the depiction of
similar scenes on 60 percent of the models main levels (see Chapter IV).
These observations combine to negate the proposition that equal or similar
depictions exist in the architectural or figural elements rendered in the lower chamber and
the main level. Some West Mexican scholars previously recognized the funerary theme of
the lower chambers. Peter Furst (1975:60) proposed that the lower level of the two-story
models were houses of the dead and of darkness. Likewise, Weigand (1985a:67-68)
referred to the understairs chambers of these models as representing probably
stylized shaft-tombs, or crypts for the lineage or family unit occupying the structure
i
i
above.
|
i
iI
iIi
f
i
I
151
Four Groups of Ceramic Architectural Models
The first group of West Mexican ceramic models are thirteen Compound
Models. They are large in height and area, and their basal platforms are stepped and
tiered (Figure 3.14). Ten of the Compound Models (77 percent) have one or more
chambers depicted within the basal platform. In floor plan, the Compound Models have
porches, enclosed patios, and two to three roofed structures. A unique floor plan has two
mirror-image structures that face each other over a flat patio (Record No.2).
The
Compound Models exhibit 32 roofs, most are the saddled, thatch-type roofs, but seven are
pyramidal shaped. My study will present evidence that the architecturally elaborate
Compound Models symbolize large domestic structures where groups of high status males
gathered.
Porch Models are a group of 16 ceramic architectural models.
The
platforms of the Porch Models are distinct in that they have just one central staircase.
They have only four chambers, and those are the niche variety that do not require a high
platform.
All the Porch Model roofs are saddled.
Porch Models are distinguished
by
the artistic portrayal of porches and patios as prepared outdoor space. My analysis will
demonstrate that the Porch Models represent ceremonial use of the outdoor built
environment. The figurines and vessels on these models help to define ritual drinking
events.
152
COMPOUND MODELS
Stepped and tiered platforms, with staircase and chambers

PORCH MODELS
jfi
a_
Low platforms with outdoor space
TOMB MODELS
J-----------L
High basal platforms, with double staircase and chamber in center
BASIC MODELS
Round platform
Slab base
Two joined structures
Figure 3.14. Illustration of platform mound shapes associated

with the classification of ceramic model groups.
153
The third group o f models are the Basic Models.
There are 24 small
models, made with a low basal platform or slab base. None o f the Basic Models has a
lower chamber. Regarding the floor plan, three models have a round basal foundation.
On them, the superstructure is also circular, instead o f square. These are the only round
architectural shapes in the sample of 82 ceramic models. Most of the roofs are saddle
shaped, and seven models have pyramidal roofs, two associated with the round floor plan.
My study will show that the Basic Models symbolize funerary structures, such as tombs of
the founding ancestors, and descent group shrines.
The last, and most numerous, group consists o f the Tomb Models. The 30
Tomb Models exhibit great height (up to 480 mm) but a limited amount of outdoor space.
In roof shape, the majority of Tomb Models have the distinct saddle type, although two in
the sample of 30 have pyramidal roofs. The basal platforms are high and encase the lower
level. All Tomb Models have one or more chambers depicted within the basal platform,
generally the full floor chamber with a central entrance (Record No. 40). Stairs are placed
to the models side, and not in front, serving to connect the main level to the chamber.
The modal number of steps per staircase is six (n=9). The framework for the stairs
creates an entrance to the lower or tomb level that mimics the profile of a stepped
Maya pyramid (Figure 3.14).
154
Metaphysically, the prehispanic pyramids of Mesoamerica and the Tomb Models

o f West Mexico broadcast an archetypal message. The impressive pyramids built in the
center of Classic Maya sites comprised a necropolis honoring the dead (Coe 1975).
Similarly, the massive Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon at Teotihuacan in the Valley of
Mexico were constructed on top of underground caves used anciently for ritual burials
(Sugiyama 1993).
The Mesoamerican pyramids overlie tombs of ancient kings and
queens, as the Egyptian pyramids too commemorate the royal dead (Huntington and
Metcalf 1979:152). By analogy, in the ceramic art of West Mexico, the roofed hut level
of the architectural models corresponds to the towering pyramids, and the lower chambers
symbolize the tombs, or the underworld home of the ancestors.
Summary
The West Mexican ceramic models exhibit a range of architectural elements that
nullifies their interpretation as representing anecdotal houses. Certainly the models must
represent prehispanic structures, including, but not limited to domiciles. If some are little
houses, like the Basic Models, they may depict the tombs or homes of the ancestors. In
addition, the West Mexican models seem to have served as a stage or venue to showcase
the rituals or meanings coded in the attached figurines and vessels.
155
HUMAN FIGURINE ELEMENTS
The ceramic models, occupied by figurine populations, were a perfect medium

for West Mexican artists to communicate important elements o f their social
organization.
In the shapes of bodies, dress style, and human poses the artists
portrayed the human figure in idealized and portraiture forms.
Who were these
human images that early artists chose to depict in social groups, and what can they tell
us about the ancient West Mexican society?
Methods
The human form o f the attached figurines gives social meaning to the West
Mexican ceramic models. Each model has human figurines, numbering from one to 18
per model. The modal number of figurines per model is four (n=21), followed by two
figurines (n=8), and eight figurines (n=7). Four models in the study sample have eighteen
figurines. The small, solid, ceramic figurines range in height from three to six cm. The
study sample of 82 West Mexican ceramic models has 590 human figurines attached on
the main level and outdoors, and inside the lower chambers are another 65.
My methods of figurine analysis are similar to the standardized procedures used to
assess the architectural traits in the ceramic models. During the collection of data, a
descriptive record for each figurine attached to every model was prepared. The study
156
recorded the numerous characteristics on the sample harms shown in Appendix A. The
associated props and the spatial placement of each human figurine were then
recorded.
Social arrangements of figurines further identify them in groups, as couples, or alone.

These data from the 82 ceramic house models and 655 attached human figurines were
entered into the relational database program along with the architectural data.
The
quantification of data allowed analyses and facilitated the detection of patterns in the
ceramic models from which inferences are made about ancient West Mexican societies.
The Art of Genealogy and Kinship
Given my argument that early West Mexican peoples practiced ancestor

worship, and conveyed those social beliefs in their funerary ceramic art, it is not
unreasonable to infer that the groups of human figurines in the ceramic models
represent the ancestors and the descendents who revered them. Prior discussions
regarding descent based social systems suggest ways in which kinship principles may
have guided the West Mexican artists hand. Fundamental social messages that are
conveyed in the human figurines in the study sample are biological differences, social
group labels, social inequality, and the ancestors. The identification of these themes in
groups o f figurines adds further to an understanding o f the social organization o f some
ancient West Mexican societies.
157
The A rt of Biological Differences
Biological differences regarding sex and age are elemental to human social
organization, and have particular application to a discussion o f mater-pater lineal
descent structures.
In the ceramic art o f West Mexico, these two elements are
decipherable.
Gender. The detection o f masculinity/ femininity, or gender, is a feature
distinguishable in the West Mexican human figurines in the study sample.
For
archaeologists, figurine art that specifies sex is considered unambiguous data for gender
attribution (Tringham 1991:98). My study uses three categories o f gender in the analysis
o f the ceramic human figurines: masculine, feminine, and indeterminate (see also Meighan
and Nicholson 1989:40; Mountjoy 1991b; von Winning 1972a: 19,1974).
For males, the primary diagnostic features are a loincloth, a flat torso, and
occasionally male genitalia. A basic loincloth is modeled by a clay band that passes
between the legs, fixed by a waistband. Most male figurines also wear one o f four hat
styles shown in Figure 3.15.
The main diagnostic feature for female figurines is a short, tight skirt that reaches
to the knee. Unmistakably female are figurines with modeled breasts, depicted on about 35
percent of the skirted figurines.
Interestingly, at the time o f the Spanish Conquest
Tarascan women o f Michoacan in West Mexico wore distinctive garments unlike

any known elsewhere in Mexico, yet similar to clothing depicted on shaft tomb figures
158
HEADGEAR STYLES
Plain turban
Braided turban
JEWELRY
Armbands
Conical hat
Nose Ring
Feathered hat
Necklace
&
earrings
CLOAK
m
Figure 3.15. Costume elements worn by ceramic model figurines. Lower
drawing from Chronicles ofM ichoacan that shows cloaked King of the
Tarascans sitting on stool, speaking to females who wear short skirt and cape
(from Craine and Reindorp 1970: Plate 25).
159
(Anawalt 1992, 1997). The unusual fashions worn by Tarascan women were described at
the Conquest: The women wore only a skirt; they lacked a shirt. Their skirts were
neither full nov long; they reach only to above the knees, (Sahagun 1950-71, Book
10:189, cited in Anawalt 1981:87). The upper body nudity documented for Tarascan
women, corresponds to the topless female figurines in the West Mexican ceramic models.
The indeterminate or gender neutral figurines are plain, and lack clothing, hats, or
other traits diagnostic o f gender or other social identity. Unless gender is clearly rendered,
as described above, the figurines are coded as indeterminate. Possibly, the indeterminate
figures represent servants or prisoners (see also von Winning 1974:24). Such may be the
case in some instances, as Jane Day (1996a:18) suggests for a group o f West Mexican
figurines carrying burdens.
For the model figurines, however, the exclusivity and prominence o f indeterminate
figures in some models persuaded me that they largely represent male figurines devoid o f
biological or social labels. Also included in the sample o f indeterminate figurines are those
figurines for which gender clues were not visible (due to a number o f reasons such as poor
photographs, or inaccessibility).
Analysis of these gender categories revealed that the anthropomorphic figurines
do not reflect the natural biology of a human population, comprised o f half males and half
females (Table 3.2). This suggests a purposeful intent o f the West Mexican artists to
portray only a portion o f their actual society.
ii
i
t
160
Table 3.2. Broad categories of figurines from 82 house models.

Figurine D ata
n
%
49%
289
32%
187
16%
94
2%
13
7
1%
100%
590
Figurine
Population
Male
Female
Indeterminate
Small (youth)
Other(prone)
TOTAL
The quantification of gender representations identifies substantially more male (49

percent) than female (32 percent) figurines in the models. The 187 female figurines are
those fashioned with clear diagnostic gender features. If the indeterminate figures (n=94)
are added to the count of male figurines (n=289), and many probably do depict males
because o f the absence of the skirt on these figures, then the gender bias in favor o f
masculine depictions soars to 65 percent (males, n=383).
Age or Generational Differences.
In the study sample, age difference is a
second kind o f biological information possibly portrayed in a portion of the West Mexican
ceramic models.
Anthropomorphic
figurines
representing youth or a younger
generation occur in only nine of the ceramic models (Record Nos. 4, 23, 25, 29, 35, 36,
51, 78, and 83). In prehispanic art, generally, youth is not portrayed due to artistic focus
on ritual events that excluded children (Jane Day, personal communication 1995).
The
161
singular diagnostic feature for youth in the study sample o f West Mexican figurines is
minor differences in figurine size within a single modeL
The fourteen proportionally small figurines on the ceramic models appear to
represent both boys and girls. More than half belong to the male or indeterminate gender
(n=8), although five have skirts identifying them as figurines o f young females (Record
Nos. 4,25, 35, and 51). The tendency is for one small figure to occur in a single model,
although two small figures appear in Record Nos. 23 and 83.
The pattern o f small figurines sparingly inhabiting the ceramic models suggests
that West Mexican artists felt that it was important, in rare cases, to depict young
members o f their society. Brian Hayden (1995:58-63) contends that children play an
essential role in maintaining the high status o f ranked groups or chiefs in kin based
hierarchical societies. Not only do certain offspring inherit resources and political
authority, but marriage arrangements involving prior payments and bridewealth insure
that only other high ranking families can afford children from high status kin groups.
Following this line o f thinking, the small anthropomorphic figurines in the West
Mexican ceramic architectural models may represent the fulfillment o f a birth order for a
lineal descent group (for example, a legitimate heir, or the first son of a line o f first sons),
the female prospect for marriage exchange, or an elders manipulation o f power through
association with a child whose high status by ascription was legitimate.
162
The Art of Social Identity
It is reasonable to assume that the West Mexicans used costume and

adornments to signal social identity as did other prehispamc peoples (Anawalt 1981,
1997; Cook 1992; W. Morris 1980; S. Ekholm 1979; Rodman 1992; Roediger 1961).
Our knowledge of Late Preclassic Period West Mexican costume comes from objects
found adorning skeletal remains in shaft tombs, and from the artistic depiction of
adornments on the ceramic figures. Stanley Long (1966a) studied and recognized that the
costuming on the large West Mexican figures represented symbols of social identity or
status. Von Winning (1972a: 19, 1974:23) observed that the limited costume imagery on
the figurines served as meaningful social symbols throughout Mesoamerica, yet he
concluded that the ornaments worn by the West Mexican figures were random, and of
negligible diagnostic importance (von Winning 1974:27).
My study agrees with Long (1966a) that the costume and adornments worn by
West Mexican figures (and figurines on the ceramic models) symbolize social identity.
Here, the narrow range of costume elements worn by the figurines is described, and the
idea that they represent social labels is proposed. Social labels, presented as jewelry,
headgear, and cloaks, were both painted and modeled in clay.
Many figurines were
originally painted with a delicate brush using polychrome colors. However, in keeping
with my conclusion regarding the painting of architectural elements, the probability of
modem repainting precludes the use o f paint as an indicator of social identity.
The
163
costume and adornments in the study are additive or sculpted elements made from pottery,
described below.
Jewelry.
Figurines in the ceramic models wear an assortment o f jewelry,
sculpted in miniature. O f the 590 figurines, only 88 wear jewelry, demonstrating its rare
depiction in the ceramic models (Table 3.3). The jewelry types are the nose ring or nose
clip, armband, necklace, and earrings (Figure 3.15). Curved nose clips seem to fasten
Table 3.3. Restricted imagery o f jewelry as depicted

__________on male and female figurines._________
Figurines
Nose Ring Armband Necklace
Earrings Cum
/
%
f
%
%
/
%
f
f
f
Fem 187 19 10% 12 6% 10 5%
2 1%
43
Male 289 6
2% 28 10% 7
2%
4 1%
45
Total 476 25 5% 40 8% 17 4%
6 1%
88
under the nose o f figurines, usually on the female figurines. Armbands encircle the upper
arm o f figurines, worn in numbers from one to four. Necklaces portray beads strung
together, sometimes with a central pendant. A few figurines (n=6) have a rounded disc at
the ear lobe that suggests the depiction o f earrings or ear spools.
Complementary discoveries o f shell armbands, greenstone pendants, beads o f
greenstone and quartz, pieces o f shell and obsidian that once were strung for
necklaces, obsidian ear spools, and other treasures appear restrictedly in the
archaeological record. That personal adornments embellish a small percent o f human
remains in shaft tombs (Long 1966a, 1966b: 19-22; Oliveros 1974; Ramos de la Vega
164
and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996) allows the supposition that the adornments worn
by the figurines expressed the same social status (e.g., membership in highly ranked
descent groups) in the ancient West Mexican society as did the venerated dead.
Headgear.
Figurines in the West Mexican ceramic models wear four styles o f
headgear, as illustrated in Figure 3.15. These include the plain turban, a thick headband
worn wrapped around the top of a figurine head. The second is the long or braided
turban It resembles the plain turban, with an added long braid or rope that hangs down
onto the back o f the figurine. Couch (1988:24) describes this headgear combination as a,
filleted headband and a pendant fall at the back o f his head. The third headgear is the
conical hat. These cone-shaped hats are made with a headband base. The last headgear is
a feather headdress.
It has elongate parallel elements, that I interpret as feathers,
protruding from a headband. Weigand (1992e: 18-19) concurs that the feather headgear
worn by flying male figures on the West Mexican flag pole or vo/oafor models imitate
a bird. An alternative view, that these long elements represent reeds and not feathers, has
been suggested by von Winning (1972a:l9,1974:21-23).
The plain turban or headband is regularly worn by male figurines (n=107), and
represents 56 percent o f all male headgear. Thus males are not classified as adorned if
their only ornamentation is the common plain turban.
However, a limited number o f
female figurines (n=13) wear headgear, and then, only the plain turban The limited
number of turbans worn by female figurines suggests their higher value or rarity as a status
symbol for females. The same can be said for the small portion ofmale figurines that wear
165
one o f the three remaining headgear styles. The conical hat is worn by 18 percent (n=52)
o f male figurines; the long or braided turban by 9 percent (n=27) o f the male figurines;
and only six male figures (2 percent) wear the feather hat. The headgear may identify
high office (Ostrowitz 1991:269), or recruitment into descent groups, with the restricted
styles indicative o f ranked status.
Cloaks. The cloak is a distinctive costume worn by 48 figurines in the ceramic
models. This garment covers the figure from the neck to feet, and might also be called a
blanket, robe, poncho, or serape. In prehispanic societies, the tilmatl (Nahua for cloak),
was a mans primary social label Its length, fabric content, and decoration communicated
the wearers class and rank (Anawalt 1981:27-32). Aztec law permitted only the upper
class, including lords and warriors, to wear finely-spun cotton cloaks. Tilmatli woven
from the coarse fibers o f the agave identified the lower classes in Aztec society. Different
styles o f cloaks signaled levels o f the Aztec priesthood (P. Carrasco 1971:372). Aztec
goddesses and Tarascan women wore a short cape, or quechquemitl (Figure 3.15) over
their torsos (Anawalt 1981:89-90, 213; 1992). Large ceramic female figures from West
Mexico wear similarly-styled capes, but this cloak style is not depicted on the ceramic
model figurines.
In ancient Peru, the costume o f cloak and turban is depicted on Huari stone
figurines that date from AD. 550 to 700 (Cook 1992:342). The robes rendered on the
Huari figurines are believed to express high rank and social status. Based on analogy with
166
the semiotic role cloaks played in Aztec and Huari cultures, in my analysis the inference is
made that the cloaked figurines in West Mexican models are males o f high social status.
Facial Scarification. Numerous West Mexican figures and a few figurines in the
architectural models have pierced or cut cheeks that attest to the practice o f bloodletting.
On one ceramic model, two female figurines show a cheek piercing form o f bloodletting
(Record No.55). The method o f bloodletting, a sharp spike through both cheeks, resulted
in fecial scarification, or deformed lips (von Winning and Hammer 1972:84-86; von
Winning 1974:67), as seen on the enlarged and cut cheeks o f figurines (Record Nos. 28,
35, 82).
Perhaps the West Mexicans made bloodletters from the sharp spine o f an agave
leaf.
Maguey spines were the most common bloodletters in prehispanic Central
Mexico, and used throughout Mesoamerica (Berrin 1988:196, Figure VI.21; Couch
1988:25; Nicholson 1971:433; Ostrowitz 1991:Figure 11; Thompson 1961:15). This
ritual use o f agave seems possible in West Mexico, however no concrete evidence for
agave spine bloodletters has emerged in either the archaeological or artistic records.
For the Maya, bloodletting is considered a ritual act that lineage members practice
to honor their ancestors (Scheie and Miller 1986). In the Bonampak murals o f the Classic
Maya, one panel depicts high status Maya women shedding blood during an accession
ritual that commemorated the inheritance o f power (Pohl and Feldman 1982: 307-308).
Social standing rather than gender determined that only Maya women belonging to the
i
167
highest ranked lineages were permitted to honor their ancestors by letting blood
(McAnany 1995:34).
Figure 3.16. West Mexican method o f bloodletting with alternating male and female
figurines pierced through cheek (top from Medioni and Pinto 1941: Figure 35;
lower from Kan et aL 1989:59, Cat. No. 19).
168
The A rt of Identifying M em bership in Social Groups
The repetition o f figurine costume and adornments implies that societal group
membership, rather than individual identity, was the West Mexican artists primary
social message. The depictions o f adornment are remarkably alike, restricted in style,
and repeated in design. These patterns suggest that dress was used to make explicit
and emphasize societal differences (per Service 1971:148). For my analysis, social
group labels are those adornments worn repeatedly by figurines in the study sample, and
by groups of figurines on a single ceramic modeL
The proposal that costume worn by West Mexican ceramic figurines connotes
social group identity is supported by other studies o f prehispanic attire. Researchers agree
that dress in indigenous societies was semantically rich (Cook 1992:353), coding ethnic
identity (Brumfiel 1994:98; Rodman 1992), political office (Ostrowitz 1991), and/ or
social rank and status (Anawalt 1981:3; Couch 1988:24; S. Ekholm 1979; Helms 1979;
Marcus 1992:300). The adornments and costume worn by the figurines in the West
Mexican ceramic models must similarly have communicated a social message, such as
membership in descent groups.
Clusters of Social Labels. A primary pattern that emerges in the data o f costume
and adornment is that groups o f figurines wearing the same social label appear on a
majority o f the ceramic models in the study sample. This trend, seen in Table 3.4, shows
that each adornment was a label for a group o f figurines at least once (in the case o f the
169
bloodletting, feather headdress, and earrings), that some adornments (like the armbands)
labeled groups o f figurines on twelve models, and on 28 models the plain turban is worn
by groups o f male and/or female figurines.
Table 3.4. Number of ceramic models with figurines wearing same social labeL
Element
Total
Number o f
Models 1
Male
groups
Female
groups
Mixed M/F
groups
Plain turban
17
28 models
2
9
Armband
4
12 models
4
4
Cloak
9 models
9
Nosering
3
6 models
3
Necklace
4 models
1
1
2
Braided turban
5 models
5
Conical hat
5 models
5
Bloodletting
1 model
1
Feather hat
1
I model
Earrings
1 model
1
1Models with two or more figurines wearing the same costume element
In some instances, the shared adornments include several elements, such as the turbans,
armbands, and necklaces worn by figurines in Record Numbers 7 and 54.
In unusual
cases, every figure on a single model wears the same costume element (Record No. 38).
The prevalence o f clusters of figurines wearing the same adornments on a given ceramic
model emphasizes the group, as opposed to individual, nature o f the artistic depiction of
West Mexican social labels.
Male Labels. An analysis o f costume and adornments worn by male figurines
compared to those worn by female figurines identifies a few patterns germane to
Il
170
representations o f kinship membership. The predominant gender difference is the greater

adornment worn by male figurines, registered in terms o f exclusivity o f costume, variety,
and number o f adorned male figurines.
On some ceramic models, only the male figurines wear adornments. Groups of
male figurines appear in a variety o f costume elements, including jewelry, headgear, and
cloaks. This trend is apparent in the depiction of jewelry, in which groups o f male
figurines wear armbands (Record No. 20, 39, 60, and 53), necklaces (Record No. 39), or
earrings (Record No. 17) on a single model That groups o f male figurines share costume
elements suggests that those models depict social gatherings ofhighly ranked males.
The clustering and exclusivity o f male costume apply to the representations o f the
restricted headdresses. Table 3.4 shows that on 28 models the male figurines wear only
one headgear style (17 models have figurines that wear only the plain turban; five models
have figurines wearing the braided turban exclusively [see Record No. 48]; five models
have figurines with only the conical hat [see Record Nos. 31,69]; and one model has male
figurines wearing only the feather headdress [Record No. 78]). The prevalence o f male
figurines wearing headgear identifies the possible importance o f hat styles in defining male
allegiance to ancient West Mexican kin groups. On only five o f all the ceramic models in
the study sample do the male figurines wear more than one o f the styles o f the restricted
headgear.
The cloak is another costume worn exclusively by, and in groups o f male
figurines. Most models with figurines wearing cloaks have two or four cloaked figures
171
(Record Nos. 2, 3, 4, 52, 83, 94), but two models have six cloaked figures (Record No.
39 and 64), and one model, Record No. 38, has twelve. The cloaked figures wear both
the plain and the braided turbans. The social label o f cloaks and turban is common to male
figurines on both the Compound and the Basic Models
Table 3.5. Distribution o f all 48 Cloaked Figurines.
Model Group
Number of
Cloaked Figures
Percent of Total
Cloaked Figures
Compound (13)
Basic (23)
Tomb (30)
Porch (16)
30
9
5
4
TOTAL (82)
48
62%
19
11
8
100%
(see Table 3.5), indicating that groups o f adorned males inhabit a majority o f the smallest
and largest architectural models.
Trends in the figurine data regarding the number o f adorned male figurines
compared to the number o f adorned female figurines (Table 3.6) are discussed below,
under the art o f social inequality.
Female Labels. Analysis o f the adorned female figurines in the ceramic models
indicates that West Mexican artists chose to depict groups o f high ranking and related
women. These female social groups may have represented sisters, mothers or daughters
belonging to powerful kin groups. The portrayal o f bloodletting further supports the
premise that women derived their status from genealogy rather than from their gender.
t
i
172
This would suggest that women acquired power as gene carriers for marriage exchange
and for reckoning descent.
Women achieve high status, according to Hayden
(1995:55), in elaborate transegalitarian political organizations. In those societies, it

is critical for their social rank that high ranking women maintain close ties with their
families and descent group.
The skirt is the only female exclusive costume element in the ceramic model
figurines. However, as Table 3.4 shows, on 12 models, it is only the female figurines that
wear adornments. Groups o f female figurines wear nose rings, armbands (Record No. 26,
33, 57, and 76), and necklaces (Record No. 77, and 25). On two ceramic models it is the
female figurines alone that wear plain turbans, one with a bloodletting scene (Record No.
55). These patterns suggest an intent to portray social groups of highly ranked females.
This interpretation is reinforced by the depiction o f female figurines shown bloodletting
together.
In the study sample it is the female figurines that let blood. The combination o f
bloodletting and turbans conveys the message that in early West Mexico, high status
related women shed blood together. It may be more than coincidence that one model
(Record No. 35) shows an adult female figurine with scarred cheeks with an arm around a
female youth figurine. Based on the social purpose o f bloodletting by high ranking Maya
women, by analogy, the West Mexican iconography may also serve as a metaphor for
recognizing the ancestors and the commemoration o f hereditary leadership.
173
Labels for Male and Female Couples. Many adornments in the study sample,
particularly the jewelry o f armbands, necklaces, and nose rings, are worn by male and
female figurines. This suggests that high status and recruitment into highly ranked descent
groups were opportunities that benefited both men and women in early societies o f West
Mexico. Presumably males and females inherited status through blood relations with
descent groups.
The pattern o f male and female figurines wearing the same social group labels
occurs on 17 individual models (Tables 3.4 and 3.6). The shared costumes worn by male
and female figurines on a single model are the plain turbans on nine models, armbands
(Record No. 7, 35, and 64), nose rings (Record No. 7, and 25), and one model (Record
No. 54) features male and female figurines wearing necklaces, armbands, and nose rings.
The practice o f reckoning descent through both females and male bloodlines is
aptly portrayed in West Mexican sculptures o f bloodletting (von Winning and Hammer
(1972:84-86, Figures 139a-145). A common theme in the ceramic art is the depiction o f
three to four alternating male and female figures with a single spike or rod piercing all their
cheeks (Figure 3.16).
The male/ female duality o f bloodletting is expressed in West Mexican ceramic
scenes o f funerals. One piece (Figure 3.17) shows six male figurines wearing the same
double banded turban and bearing a wrapped corpse. Three female figurines lead the
funeral procession carrying bowls and piercing instruments (von Winning and Hammer
174
Figure 3.17. Ceramic bloodletting scene at funeral h=14 cm,

from von Winning and Hammer 1972:84, Figure 139a,b).
1972:84, Figure 139 a, b).
Figurines gather in groups, showing female figures piercing
the cheek o f male figures using elongate, sharp instruments. That a funeral is the stage for
bloodletting by males and females in similar costumes suggests the possible ritual
commemoration of the bloodline(s) o f a common ancestor or ancestor pair. In the study
175
sample, male figurines have more variety o f costume, and wear it more often than do the
female figurines, yet both genders share some costume elements, and even wear like
adornments together on individual models.
The A rt of Social Inequality
The genealogical basis for inheritance that is a critical component o f ancestor

veneration perpetuates social inequalities in the unequal access to status and
resources. Resulting social structures can include the ranking o f kin groups, and the
ranking o f individuals within each descent line. Patterns in the figurine data permit
the inference that social inequality was corporate or group based, rather than
individualistic. This reconstruction o f ancient West Mexican social structures is based
on three observations.
First, virtually none o f the ceramic models has a single primary figure that
alone is adorned. The presence o f such singular figures would suggest the depiction
o f individual achievement or authority.
Figurines in the ceramic models wear
adornments only in conjunction with one or more adorned figurines, expressing

corporate, and not individual, status.
Second, less than half (n=248) o f the 590 figurines wear social labels, and the
others none (Table 3.6).
In addition, most models have figurines that are both
adorned and unadorned. The discrepancy in patterns o f adornments may portray a
176
corporate group ranking, consistent with an artistic attempt to convey a hierarchy o f

descent groups.
Third, the unequal distribution o f adornments worn by male and female
figurines suggests a gender bias to some social or political structures. Female figures
are significantly less adorned than the males (23 percent o f females, compared to 71
percent o f the males, overall). This pattern is pronounced on the models with outdoor
ritual space, like the Porch and Compound Models (Table 3.6). On these models, male
figurines are much more likely (85 percent) to wear adornments than are female figurines
(24 percent). Interestingly, the proportionally few adorned female figurines on these
models are highly elaborated, consistent with the portrayal o f female heads, sisters, and
Table 3.6. Frequency distribution o f figurines in ceramic model groups.

Model
Group
n
Compound
13
Porch
16
Basic
23
Tomb
30
Total
82
Mean#
of
Figurines
11.3
9.4
4.3
6.5
12
Sexed Figurines
Adorned*
Adorned
10
70
12
66
6
20
15
49
27
84
21
86
19
49
25
56
43
205
23%
71%
Fem
Male
Fem
Male
Fem
Male
Fem
Male
37
83
58
77
32
41
60
88
Total Fem 187

Total Male 289
Figurines that exhibit at least one o f the following social labels:

jewelry, headgear, cloak, and facial scarification
177
and daughters belonging to matrilineages, members of strong, landowning descent groups,

or acquiring the political role o f important marriage partners.
The Art of the Ancestors
Mesoamerican researchers posit that small solid figurines, ubiquitous in remains o f

Preclassic Period villages, may represent ancestors (Cook 1992; Griffin 1988; McAnany
1995:19, 27). It is possible then that some small, solid figurines in the West Mexican
ceramic models also portray ancestors. The interpretation that some figurines in my study
sample may represent ancestors, or the dead, pertains particularly to the 65 figurines in the
lower chambers, and the 23 prone figurines. A theme o f death seems unequivocal for the
eight figurines that are prone and located in the lower chamber. Such models may portray
a funeral in progress, or a mortuary rituaL These themes, along with the idea that male
and female figurine couples depict pairs o f original or founding ancestors are explored
next.
Prone Figurines. The presence o f prone figures in the models suggests that the
underworld, or a stage in a sequence o f mortuary behaviors is represented.
The
architectural elements containing the prone figures may convey the tomb, the underworld,
or other sacred space, such as a holding area for drying or wrapping human remains.
|
Prone figurines are those shown lying down on their side in a fetal position
(Record Nos. 88, and 80). A few prone figurines are covered by a blanket, and lie on their
i
i
i
i
i
i
!
I
I
j
178
back (Record Nos. 24, and 95). Most are plainly dressed male or female figurines.
Figurine adornments are rare (see Record Nos. 43, and 70). It may be meaningful
that animal figurines o f dogs and birds co-occur on half o f the 18 ceramic models with
prone figurines.
O f the 23 prone figurines, eight appear in the lower chambers, and 15 prone
figures occur inside the mam level A few models have more than one prone figure
located on the main level (Record Nos. 14, 34, and 45). By ceramic model group, the
Tomb Models exhibit the highest number o f prone figures, six in the tomb, and four on the
main levels. However, the small Basic Models, which have no place to artistically render
the underground, have the highest amount o f prone figures on the main level (n=7)
(Record Nos. 24,43,44,45,46, and 88).
These data support my proposition that some small models may portray the sacred
space o f the underworld, or tombs, and like the Copan models, represent the homes for
deities or ancestors.
It is equally likely that the models with prone figures represent a
stage o f ritual mortuary behavior, such as a funeral in progress or the dessication o f

remains (per Cabrero 1995).
Cham ber Figurines.
The Tomb Models contain the most chamber and prone
figurines (Table 3.7). This association strengthens the premise that these models embody
the underworld home o f the ancestors and portray ritual funerary behaviors. Human
figurines appear in 23 o f the 55 lower chambers. The total count o f 65 figurines in the
chambers includes 27 female figurines, 30 male figurines, and eight prone figures (Table
179
3.7). Eight models have a prone figurine inside the chamber, generally attended to by
other figurines (see Record No. 67). With the exception o f skirts that the females wear,
and plain turbans that the males wear, the majority o f chamber figurines are plain.
Table 3.7. Figurines in Lower Chambers.
Model
Group
Male
Figures
Total
Female Prone
Figures Figures Chamber
Figures
23
6
43
Prone Figures
On
Main Level
Tomb
Compound
Porch
Basic
14
15
1
2
0
4
3
1
7
Total
30
27
65
15
The Founding Ancestors.
20
2
The concept o f pairs o f founding ancestors is
consistent with practices o f venerating the dead, with lineal descent groups, and bilateral
kinship structures. Portraits o f male and female couples support the proposition that West
Mexican artists chose to depict the founding ancestors in their funerary art as did Zapotec
artists. Arthur Miller (1995:103) suggests that, in tomb murals, the Zapotec painted the
two original marital pairs.
Alternatively, the West Mexican pairs may represent
ancestral pairs o f sisters and brothers.

The pairing o f male and female figurines is a predominant social statement in West
Mexican art. Large sculptures show male and female figures joined together, touching at
the legs or with arms around each other (Figure 3.18). Von Winning (1974) refers to the
repeated imagery o f joined male and female figures in the ceramic art from Jalisco and
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from Nayarit (von Winning 1974:57-58, 67-68). At the time o f interment, attendants
also placed the ceramic pairs together in the same shaft tomb (see also von Winning
1974).
In the ceramic models o f my study sample, the couple theme is communicated in
different ways.
Like the large sculptures, pairs are joined by touching (Record No. 7),
and other pairs o f male and female figurines stand and embrace (Record Nos. 54, 14, and
59). The couple theme is expressed in the models also by figurine couples wrapped
together in a blanket, as if lovemaking (Record Nos. 14 and 45), and by social groups of
figurine couples.
In terms o f iconography representative of ancestral male and female pairs, my
study identifies those ceramic models that are occupied by figurine couples, that is,
figurine social groups comprised o f either two or four anthropomorphic figurines. A full
44 percent o f the ceramic models in the study sample (n=36) have only one or two pairs o f
male and female figurines, or indeterminate figurines grouped in twos or fours (Record
Nos. 5, 66, 77, 81, 82, 83, 88, 89, and 94). Two pairs o f figurines, like the arrangement
o f the Zapotec pairs, occupy 22 ceramic models. This figurine pattern pertains particularly
to the Basic and Tomb Models, those models that also portray funerary behaviors and
embody underworld imagery in architectural elements and animal figurines (see below).
In West Mexico, the contemporary Tarahumara conceived o f an original
couple or pair o f founding ancestors.
They believe that all Tarahumara, derive
ultimately from the same parents (Merrill 1988:187). The ancient artists o f West
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Mexico made ceramic models that apparently represent tombs inhabited by pairs of
figures. These, they ultimately placed with the dead in shaft tombs. Like the Zapotec
funerary art, the figurines in the West Mexican versions may similarly, represent the
Figure 3.18. Joined Male and Female Pair o f Figures, h=40.6 cm

(from Gallagher 1983:Figure 120).
venerated founding ancestors o f the paternal and maternal lines of descent of the tombs
occupant(s) ( A. Miller 1995:103).
Summary. Some groups o f figurines in the ceramic models o f West Mexico
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may represent the dead: the prone figurines, the figurines occupying the lower
chamber, and the male and female pairs o f the Basic and Tomb Models. The majority
o f the Human figurines, however, probably represent the living who reckoned
genealogy among the living and the dead. Recall from Chapter I, that the Aztec and
other prehispanic peoples envisioned the ancestral spirits, and by extension the deities,
living in the underworld and occupying in death the same position in their societys
hierarchy as they had held when alive. Tarahumarans observe likewise, that the dead,
are in many respects the same as the living... forming social relations, both among
the living and the dead (Merrill 1988:187).
ANIMAL FIGURINES
Birds and dogs symbolized the death and the underworld in prehispanic
culture and to the modem HuichoL Based on their representations in the ceramic
house models, and embodiment as skeletal remains and effigies in shaft tombs, the
same holds true for the Late Preclassic Period peoples o f West Mexico.
The
zoomorphic figurines that inhabit the ceramic architectural models are miniature dogs
and birds, made o f pottery.
Given the range o f fauna that certainly existed in
prehistoric West Mexico, the artists choice to depict only these two animals on the
sacred landscape o f house models seems meaningfuL An alternative view, that the
animals depict food, is also considered, and rejected.
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The 47 dogs in the West Mexican ceramic models are carefully made, with
details o f incised eyes, mouth, tongue (Record No. 20), and perky ears and tail
(Record No. 75). They assume poses o f standing, sitting, eating, or curled up and
sleeping (Record N o.l). The short dogs, with erect ears and tails, probably depict the
Mexican hairless breed of canine.
Small ceramic birds perch prominently on the roof tops and architectural
ledges o f the ceramic models (see Record Nos. 14, 22, 32, 58). None o f the 61 birds
is found inside the lower chambers o f the models.
Like the dogs, they too are
detailed, and exhibit specific wing and beak shapes. Christopher Couch (1988:23) has
identified parrots, owls, and a species o f crested bird with a long neck in the West
Mexican ceramic models. The majority o f the bird figurines have the parrot shape.
Birds and dogs were sources o f food in prehispanic societies. Historic records
o f the Maya show that animal meat was an enormously important food on feast
days, where in one day multitudes o f poultry were consumed (Pohl and Feldman
1982:302). The Aztec feasted on turkey, pheasant, partridge, quail, duck, pigeon,
and other wild birds (Diaz 1956:209-211). Regarding the dog, prehispanic peoples,
from the Olmec of the Middle Preclassic Period (Grove 1987; Guillen 1993 :218), to
the Late Postclassic Period Aztec and Maya (Tozzer 1941:203), considered the meat
o f the dog a delicacy. Dogs were raised in Maya households, with pits dug to contain
them (Pohl and Feldman 1982:303). The Maya fed com to their dogs to fatten them
for eating (Pohl and Feldman 1982:303-304). It may be more than coincidence that
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some ceramic dogs from West Mexico, including three dog figurines on the ceramic
models (see Record No. 1, for example), are portrayed eating com cobs.
Some scholars contend that the ceramic dog effigies from Colima shaft tombs
signify food (Cordy-Collins 1994; Day et al. 1996:156-158; Schondube 1994). The
shiny red or black Colima dogs are clearly hairless, and look like, inflated
dachshunds with round heads and bulging eyes (Covarrubias 1957:92-93) (Figure
3.19). The dog, bred hairless for consumption purposes, was called xoloitaciiintli or
techichi (von Winning 1974:42-44).
While faunal remains indicative o f the
consumption of dogs is not reported, articulated skeletal remains o f dogs buried in a

ritual context do exist in the West Mexican archaeological record (Galvan 1991:287).
An ideology linking dogs and funerary ritual existed through time among West
Mexican peoples. At the Late Preclassic Period site o f Cerro Encantada in northern
Jalisco, Betty Bell (1974:152) excavated three dog burials, two together and one
single. The single dog burial was not associated with human remains. The double
dog burial however occurred in a group burial with the jumbled skeletal remains o f
five persons, and one creature resembling an iguana. At the Postclassic Period site o f
Chalpa on the Pacific Coast, archaeologists uncovered a burial mound with the
skeletal remains o f 42 dogs (and six raccoons) (Gill 1974:96). The animal remains
accompanied human skeletal remains of, at least 25 individuals from 20 separate
human burials (Gill 1974:90).
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The ritual interment o f dogs may be explained by the prehispanic belief in

X olotl, the underworld dog.
Mesoamerican people understood that the dog guided
the dead on its journey to Xibalba, the underworld, helping the soul to cross the great
river (Brown 1996; Carmichael and Sayer 1992:27; Wright 1960). To fulfill this duty,
dogs were routinely killed upon the death o f their masters and buried with them (M.
Coe 1988:230). The Spanish recorded the Aztec practice (Clavijero 1787: 323, cited
in Luce 1976:59):
One o f th e c h ie f a n d m ost ridiculous cerem onies a t fu n e ra ls
w as th e killin g o f . .a little dog, to accom pany the decea sed
in th eir jo u rn ey to th e other w orld. They fix e d a string about its
neck, believing th a t necessary to enable it to p a ss th e deep
river o f C hiuhahuapan or New W aters. They buried th e techichi,
or burned it along w ith th e body o f its m aster...
In place o f actual dogs, Colima people o f the Late Preclassic Period buried
their dead with ceramic effigies o f dogs (Baus Czitrom 1993) (Figure 3.19).
According to one study (Wright 1960:33, 42, cited in von Winning 1974:42), the vast
majority of shaft tombs in Colima, from 75 percent to 90 percent, contain ceramic
dogs. Not surprisingly, the study found that in the remaining tombs, the dead were
interred with a ceramic figure o f a parrot (Figure 3.19).
The bird figurines may be a metaphor for the spirits o f the newly dead, who
have not yet reached the underworld. Birds, to the Aztec, were the guise o f gods
(Nicholson 1971:407).
Jill McKeever Furst (1995:27, 28) suggests that the bird
figurines on Nayarit sculpture symbolize the souls, either of children or o f unborn
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lineage members.
According to von Winning (1972a:21; 1974:45) they may
represent, the Morning Star, one o f the three tutelar gods o f the Cora, or parrots,
the sacred birds. Ethnographic accounts from West Mexico tell that the soul first
leaves the corpse as a bird or firefly prior to its journey to the ancestors (Perrin
1996:408).
In the analysis o f West Mexican ceramic models, patterns identified in the
distribution o f bird and dog figurines support my argument o f underworld symbolism,
rather than consumption. The funerary theme is expressed by the 13 models in which
dog and bird figurines co-occur, and in the 13 dogs that occupy lower chambers. In
the 29 models with dog figurines, the majority have only one, as if the sole dog
guides the dead to Xibalba. Birds however occur in groups.
Table 3.8. Animal Figurines in the Ceramic Models.

Dogs in
Chambers
Dogs on
Main Level
Total
Dogs
Total
Birds
13
34
47
61
O f the 21 models with bird figurines, 75 percent have more than one bird (frequently
four and five birds), and one model (Record No. 14) has nine. Lastly, the figurines o f
1
1
dog and bird are associated with ceramic models with lower chambers. Models with
tombs have nearly 70 percent o f all the dog and bird figurines.
I
I
ii
i
i
i
i
i
I
I
187
Figure 3.19. Large dog and parrot ceramic sculptures, Colima style
(dog h=24.1 cm, from Day 1996a:Figure 1;
bird h=18.7 cm, from Gallagher 1983: Figure 18).
i
I
188
Modem Huichol o f northwest Mexico still recognize a dog in their mortuary

rituals. The Huichol believe that a little black dog blocks the way for the dead soul to
find its place with the ancestors. Accordingly, one reason the Huichol give food to
the dead is to provide the soul with something to pacify the hungry dog who guards
passage to the underworld:
first one com es to w here there is a d o g ....It sta n d s there, th a t

dog, a s i f it is tied up. It is barking there. It is a s i f it w a n ts to
bite th a t so u l a s it tries to p a ss...T h a t is w hy, w hen one o f u s
dies, w e m ake little to rtilla s fo r him to ta ke along, little th ick
tortillas. They are p u t in a b a g ...so th a t he can fe e d th a t
do g...T h e dog sa y s to th a t so u l, G ive m e som ething to eat now
so th a t I m ay let you p a ss'...(T h a t little dog] is from ancient
tim es. R d ied and th en it rem ained there, to sta n d w atch on
th a t road...(T he soul] ta k e s th e tortillas out o f the bag, [and
w hen] th e dog is b u sy e a tin g ...th a t so u l can p a ss and it k ee p s
on w alking.
Ramon Medina Silva 1996:392-394
In sum, the only animals depicted in the ceramic models are dogs and birds.
No imagery o f deer, rabbit, fish, or other animal food sources appears. Combined
with the underworld theme represented in the ceramic models, I am assuming for my
study, that the 108 animal figurines on the models denote sacred imagery, rather than
profane consumption.
CONCLUSIONS
My analysis strongly indicates that West Mexican ceramic models convey
189
significant ritual and sacred messages as does the tradition o f prehispanic architectural
models o f the New World.
West Mexican artists distinguished human figurines using several elements
including biological referents, props, costume, or the lack o f these items. The figurine
sample does not conform to expectations o f age and gender characteristics o f a family
engaged in daily household activities. The variance between art and reality emphasizes
that only a portion of the actual society is represented in the models.
Patterns in the figurine adornments convey the theme o f social group identity.
The clustering o f figurine adornments indicates that societal group membership rather
than individual identity was the artists primary social message. Not just one person of
high rank is portrayed, but groups o f adorned figures. The feet that male and female
figurines wear many o f the same social labels and practice bloodletting together implies
that recruitment into powerful descent groups was calculated through genealogy and not
through gender.
The architectural elements o f the ceramic models depict three main ritual settings:
the underworld, houses of kin groups, and ritual use o f outdoor space.
The lower
chambers on many ceramic models seem unequivocally to depict underground tombs, or

space for mortuary rituals. The subterranean theme includes the models with chambers,
and the small Basic Models that lack the lower levels. The prone figurines, pairs of
founding ancestors, and the underworld animal figures clarify the text of these diminutive
ethnographic documents. The small West Mexican ceramic models, encumbered with
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symbolic imagery, perhaps represent a funeral in progress, or a sequence o f mortuary

behaviors, taking place in the underground home o f the ancestors.
The large architectural models and those depicting the outdoor built environment
seem to symbolize the ritual landscape. These models with architectural elaboration and
prepared outdoor space are inhabited by high numbers o f socially differentiated and
labeled groups o f figurines. Evidently, the clusters o f figurines do not represent domestic
households, but male dominated social groups portrayed at ritual feasts possibly affirming
kinship status.
In the next chapter, the consumption nature of these rites is investigated in this
same study sample o f 82 West Mexican ceramic architectural models.
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CHAPTER IV
THE WEST MEXICAN ART OF CONSUMPTION
/The ancestors] scad th a t it is through
The sacred spirits th a t all live...
That they give u s our daily fa re
A n d all that w e drink,
A ll that w e eat,
Our sustenance,
M aize, beans, am aranth, drda
Anonymous Aztec Poem (cited in Townsend 1992:109)
This chapter investigates how and why West Mexican artists of the Late
Preclassic Period conveyed ritual feasting and drinking, using the medium of ceramic
sculpture.
The study has two components. The first component uses historic and
ethnographic Mexican sources as ethnographic analogy to make inferences regarding the

significance and processes o f funerary feasts and feasts for the ancestors in indigenous
prehispanic societies. Second, is a systematic analysis o f the food and vessel imagery on
the West Mexican ceramic house models, and of the depictions presumably of the social
and sacred landscape associated with feasts for the dead. The purpose of the study is to
establish that early West Mexican artists portrayed the ritual commemoration of the
ancestors at private funeral feasts and public seasonal feasts in their ceramic art. This
reading o f the Late Preclassic Period ceramic art o f West Mexico supports my basic
premise that kinfolk used feasting strategies to gain economic advantage and status for
their descent group.
My study further attempts to establish that to legitimize and
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maintain their rights to productive lands and resources, members of descent groups held
feasts to commemorate the founding landholding ancestors.
PREHISPANIC FEASTS FOR THE DEAD
Ethnographic and historic accounts from prehispanic Mexico demonstrate that

private rituals o f feeding the spirits of the newly dead, and community feasts, like the
Huey M iccccdllbuitl flagpole ceremony and accession rites, commemorated the
ancestors who had provided the annual harvest, and given property and status to their
descendents. Ritual consumption to honor the dead and agricultural fertility were,
obviously quite ancient...from a very early period and a fundamental foundation
(Nicholson 1971:434) to the cycle of annual feasts and ritual consumption practices that
the Spanish and early explorers of West Mexico documented.
The historic and
ethnographic accounts create substantive images of how ancient feasts for the dead
spirits may have functioned in early West Mexican societies.
Aztec Annual Feasts for the Dead
The Aztec held the grandest feasts of the year in the ninth and tenth months of
the Mesoamerican calendar, during our month o f August (Nutini 1988:67). In a near
continuous celebration, the Late Postclassic peoples o f Central Mexico held the Little
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Feast of the Dead (or Micccdlhuitontli in Nahua) followed by the Grand or Great Feast
for Dead (called Huey M iccaylhuitl in Nahua, and Antangotu by the Otomi) (Nicholson
1971:444). This 40 day affair honored dead children, and then the ancestors who had
became patron deities (D. Carrasco 1982, 1990:142-145; Duran 1975:441-446;
Nicholson 1971:409,444; Nutini 1988:56-71; Sahagun 1950-1981, Book 2:16-18, 111117; Townsend 1992: 212-213).
For the feasting days of Micccdlhuitontli and Huey M iccaylhuitl, the people
prepared ritual foods for the dead, like tzoalli, a dough made from amaranth seed. The
red color o f the amaranth flower may have represented blood and death to prehispanic
people (Nutini 1988:74). Other special foods of tamales, seeds, chocolates, the meats of
turkey and dog, and pulque were served (Carmichael and Sayer 1992:28). During the
feasts for the dead only certain members of Aztec society drank pulque: the old men
and the old women drank wine [pulque]; but no young man nor young woman drank it
(Sahagun 1950-1981, Book 2:16) (see Figure 4.4).
At the start o f the Grand Feast for the Dead, the Aztec decorated a pubic plaza
with a xocotl pole, a large tree 25 fathoms long, that marked the center of festivities
(see Figures 1.4, 4.10).
Twenty days later on the eve o f the feast, many
carpenters.. .trimmed it and decorated it with many kinds of papers, they tied ropes and
other cords to it... On the top of this stood upright the statue o f that god, made of a
dough which they call tzoallP (Sahagun 1950-1981, Book 2:17-18, 111; Carmichael and
Sayer 1992:28-31; Couch 1985:65-67; Duran 1975). That night a fire was built around
194
the base of the xocotl. To honor Huehueteotl, the fire god, captives and slaves were
burned alive in the flames. The following day, the feasting and the ntual ascent o f the
xocotl began. Sons of nobles climbed ropes to the top o f the pole to reach the tamales
and amaranth images first. The winner or captor o f the sacred foods tossed them as
offerings into the crowds below. And afterwards they took the captor of the xocotl
image to his home
They arrayed him. in a brown cape with an edge stnped with
feathers (Sahagun 1950-1981, Book 2:117).

During the thirteenth month o f Tepeihuitl, the Aztec commemorated the dead,
who had drowned in the water, or had died such a death that they did not bum them,
but rather buried them (Sahagun 1950-1981, Book 2:23). The Aztec again made
tzoalli images in memory of the dead, and placed them on their altars. There, they
offered the dead, tamales, and other food; and....they drank wine in their honor
(Sahagun 1950-1981, Book 2:23).
Dia de Los Muertos (and other Great Feasts for the D ead) in West Mexico
Although the institutionalization of funerary feasts by the peoples o f the Late

Postclassic Period in Central Mexico was expressed in a particularly grand celebration,
the Aztec were one of many prehispanic societies holding mortuary feasts. While not
suggesting origins, it is evident from the archaeological record o f the Teuchitlanos, and
from ethnohistoric accounts presented here that the peoples of West Mexico had an
ancient and unbroken tradition of private and public mortuary feasts that began during
195
the Preclassic Period.
Sources from the Tarascan, Tarahumara, and Huichol
demonstrate a continuity to practices o f private and public feasts for the dead in West
and Northwest Mexico. Contrary to the Aztec accounts however, the mortuary and
annual feasts in Western Mexico have a particular emphasis on ritual drinking. The ritual
consumption of pulque, mescal, and lesgumo may stem from an equally long tradition of
producing and consuming agave based beverages in prehispanic societies o f West and
Northwest Mexico.
Tarascan. Conquest Period documentary evidence for feasts in prehispanic
West Mexico is contained in one primary source, the Chronicles o f Michoacan (Craine
and Reindorp 1970; Warren 1985), a history of the Tarascans told by them from 15391541 to Franciscan Fray Martin de Jesus de la Coruna The Chronicles recount feasting
events, rituals, burial customs, fasting requirements, and an annual round o f community
feasts that honored the deities (Craine and Reindorp 1970:15-16, 29-47, 241; Warren
1985). Descriptions o f feasts that commemorated the deaths of important individuals
offer insights and details into Conquest Period practices that may pertain to earlier West
Mexican behaviors.
Mortuary rites for significant personages in Tarascan societies included the
public exhibition o f the dead, along with an equally public display of rich offerings of
food and pulque. The Chronicles o f M ichoacan tells o f a large public feast that was held
following a battle. At an altar in the plaza, many offerings o f bread and wine were
presented along with the wrapped heads o f lords killed in war (Craine and Reindorp
1970:29). The illustration o f this historic event (Figure 4.1) shows mounds o f globular
foods piled in the large serving howls. The wine refers to the maguey wine, or pulque,
produced by the Tarascans.
? //
m J A^
\\\ \
I llhl iH W n w X n w
EroSS?-------- i-
Figure4.1. A Tarascan Mortuary Feast,, showing heads o f dead and bowls o f bread
on temple or platform (from Craine and Reindorp 1970: Plate 8).
A second passage from the Chronicles (Craine and Reindorp 1970:44-48)

records the lavish mortuary rites for a Tarascan king. Figure 4.2 illustrates such an
event. Lords from throughout the province attended the deceased ruler, and adorned
him with gold, turquoise, feathers and leather. For the funerary procession, the lords
197
prepared a litter with the body wrapped in blankets.
They placed the hpad also
wrapped, on top o f the litter. Those permitted, to march in the royal funeral procession
consisted of extended family members, and the seven lords and forty attendants who
went in death with the king to serve him in the afterworld.
Figure 4.2. Stages of a Tarascan funeral for the king

(from Craine and Reindorp 1970: Plate 13).
The funeral procession proceeded to the great plaza, where the bearers placed
the body on a funeral pyre for cremation. Later, the lords bundled up the ashes for
interment. They lined the grave with reed mats, and on a wooden bed, the lords placed
metal shields, the bundle of cremated remains, and other things On top, the lords then
placed a large pot containing the dead kings head. Around the wooden litter or bed, the
lords created an underground assemblage .of mortuary vessels. They put in many large
198
earthen jars, smaller jars, wine, and food (Craine and Reindorp 1970:47). The lords
then covered the royal burial and the separate grave of the attendants with earth. With
the mortuary rites concluded:
. . . th e lords and people go to th e patio o f th e house o f th e
dead Cazonci, and huge quantities o f foo d th a t had belonged
to th e dead Cazonci are brought outfo od th a t ha s been
prepared fo r th e occasionin th e fo rm o f com cooked w h ite .. .
Craine and Reindorp 1970:47
An exclusive gathering o f royal lineage lords served another purpose at the

funeral, to select the next leader (Craine and Reindorp L97Q:48-49; Warren 1985).
Royal Tarascan leadership was an inherited role that passed through a named and
superior patrilineage (Pollard 1993:59).
The Tarascans also held an annual round o f feasting events that followed the
cycle of the Mesoamerican calendar. Important to my argument, the Tarascans
celebrated a feast that seems to have been equivalent to the Aztec Grand Feast for the
Dead, as recorded in the Chronicles o f Michoacan (Craine and Reindorp 1970:185;
Corona Nunez 1957: 67; Kelley 1974; Warren 1985). For this feast day, the Tarascans
erected a long wooden pole in the center o f a plaza for gods to descend from heaven and
conduct the volador performance. The annual ritual was held in the plaza of the old god
o f fire, called Querenda-angapetey or Cuicaueri, in Tarascan (Kelley 1974:25-27).
To this day, Tarascans living in their prehispanic capital o f Tzintzuntzan,
celebrate a Catholic version of Huey M iccaylhuitl in Day o f the Dead, and All Saints
Day fiestas. The feasts are family events that memorialize both the newly dead and the
199
long dead ancestors (G. Foster 1948:219). Liquor, music, marigold flowers, and food
offerings link a modem family celebration to an ancient ritual.
Tarahum ara. At the turn of the twentieth century, pioneering ethnographers
recorded feasting customs among the indigenous peoples o f the western Sierra Madre,
including the Tarahumara. Beginning with the first accounts, and continuing to the
present, ethnographies about the Tarahumara record a rich tradition o f feasting,
grounded in the ritual consumption o f native tesgiiino. Tesgiimo-dmkmg at public and
private feasts is integral to Tarahumaran feasting strategies, and Indispensable to
certain ceremonies (Bennett 1935:268-290; Lumholtz 1902:1:256; Merrill 1988:160flf,
Pennington 1963:153-154; Zingg: 1935:46). The feasts o f the Tarahumara are o f two
types, a sequence of mortuary feasts, both private and public, and an annual round o f
seasonal feasts.
The Tarahumara offer food and tesgiiino to the living and the dead at a series o f
mortuary feasts. In Lumholtzs (1902:1:382-384) account from the late nineteenth
century:
The body is w rapped in a blanket alm ost before it is cold, to be
buried later, but fo o d is a t once placed around it...th e dead keep s
h is buckskin pouch a nd three sm all gourds w ith beans. Three
ears o f com are placed to th e left o f h is head, a s w ell as a sm all
ja r o f tesviruo [tesguino]. A nother sm all ja r o f tesvino is placed
near h is feet...
Mortuary feasts documented by Bennett and Zingg (1935) and Merrill (1988)
are generally in agreement with Lumholtzs (1902) account. At the initial funerary feast,
the family of the deceased attends the corpse. Mortuary rites are organized by the
200
deceaseds parents, children, spouse, and sometimes siblings (Merrill 1988:163). They
gather in the house of the deceased, and speak to the corpse, telling it not to worry
because they will provide food for the journey, and three fiestas (or four for women). In
private, the family places three beans and three grains o f corn, around the corpse. The
women prepare the food. At the burial the following day, the food accompanies the
interment. Those family members attending to the dead then participate in a curing
ceremony, at which ashes, and a mixture o f sotoli 1 (also called agave water) and
mescal are sprinkled in a circular pattern around the patio (Bennett 1935:236-239;
Merrill 1988:164; Pennington 1963:154-155).
Over the next year, the family hosts a series o f small death feasts (a total of
three for men and four for women) to appease and to finally chase away the dead spirit.
Lumholtz (1902:1:385) records that at the mortuary feasts, family members serve
tortillas, whose size depends on the age of the deceased (i.e., little tortillas for children),
animal meats butchered from livestock o f the deceased, and large quantities of tesgiiino.
Each mortuary feast lasts twenty-four hours beginning at the hour at which the dead
breathed his last (Lumholtz 1902:1:387). They offer sustenance to the soul of the dead,
saying, Here I leave this tesvino and food for you, the meat and tortillas, that you may
eat and not come back (Lumholtz 1902:1:383-389).
Among contemporary
Tarahumara, Merrill (1988:167) finds regional variation in the scheduling and details of
the small death feasts. Bennett (1935:241-251) describes a second mortuary feast held
1Sotoli is a fibrous Liliaceae (Dasylirion ssp.) plant that the Tarahumara use in basketry.
It also is used to make agave water, a mescal-like drink (Bennett 1935:281; Merrill 1988:164).
201
three days (or four for women) after burial during which food is again offered to the
dead spirit. In general, the third feast is the last o f the small death rituals during the year
long commemoration. It is held three weeks after the death. The feast honors not only
the recently deceased, but, all close relatives who have died within the previous few
years...[T]he dead are said to arrive...in the company of other relatives from the
afterlife, who share the food and beer with them and help carry the goods back to their
homes (Merrill 1988:168). The third feast is a public memorial feast. Food and
tesgiiino are offered at an altar on the patio accompanied by music and dance. Six
women march to the altar where they each place a basket o f offering tortillas and a small
bowl of stew for the dead. Small, fat tortillas are also placed at the grave site. Everyone
feasts on tamales and stew, and drinks tesgiiino to the point of confusion and inebriation
(Bennett 1935:241-251; Merrill 1988:168).
The final and large memorial feast is held three to four years after the death.
According to Merrill (1988:174), the modem practice o f the final feast may incorporate
Christian rituals associated with Ash Wednesday. In rituals that evoke the gods and
ancestors, the feast, called When We Write in Ashes, is a more elaborate version o f the
small death feasts. Again, consumption o f tesgiiino is a primary activity. Tesgiiino is
offered to the dead and to the gods, using an olla o f beer, a gourd dipper; [and] a
bucket containing three (for males) or four (for females) dippersful of beer for each of
the dead for whom the fiesta had been sponsored (Merrill 1988:180). At this feast,
community leaders guide the redistribution o f the possessions o f the deceased, including
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his or her land, animals, food supplies, and other belonging. Blood relatives inherit the
goods, in the following preferential order children, siblings, and collateral relations
(Merrill 1988:173). The final feast is intended to fulfill conclusively the obligations of
the living to the dead, and implicates social, political, religious, and economic
domains (Merrill 1988:173).
Numerous feasts honoring the seasonality o f annual agricultural productivity
round out the Tarahumaran social and economic investments. According to Bennett
(1935:290), the feasts in the annual cycle, seem hoary with antiquity... [and are], for the
most part, all that remains o f the original beliefs. These annual feasts commemorate the
planting time, the rain, the green com, and the harvest (Bennett 1935; Pennington 1963).
Between the months o f March and May, the Tarahumara hold an annual tesgiiinada
feast (Bennett 1935:284-285). The cycle of annual feasts dates back at least to the
seventeenth century when the Tarahumara held ceremonies at planting time in honor o f
the sun and the moon (Pennington 1963:166). The annual feasts share several features:
the venue at a public plaza, altars for offerings placed to the east, the burning o f incense,
the sharing and consumption o f foods, and the constant drinking of tesguino (Bennett
1935:288-290; Pennington 1963:165).
HuichoL The Huichol o f the Sierra Madre Occidental hold a range o f feasts to
commemorate the dead, including private and public feasts. At the private graveside
ceremony, the Huichol give the recently dead a gift of water in a hollow reed and five
tortillas (Lumholtz 1902:11: 242). Five days after interment, the family holds a feast
203
offering all the deceaseds favorite foods. The spirit eats, and then turns into a small bird
and flies away. On this occasion, the Huichol do not drink; instead jars o f libation are
covered and hidden from the dead spirits (Lumholtz 1902:11:243-244). The purpose of
the Huichol funerary rituals is to help the dead soul find its place with the ancestors
(Garcia de Weigand and Weigand 1992:2285).
Huichol mortuary rituals are centered at the family shrines, called Shirifd, or the
House of the Ancestors. Both the ancestors and the newly dead are honored at the
lineage shrines. Funeral rites are sometimes accompanied with consumption of meat and
tesguino (Garcia de Weigand and Weigand 1992:228ff). The food is placed on these
shrines (Lumholtz 1902:11: 479).
At the turn o f the twentieth century, the Huichol held feasts associated with their
calendar, in June and October, that share symbolism with activities described for Huey
MiccaylhuitL Two Huichol feasts, the toasting o f com and the ritual of elotes
(tender ears of new com), took place in ceremonial plazas marked by a tall pole that
reached to the sky. The pole, decorated with beautifully patterned woven sashes,
symbolized the celestial path. Each June religious leaders danced around the pole while
families contributed mounds of tamales, toasted com, and deity images made of
amaranth and maize breads. In October the religious leaders impersonated the Huichol
solar deities. They dressed as feathered eagles and offered new foods at the sacred pole
(Preuss 1996:120,126-132). At the Fiesta of Squash and Com held in January, a temple
is filled with offerings, including miniature tortillas, tamales, cheese, and gourds filled
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with tesguino (Martinez Rios 1998). The meaning o f these Huichol events may also
apply to an interpretation of the ceramic models o f feasting at pole ceremonies that are
found in West Mexican shaft tombs.
In addition to the pole ceremony, the Huichol observed another annual feast to
commemorate the ancestors, the Feast of San Andres. On that day, ancestors are said to
sit under the family hearth with their eating bowls raised, waiting, for .foods. Women
served the ancestors specially prepared com cakes and oval com rolls (Lumholtz
1902:IL 28-30,242).
FEASTING IMAGERY IN WEST MEXICAN ART
It is likely th a t m any o f th e vessels interred w ith deceased

individuals (who later assum ed th e sta tu s o f ancestor) were in
and o f them selves a chronicle o f ritual fe a s ts attended by that
individual.
Patricia McAnany 1995:32-33
The artists o f ancient West Mexico conveyed consumption in three primary

ceramic forms: small scale scenes with groups o f figurines shown, with food and vessels,
large human figures with vessels, and depictions o f the actual foods for the feast. The
two forms with human figures give a sodaL meaning, to the portrayal .of ritual feasts and
are therefore the focus of this study. Artistic elements o f food and containers that are
depicted in the ceramic architectural models of my study sample convey the themes of
ritual consumption and drinking in mortuary and ritual contexts. Other themes identified
205
in the larger ceramic corpus o f the art o f feasting are political competitions and the
Grand Feast for the Dead. The repetitive imagery o f consumption found in the funerary
art from Nayarit, Jalisco and Colima allow the supposition that ritual feasting in a
mortuary context was an entrenched custom throughout early West Mexico.
Food Depictions
The rendering o f food is fairly straightforward in West Mexican ceramic art,

especially in the context of the plates, bowls, and human figurines that comprise the
scenes of consumption. Artistic convention makes it possible to distinguish four food
categories represented repeatedly in the ceramic models, and other scenes o f
consumption The limited and consistent pottery shapes denote four food groups in the
West Mexican art: cylindrical food, globular food, discoidal food, and lump food. These
are shown in Figure 4.3. Except for the cakes which are served alone, the other food
icons are rendered in clusters or platefuls, similar to the bowls o f tamales depicted in
Maya art (Figure 4.3) (Taube. 1989; ReentSrBudet 1994). The cylindrical and globular
Table 4.1. Frequency o f servings o f each food type in the ceramic models.
Cylindrical
Food
/
16
Globular
Food
/
16
Discoidal
Food
/
10
Lump
Food
f
9
Total
Food Servings
51
goods are the most abundant food shapes (Table 4.1), with 16 servings or platefuls each,
206
followed by the discoidal (n=10) and lump food shapes (n=9).

West Mexican scholars can only conjecture about what foods are being depicted
by these shapes. In Maya art, however, Karl Taube (1989) identified maize tamales
using a combination of iconographic, historic, and glyph sources. Mayan, depictions o f
tamales show a round or globular shape (Figure 4.3).
The West Mexican ceramic
models have two food shapes that may represent tamales, the cylindrical and the globular
MAYA Tamales
WEST MEXICAN Cylindrical Food
Globular Food
Discoidal Food.
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Lump Food
Figure 4.3 . Maya depiction o f tamales (from Scheie and Freidel 1990:
254-255; Reentz-Budet 1994: 82), and categories o f food groups
depicted on West Mexican ceramic models (by K. Butterwick).
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shapes. The cylindrical shape is consistent with the oval shape of some o f the modem
tamales. Oval shaped com rolls are one food that the Huichol give to the dead
(Lumholtz 1902:If: 28-30, 242). The Huichol also make a globular food for feasts.
These are balls made o f pinole (a dried com powder) mixed with beans, or a ball
digram
Figure 4.4. Aztec depictions o f feasts. Top, pulque drinking from Codex Mendoza
1541:71; lower, Aztec banquet from. Codex Mendoza 1541:68.
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comprised of com and deer meat (Lumholtz 1902:11:479).

The globular food shape in the West Mexican models is reminiscent o f the
images of food illustrated in the Chronicles o f Michoacan (Figure 4.1) (Warren 1985).
The bowls at Tarascan feasts contain mounds o f glohular foods described as bread and
as food...made of com cooked white (Craine and Reindorp 1970:36, 47). Although
the tamale was a sacred food to the Classic Maya and to the Aztec (J. Marcus 1982:248;
Taube 1989), no conclusive evidence exists that either the globular or oval food shapes
in the West Mexican models represents tamales.
It is conceivable that the globular and cylindrical food shapes may depict local
fruits and vegetables rather than prepared foods, such, as tamales (see von Winning 1959:
Figure 7, 1972a:21).
The elongate form may represent ears o f com or squash.
Candidates for round fruits and vegetables native to Mesoamerica. include the passion
fruit, tomato, and cashew, and oval to rounded products include pineapple, papaya,
avocado, and chayotes (Weatherford 1988:109-115). But fruit is unlikely because other
organic attributes are not depicted.
The discoidal food imitates the look o f a cake or tortilla, or the tortilla griddle,
the comale. The types o f foods that the Tarahumara prepare suggest a variety of
indigenous foods made in the discoidal shape, such as the little round cakes of baked
agave, discussed in Chapter n. They also prepare, from a maize dough, the special
offering tortillas that they serve only to the dead. Offering tortillas are small thick maize
tortillas about three inches in diameter. The Tarahumara give the offering tortillas in
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groups o f threes (or four for deceased females) (Merrill 1988:167-168). On the ceramic
models, the discoidal foods are always served singularly
The Tarahumara also make
com tortillas mixed with flower buds plucked from the agave (Bye, Jr. et al. 1975:90).
The small piles o f lump food, always placed in threes (see Record No. 29),
suggest the depiction o f a handful of beans or maize kernels. It may be more than
coincidental that when the Tarahumara give food to the dead, they give it in threes, i.e.,
three pieces o f tortillas, three kernels of maize, or three uncooked beans. To the dead
spirits, each maize kernel or bean is the equivalent to an entire sack.
(Merrill
1988:164).
Serving W are Depictions
Serving platters and shallow bowls hold the tiny shapes o f food in the modeled
feasting scenes. These serving containers appear to be plates of different shapes, and
low bowls, as. illustrated in Figure 4.5. In the ancient world, the serving ware may have
been made o f clay, wood, gourd, or a piece of an agave leaf. The present analysis
groups all the depicted food serving ware into one category termed platters. A platter
refers to the flat, or shallow, vessel upon which food is served. The platter is the most
numerous container depicted. Of the 101 containers for food and drink counted ,in the
35 ceramic architectural models with consumption imagery^ 62 are platters with food
(Table 4.2 ). The remainder are the drinking vessels: empty cups, bowls, and jars. In the
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study sample, 35 ceramic models have platters in the main level.
Most models have
more than one platter (35 models have 62 platters). By model groups, the Tomb Models
have the strongest association with food serving wares. Over half of the Tomb Models
(n=l 7) have more than Halfo f the platters o f food (n=32).
Table 4.2. Frequency o f the 101 containers depicted

in 33 ceramic models.
Platters
Jars
Cups
62
23
Individual
Bowls
7
Empty Vessel Depictions
Empty vessels of different shapes and sizes occur in the ceramic.architectural

models of my study sample. These seem to depict cups, empty gourds or bowls, and jars
for containing liquids. The smallest o f the containers is the individual cup: a small vessel
whose height is about equal to its diameter, shown in Figure 4.5. Each cup is held in the
hand of a figurine. In the study sample, only eight models have cups. They usually occur
^ ------- 7
Figure 4.5. Depictions o f cups, left,and serving wares

of platters and bowls in West Mexican art.
^=7
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singularly, with one exception (Record No. 9 ) that has two cups. The depiction o f cups
is correlated with jars (Record Nos. 28 and 29), and to a lesser degree with jars and
platters (Record Nos. 9 and 14). Two ceramic architectural models have cups only
(Record Nos. 36 and 57).
Empty shallow bowls also appear as individual serving containers. That the
bowls are empty like the cups and jars, suggests that they too serve as images of drinking
vessels. The seven empty bowls usually occupy the lap or a place adjacent to a small
figurine. Individual serving containers appear on few ceramic models (Record Nos. 1,8,
and 17). The large,, hollow ceramic figures o f West Mexico hold, in one or both hands,
these same types o f individual containers, shaped either like a cup, or soup bowl (Figure
4.5). The containers are of individual serving size and are empty. Vestiges of original
paint still survive on many cups or bowls held by the large figures.
Table 4.3. Frequency o f Empty Vessels in ceramic models.
Models
Total
n
82
Models w/ jars
/
%
17
21%
Models w/ cups
f
%
8
1%
Models w/ bowls
f
%
3
<1%
Tall containers, also empty, denote liquid containers o f a jar or vat. A jar is
recognized as a relatively large vessel whose height exceeds its diameter. The jar shapes,
illustrated in Figure 4.6, suggest that they are meant to depict containers for liquid.
Variation occurs in the upper portion o f the jar. Some have no neck, and others have
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Figure 4.6. Jars as depicted in W est Mexican ceramic models (by Butterwick).
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necks that can be outslanting or inslanting. The suggestion that these empty vessels
represent liquid containers was made by von Winning (1972a:21) who called them
water jugs. The water jug interpretation remains a possibility for some of the miniature
vessels. Other jars however appear to be too large and wide-mouthed for carrying
liquids. Tall and wide jars mimic the distinct, outslanting shape of pulque jars used for
serving large am ounts o f pulque (Figure 4.4). One ceramic model (Record No. 14)
shows both jar types: the large pulque vat on the front porch, and inside, near a figure
holding an empty cup, is a jar with a constricted neck, more appropriate for serving
beverages. There are 23 large empty jars in 17 of the 82 ceramic models (Table 4.3).
Scenes of Ritual Consumption in the Ceramic Architectural Models
The study sample of ceramic architectural models conveys ritual consumption in

a variety o f artistic elements. Thirty-five models have food and containers, 17 models
have empty containers but no food, and 21 models entirely lack imagery of consumption.
(On ninR models feasting imagery was indeterminable). My examination suggests that
the three types o f ceramic models each expresses a sacred or ritual theme.
Models with Food Depictions. Analysis of the distribution o f the food symbols
on the ceramic models indicates that ritual feasting rather than the daily meal is
portrayed. This observation concerns the large amount o f food servings on individual
models, the servings of a single food item, and the adorned nature of the figurines
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attending the feast. There are 35 ceramic models with food imagery on the main or
upper level.
The feasting scenes include a variety of food and container images. Complex
scenes of consumption, distinguished by the presence of more than one food serving and
containers, appear on 26 (or 74 percent) o f the 35 models with food. Some feasting
scenes have three platters of food (Record No. 41), or four (Record No. 86), or ajar
and a platter of food (Record Nos. 40, 51, 79, and 81), or a platter o f food, with jar and
cup (Record No. 29). One elaborate meal is portrayed by three jars, four platters of
food, and one cup (Record No. 14). Thus, the majority o f the ceramic models (94
percent) with food imagery also have one or more depictions of containers. Twelve of
the 35 models with food have a mix o f food types, most involving the more numerous
globular and cylindrical food shapes (see Record Nos. 1,2, and 25).
Smaller (possibly kin based or family) feasts are depicted by a reduction in food
portions. Nine o f the 35 models have a small serving portrayed, consisting o f one
singular food element (Record Nos. 18,34,36, 52,63,67,74,91, and 95).
Indigenous peoples frequently served a specific food at mortuary feasts, or to
commemorate feasting days in the calendar round. It is not surprising, therefore, that in
the display of food elements, 66 percent of the 35 models (or n= 23) have a singular type
of food presented in one or more servings. For example, the globular food alone is
present on eight models ( Record Nos. 41,43,79,64,91, 52,76, and 81), the cylindrical
food alone on six models (Record Nos. 26, 56,60,95,34, and 35), the discoidal food on
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five models (Record Nos. 74,36,29, 63, and 67), and the lump food alone is present on
four models (Record Nos. 18,40, 51, and 87). It is possible, but not currently knowable,
that the food shapes coincide with a feasting day, a commemoration event, or a sequence
in a funerary progression.
Anthropomorphic figurines invariably attend the scenes o f feasting on the
ceramic models. The only meaningful pattern that appears in the data is that both male
and female figurines wear social group labels at the feasting scenes. Adorned male and
female figurines attend ten of the 35 models with food imagery. Adorned male figurines
(without adorned female figurines) attend 13 feasting events, and adorned female
figurines without adorned male figures occur on three models.
Altogether, a majority
(n= 25, or 71 percent) of the models with scenes of consumption have adorned figurines
in attendance. From my analysis of the figurine data the inference can be made that
members o f kin groups were the frequent hosts of West Mexican ritual feasts.
Models with Empty Vessels. The figurines that hold empty containers in this
group o f ceramic models may signify the hungry ancestors. The patterns identified in
these ceramic models may express the prehispanic belief in regular and cyclic feasts for
the dead.
The study sample includes seventeen ceramic models that have empty
containers but no food on the main level (Record Nos. 3, 7, 9, 17, 23, 28, 31, 39, 53,
57, 58, 61, 62, 69, 78, 84, and 92). The empty containers in these models include the
three types (jars, cups, individual bowls), discussed above, and therefore also denote
consumption.
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A majority o f the models (n=l 1) have single figurines that hold an individual jar,
cup, or empty bowl.
The figurines appear to be waiting for food or sustenance.
Possibly, the figurines holding their cups and bowls are the ancestors that the Huichol
describe who wait for food on the Feast o f San Andres. The remaining she ceramic
models have more than one container (Record No. 6 has six containers). These models
with groups o f figurines holding empty cups and bowls suggest a family of ancestors
waiting for one in a sequence o f mortuary feasts.
The interpretation of feeding the dead is further validated by an association o f the
empty containers with tomb chambers. Fourteen, or 82 percent o f the ceramic models
with only empty containers have lower chambers. This factor contrasts sharply with the
total study sample, in which 54 percent of the 82 models (or n=44) have lower
chambers. (Not included in the pattern are three models with low platforms that do not
have chambers, and three models that have tombs which are empty.)
Another eleven (65 percent) models with only empty containers have lower
chambers that are occupied: four have consumption imagery, two chambers have a dog
figurine, and five chambers have prone figures. The frequency of lower chambers and
chambers with funerary and feasting scenes is much higher in this group of ceramic
models than for the 82 models in the study sample. The inference can be made that the
depiction o f empty vessels on the main level of the ceramic models correlates with the
underworld imagery of the lower chambers.
Models with M ortuary Feasts.
The analysis o f figurines in the previous
217
chapter proposed that the dead or the ancestors were represented by the figures
inhabiting the lower chambers and by the prone figures. My findings substantiate the
proposition that mortuary feasts are represented in the ceramic models that have food
and vessel imagery with prone figures or feasts staged in the lower chambers.
Feasts with Prone Figures. Eleven models have prone figures in the main level,
with six also displaying scenes o f consumption on the main level (Record Nos. 14, 24,
34, 43, 70, and 95). One ceramic model with a prone figure above (Record No. 80),
has feasting imagery in the lower chamber. Generally, the foods accompanying the
prone figure belong to the discoidal shape (n=5), although two models have cylindrical
foods only, one has globular food only, and two have a mixture o f food shapes.
Animal figurines highlight the underworld theme. Bird figurines occur on two
models with prone figures, and dogs appear twice on the main level and once in the
chamber below in this selected sample.
Prone figures occur in the lower chamber o f eight models. Interestingly, feasting
imagery appears on the main level o f seven o f these models (Record Nos. 29, 34,36,49,
61, 63, and 67), and one (Record No. 39) displays consumption on both levels. Dogs
appear on five of these models: twice they occupy the lower level (Record Nos. 39 and
63), and three times the dogs appear on the main level (Record Nos. 34, 61, and 63).
Two of the dogs appear with birds too (Record Nos. 39 and 61). Regarding figurines of
fowl, four (or 50 percent) of the models with prone figures in the lower chamber also
have clusters of birds on the main level (Record No. 29,39,49,61).
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In sum, prone figurines o f the main level are directly associated with depictions
o f consumption. Yet in the models with, prone figurines in the lower chamhers, the
presumed dead are only indirectly associated with feasting because the scenes of
consumption take place above them, on the main level. Altogether, 78 percent (or
n=14) of the models with prone figurines also have scenes o f feasting. This percentage is
much higher than that determined for the overall study sample, in which only 47 percent
(n=35) of the study sample has feasting scenes.
The presence of the prone figurines seems to correlate with feasting, and
supports my proposition that these models portray mortuary feasts. In 50 percent of the
18 models with prone figures, animal imagery of dog and/ or bird appears.
That
association increases if we consider only the models with prone figures in the lower
chambers. Six of these eight models (75 percent) have imagery of the animals of the
underworld, thereby reinforcing the funerary theme.
Ritual Consumption in the Lower Chamber. Scenes o f consumption that take
place in the lower chamber o f ceramic models further convey the imagery o f mortuary
feasts. Twelve ceramic models in the study sample have symbols o f consumption, that
is, food and/ or containers, in the lower chambers (Record Nos. 19, 25, 39, 42, 51, 52,
53, 61, 64, 74, 80, and 92). Nine of the twelve models are characterized as having
mortuary feasts based on the presence of food. Moreover, five models (Record Nos. 25,
51, 52, 64, and 74) have scenes o f consumption both in the lower chamber and the main
level.
219
Three scenes o f consumption in the lower chamber have empty bowls or jars, but
no food. Of the three models with empty bowls or jars in the lower chamber, none has
food on the main level (Record Nos. 39, 53, and 92). Tall empty jars appear in four o f
the lower chambers. The depiction o f jars in the lower chambers suggests that pulque
was served as a mortuary offering. The presence of the jars correlates with dogs in the
lower level, in three o f four instances (Record Nos. 39, 51, and 53). The co-occurrence
of dogs and jars is reminiscent of the symbolism painted in the Cholula Bebedores
mural (see Chapter VI).
As previously discussed, the lower chambers are occupied by nearly equal
numbers of unadorned male and female figurines. In the main level o f these models
however, the figurines do show patterns of shared social labels that include cloaks for the
male figurines, and nose rings for the female figurines. Underworld imagery is
represented by the presence o f prone figures in two, and by dogs in five lower chambers
with feasting scenes.
The interpretation of mortuary feasting can be applied to numerous examples o f
West Mexican art. One repeated theme shows a corpse laid out on a litter accompanied
by dishes of food and empty jars (Figure 4.7), and surrounded by attendants (von
Winning and Hammer 1972:73-75, Figures 91-100). Other ceramic sculptures depict
entire funerary processions (von Winning and Hammer 1972:72, Figures 87-90). Von
Winning and Hammer (1972:72) provide descriptive comments: 17 individuals include
6 persons carrying a catafalque [ornate burial litter] towards a hut in front o f which are
platters of food; 29 figures in orderly formation, the first 4 of which carry food on
their heads; A catafalque is being carried in a procession which includes individuals
with folded blankets and food on their heads. The 3 crests on the catafalque resemble
the crest on the house; and, A very small crested catafalque is being carried toward a
house in the front o f which food is laid out. The figurines inhabiting each o f these
ceramic pieces invariably wear the same social group labels. They share the same head-
Figure 4.7. Ceramic sculpture of a mortuary feast for one dead, h=10.8 cm
(from Day 1996a; 10, Figure 8).
gear, earrings, necklaces, or nose rings. The crest design repeated on the roof of the
house and atop the catafalque may signify a house-tomb metaphor.
Models with Jars. Ceramic models that have tall empty jars may portray ritual
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drinking events. The notion that the jars depict serving containers for intoxicating
beverages, like pulque or tesguino, and not the storage of water in jars is rooted in the
earlier discussion regarding jar shape. Seventeen of the ceramic models in the study
sample have tall empty jars that may depict Late Preclassic Period drinking events in
West Mexico (Figure 4.6) (Record Nos. 4, 7, 9, 14, 20,28,29, 40,43, 51, 56, 58, 60,
78,79, 81, and 87).2 Most models have must one jar, however, one model has three jars
(Record No. 14), and four others have two jars each (Record Nos. 9,28,29, and 43).
Models with jars correlate with outdoor ritual scenes. Events associated with
pulque jars include couples embracing on outside porches (Record Nos. 14, 78, and 54).
Scenes of dancing and music take place outdoors (Record Nos. 31, 33, 59, and 91),
sometimes with drums (Record No. 78). The handling of drink or pulque is depicted on
two models (Record Nos. 56 and 60). On these, a male figurine hoists a wide-mouthed
jar on his shoulder as he walks up the stairs to a group of figurines. It may be relevant
that at contemporary Tarahumara mortuary feasts, it is the shaman who carries the jug of
tesguino to the grave site (Merrill 1988:176).
More male figurines than female figurines attend the outdoor drinking events.
Additionally, the males wear substantially more adornments than do the female figurines.
O f the 95 male figurines present at ceramic models with jars, 47 percent wear social
group labels signifying high status, however only 14 percent of the 62 female figurines
wear social labels. The clustering o f social labels that the male figurines wear include
^The possibility that pulque feasts were represented in the West Mexican ceramic models
was suggested to me by Peter Furst and Joseph Mountjoy in Denver, Colorado in October 1994.
222
conical hats (n=20), the braided turban (n=13), and armbands (rr=10). At one drinking
event, the male figures appear in feather headdresses (Record No. 78 ). Only four of the
48 cloaked figures are present at the ceramic model scenes o f ritual drinking. The few
adorned females wear nose rings,, and the remaining 86 percent are plain, as if perhaps,
they attend to the business o f serving pulque.
The artistry o f the figurines suggests the possibility that women in West Mexico
had a social or economic function related to the production or control of agave or
alcohol consumption In Central Mexico, that the Aztec deity for maguey is the female
goddess M ayahuel (Nicholson 1971:410, Table 1; Townsend 1992:111). As reported
for the Aztec (Sahagun 1950, cited in de Barrios 1970:14-16):
A nd here is how it h a p p e n ed th e m aguey w as scraped out,

th e bountiful m aguey w as discovered,
from w hich aguarrdel comes.
The fir s t to discover th e art o f scraping it w a s a wom an
her nam e, M ayahuel.
B u t th e fir s t to discover th e sta lk,
th e root w ith w hich pulque is ferm ented,
h is nam e w a s P antecatl...
Perhaps Mayahuel and the maguey plant came from the West, given the seminal
depictions of ritual drinking in the Late Preclassic Period ceramic art. In contemporary
communities o f the Tarahumara, the cooking and monitoring o f proper tesguino
fermentation is the job o f women (Merrill 1988:175, 178).
Models without Consumption Imagery. Ceramic models without feasting
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imagery, yet inhabited by pairs o f figurines, may depict a sequence in mortuary behaviors
during which the dead were not fed. Models with the four figurines and an absence of
food may symbolize part o f the funerary progression, such as tending to the spirits of the
long dead that no longer demand feeding and drink. The complete absence o f feasting
imagery occurs on 23 ceramic models in the study sample.
The fifteen models (or 65 percent) with two pairs of male and female figurines
inside the main level, and no indication o f consumption, include 14 Basic Models and
one Tomb Model (RecordNos. 5,32,4 4,45 ,46 ,4 7 , 6 6,7 1,7 2,7 7,8 2,8 3, 88, 89, and
94). It is not inconceivable that these models express a sequence in funerary rituals, such
as the Tarahumara belief that the spirits no.longer require sustenance after three or four
mortuary feasts (Merrill 1988).
I could not find any statistical patterns within the remaining eight models without
consumption (Record Nos. 19, 22, 33, 37, 38, 59, 65, and 70). They encompass the
different ceramic model groups, and correlate with, for example the cloaked figurines
just once (Record No. 38).
Summary: Ritual Feast o r Domestic Consumption. The early potters of
West Mexico frequently depicted figurines in the act o f eating and drinking.
The
standard interpretation o f these, scenes , o f consumption, is, a woman . . giving her

husband food (Stem 1973), or a pair sharing a bowl (Taube 1988: fig.II-8); or like
other scenes that are, entirely ,profane attributesreligious, rituals or. temple buildings
are not portrayed (von Winning 1972a: 17, 21, 28-29); or have the artistic expression
224
that captures the warmth of everyday life, (M Miller 1986:58); statements that imply a
secular meaning to the food and vessel imagery. Referring to the ceramic models,
Gallagher (1983:108-109) has summarized the problem:
...house m odels are generally described in the literature a s
portraying everyday dom estic activities, but are more rem arkable
fo r th e num ber o f activities w hich are not portrayed, e.g., cooking,
sew ing, weaving, building, and pottery production, to nam e a
fe w .... A ll o f th is su g g ests that house m odels m ay represent
som ething other than everyday Ufe.B
My study concurs with Gallaghers general assessment of the models (and also Dwyer
and Dwyer 1975a: 108-110; P. Furst 1974:132-133). Analogous to artistic depictions in
Aztec (Figure 4.4) and Mixtec codices (Figure 4.8), Mayan polychrome vases (Figure
4.8), and Central Mexican murals (Figure 1.3), the ceramic models were a medium for
West Mexican artists to portray ritual themes.
Several elements support the inference that the feasting scenes signify a
ceremonial, rather than an everyday family meal. The first indication that ceremonial
feasts are portrayed is the nature o f the figurines that gather around every scene of food.
Previously, figurine data were presented that showed that the differences in gender, age,
costume and adornments did not depict a nuclear family or scenes of domesticity. The
groups o f figurines that inhabit the models with feasting scenes are similarly not at parity
with a normal human population. For example, frequently only one pair o f male and
female figurines occurs in models with consumption themes, while in other models, it is
groups of male only or female only figurines. The few small figurines, interpreted as
225
children, do not attend the scenes o f consumption. The scenes of eating and drinking in
adult only social groups represent not an everyday family meal of beans and mai?^ but a
momentous event, one deemed worthy o f meticulous and repeated dramatizing.
A second indication that the scenes o f consumption are not everyday meals is the
magnitude o f the presentation o f food and vessels. The co-occurrence of jars, cups, and
ftoiej
il
Figure 4.8. Feasting scenes in Mixtec codex, top (from Lind 1987: Figure 5);
and in Maya polychrome vase, bottom
(from Scheie and Freidel 1990:254-255) (by K. Butterwick).
226
numerous platters o f food lends support to the proposition that at ritual feasts in ancient
West Mexico, large amounts o f food and drink were consumed. For example, compared
to the figurine and house model size, many platters are proportionally large in size
(Record No. 52). Food servings are piled high with up to 13 cylindrical foods (Record
No. 25), or six globular foods (Record No. 54). The possibility that the quantity o f food
correlated with the number o f figurines per model was investigated by me, however, no
relationship was detected between the two variables. No domestic hearths, and only one
scene o f metate grinding occurs (Record No. 2).
A third factor indicative o f ritual feast rather than domestic meals is the spatial
patterning of the foods and vessels. The food types are carefully laid out and never
mixed on the serving trays. In at least 40 percent o f the feasting scenes, two or more
serving trays with different foods are depicted together. The two to five platters o f food
are placed in a row across the room. Food and vessels are situated in one of two areas
on the house models: 1) outside on a porch or patio, or 2) in the center of the structure.
In all cases, the figurines gather around the food and vessels. Outdoor feasting scenes,
which comprise about one third o f the eating scenes, involve a pair o f male and female
figurines that sit near or hold serving ware (Record No. 56).
The more common
location for feasts is inside the main room (Record No. 17). The combination o f food,
vessels, and figurines together in the center o f the models upper level gives a sense of
prominence to the feasting scenes.
Fourth, the tall empty jars, the inferred containers for intoxicating beverages, are
227
placed prominently in the center of a group o f figurines, or at the entrance to the main
room. A parallel view is described for the Yucatec Maya who, took a large vessel of
wine, and having placed it in the middle they offered it to the gods (Tozzer 1941:106
cited in Robertson 1983:136). The modeled drinking scenes, with vats, cups, and trays
o f food are not depictions o f ordinary occasions, but of ritualized drinking events, similar
to the activities painted in the Puique Drinkers mural (Figures 1.3, 6.1). While we
may never be certain of the correct meaning of the ceramic model iconography, my
reading o f some combinations o f elements is that they are a metaphor for ritual feasting
that commemorated the ancestors with food and ritual drink.
O ther Forms of W est Mexican A rt O f Consumption
Early West Mexican artists conveyed the importance o f feasting and ritual
drinking not only in the ceramic architectural models but also using other ceramic forms.
The variety of West Mexican feasting themes in the ceramic sculptures suggests the
multiple purposes o f feasting strategies in societies o f the Late Preclassic Period.
Themes in the art o f consumption include the annual Great Feast for the Dead,
competitive feasting, and ritual drinking scenes.
Depictions of Feasts in the Mesoamerican Calendar. A review o f the annual
commemorations held by prehispanic Mexican groups indicates that most feasts in the
Mesoamerican calendar system are physically indistinguishable. By that is meant that the
228
majority o f annual feasts take place in repeated contexts o f patios, altars, or the home,
and that a limited range o f ritual foods, like tamales or amaranth cakes, and the same
ritual drinks of pulque or mescal are served.
The similarities in the external
manifestations make the identification of a single feast day difficult, especially in the West
Mexican art which lacks glyphic labeling.
Nonetheless, one motif is unique to one feast in the Mesoamerican calendar, and
that is the xocotl or tree pole (Figures 1.4, 4.10). The xocotl is erected yearly, at Huey
Miccaylhuitl, to commemorate the Great Feast for the Dead, to celebrate agricultural
productivity, and to honor Huehueteotl, the old fire god.
Many scholars of
Mesoamerican prehistory have identified the pole, the feather headgear, and the volador
or flying ceremony in West Mexican ceramic sculptures (Bell 1971:715, Figure 17c;
Kelley 1974:25-33; Weigand 1992b, 1992e: 18-19; von Wining and Stendahl 1968:75).
In the opinion of von Winning and Stendahl (1968:75), It is not improbable that the
ceramic art showing male figurines on poles, portrays a ceremony {Juego del Volador)
still practiced by Totonacs and Otomi, in which four men in bird costumes are tied to the
top of a high pole. By unwinding their ropes, they slowly descend, simulating the flight
of birds.
They also note a symbolism o f fertility which expresses the divine
provenance of the crops (von Winning and Stendahl 1968:75).

Here the next step is suggested, that scenes of feasting at the xocotl ceremonies
represent the West Mexican version of the Grand Feast for the Dead as prescribed by
the system of Mesoamerican calendars. A small group of West Mexican sculptures
demonstrates not only the xocotl ritual with attached flying birdmen, but the
consumption and social settings as well. One o f these scenes is illustrated in Figure 4.9.
Figure 4.9. A West Mexican Huey M iccaylhuitl ceremony, h=24 cm

(from von Winning and Hammer 1972: Figure 77).
The piece features two houses or structures, a group of 14 figurines, the pole ceremony,
and the feast represented by pulque jars, bowls, and food depictions.
J. Charles Kelley (1974:26) holds a similar view:
230
. . .if the N ayarit...m odels...depict th e voladoresperform ances,

one m u st conclude th a t th e ritual and its basic cerem onial concepts
w ere in existence in W estern M exico a t th e beginning o f the
C hristian era, i f not before. P reviously, th e voladores ritual w as
know n only from th e S panish contact period, and thereafter.
Symbols in the ceramic voladores sculptures that Kelley (1974:26-28) identifies further
support my belief that the West Mexican art depicts one of the most distinct feasts in the
Mesoamerican calendar.
The meaning o f the West Mexican iconographic elements
include the Old Fire God, a concern with fertility, a solar observance dedicated to the
sun, performed originally at the beginning of each new 52-year calendrical cycle
(Kelley 1974:26-28).
The Huichol, Tarascan, Aztec, and Otomi versions of Huey M iccaylhuitl (Figure
4.10) help to substantiate the possibility that the ancient volador sculptures o f West
Mexico may have represented an. annual Grand Feast for the Dead dating to the Late
Preclassic Period (Corona Nunez 1957:67; Kelley 1974:25-33; Meighan and Nichoison
1989:55; Preuss 1996:120-132; von Wining and Stendahl 1968:75).
Competitive Feasts. Striking West Mexican figures illustrate the competitive or
political element o f feasting strategies possibly used by descent groups or leaders to
maintain authority. Impressive male and female couples hold individual serving vessels
and evoke the imagery o f the Aztec primordial pair, known as, Lord, and Lady o f our
flesh and sustenance, that show their close connection to the creation o f food
(Townsend 1992:117). Other figures sit on stools (title page). It is widely established
that in prehispanic art only leaders sit on thrones, mats, or stools, of power. Probably
Figure 4.10. Drawing of the annual Great Feast for the Dead
pole ceremony (from Duran 1975: Plate 19).
232
these imposing pairs o f enthroned feasting figures, interred in deep shaft tomb chambers,
portray the founding ancestors.
Other figures demonstrate the relationship between ritual consumption and
warfare. One figure wears trophy heads and holds a bowl, and another figure is depicted
with a warrior-like headdress and bowl. Group scenes (Figure 4.11) that portray men
holding round shields and congregating around food and drink, may demonstrate the
consequences of extreme feasting competitions, or show a post battle celebration.
Leaders in West Mexico may have used petty battles or ritualized warfare to impress
their subjects and rivals. As discussed in Chapter I, the competitive and political aspect
of war may have been ritually staged at public arenas, including the ballcourt (J.G. Fox
1996; Friedman and Rowlands 1978; Pohl and Pohl 1994:140-141).
Figure 4.11. Ceramic depiction o f West Mexican competitive feasting scene, h=26 cm
(from von Winning and Hammer 1972:Figure 52).
233
Depictions Of Ritual Drinking.

We have m ade tesguino a nd dedicated it to th e gods
who taught u s to m ake it so long ago.
Anonymous Tarahumara chant (cited in Bennett 1935:284)
West Mexican artists made ceramic sculptures o f ritualized drinking scenes with
figurines imbibing at patios and ballcourts.
Throughout prehispanic Mesoamerica,
drinking was a sacred act that was allowed only at ceremonies and ritual feasts (Litzinger
1983). In my study, the presence o f jars, the tall empty containers for intoxicating
beverages, conveys the theme o f ritual drinking in the ceramic art o f West Mexico.
Sculptures show groups o f figurines surrounding large jars (Figure 4.12). In
some cases, individual figures use a straw or suctioning device to consume liquid directly
(
(
Figure 4.12. West Mexican ceramic depiction o f ritual drinking scene,

h=16.5 cm (from Gallagher 1983: Figure 124).
ii
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234
from the jar. In others, reclined figures, apparently in a stupor, are peripheral to the
central drinking event The figurines in the sculptures o f ritual drinking tend to wear the
same social label (see also von Winning 1974:58, Figure 193). Figure 4.12 illustrates
this pattern, with each figure, from the large central male to the smaller female figures
that flank him, all wearing the same headgear and armbands.
Ballcourts. An analysis o f West Mexican ceramic models o f ballcourts suggests
that the ballcourt too was a venue for ritual drinking. In one ceramic ballcourt model
(Kubler 1986:183), the large jars held by two spectators on the ballcourt may signify the
consumption of pulque. A correspondence between pulque and the ballgame has been
identified in other prehispanic societies (J. G. Fox 1996). A carved ballcourt panel at
El Tajin in eastern Mexico (Figure 4. 13), for example, combines maguey plants with the
Figure 4.13. Maguey plant carved in panel o f El Tajin ballcourt

(from von Winning 1972b: Figure 14).
235
ritual consumption of pulque. Inebriation in this case is via an enema (Lkzinger 1983:9;
Scheie and Freidel 1990:254-255; Reentz-Budet 1994:82; von Winning 1972b). Hasso
von Winning (1972b:36-38) proposes the use of pulque enemas as an intoxicant among
the early West Mexican people, shown on small reclining West Mexican figurines.
The Acocote Tool for Pulque. Certain large West Mexican ceramic figures may
portray the llachiquero, or pulque worker. The poses and tools that the figures hold
exemplify the two primary methods o f agave juice extraction, sucking sap from the living
plant and squeezing juice from the baked heart. The acocote tool, used exclusively to
extract aguamiel from the heart of the agave, is held by ceramic figures.
Otto Schondube (1995) has argued, and I believe correctly, that certain ceramic
figures from Jalisco hold acocotes in their arms. Figure 2.10 illustrates one of the
ceramic figures with a cup in one hand, and an. acocote. used to suction aguamiel from
the agave cavity, in the other. According to Schondube, only figures made in the Jalisco
style hold acocotes. No similar depictions are made in the Colima style because the
lower elevation o f Colima precludes the growth of the highland agave plant. Luis Javier
Galvan (1991:266) agrees that certain West Mexican ceramic figures hold acocotes. To
Galvan (1991), these figures confirm that pulque was made and agave cultivated during
the Late Preclassic Period in West Mexico.
The Agave Heart. Some large hollow ceramic figures carry the whole agave
heart on their backs, using a tump line (Bell 1971:738: Fig. 3 la). Art historians refer to
one m&sca/-bearing ceramic figure as Cargador con Quiote de Maguey (Toscano et al.
236
1946:PIate 58; see also von Winning 1974:36). Although the authors confuse the word
quiote (the elongate sprout) with the heart, the bundle on the figures back is clearly the
mescal or leafless heart of the agave (Figure 4.14). The figure exhibits the strain o f
carrying the 30 to 70 kilo heart by means o f a tump line presumably from the place o f
cultivation or growth to the processing area. Perhaps the heart represents the agave as
food, and not as preparation for agave juice.
Figure 4.14 Ceramic figure from Colima shown carrying

a leafless heart or tne agave, h=24.5 cm (from Toscano et al. Figure 58).
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Drinking Vessels in the Shape o f Houses. During the Late Preclassic Period,
Colima artists made vessels in the shape o f architectural models. The vessels, which lack
figurines, have the shape o f single houses or household plaza groups (Figures 3.7- 3.9)
(Day et al. 1996, Figure 10; Gallagher 1983: Figure 108). That the abstract vessels were
interred in shaft tomb chambers strongly indicates their ritual purpose to serve as
drinking vessels for the dead. The Classic Maya also considered certain small ceramic
vessels to represent the homes o f the dead
(Houston 1995:14).
According to
epigrapher Steven Houston (1994:14-15) the small Maya vessels symbolize a home tomb metaphor, an interpretation possibly applicable to the West Mexican house shaped
vessels.
SUMMARY
The West Mexican art discussed in this study has a well developed thematic
content o f feasting. The large and small ceramic figures of consumption support my
thesis that ritual feasting was a way o f life by the Late Preclassic Period when the art was
interred in shaft tomb chambers o f the dead. Feasting themes portrayed in the art
identify feasting strategies that may have been used by corporate kin groups o f ancient
West Mexico. These include the private and public feasts for the ancestors, ritual
consumption of intoxicating beverages, and regional competitions.
Ceramic sculptures with human figures holding jars and cups suggest that ritual
238
drinking was widespread in Late Preclassic Period societies o f West Mexico. West
Mexicans had access to a variety o f agave with which to make fermented libations, and
clearly, agave based drinks were predominant in West Mexico and throughout
Mesoamerica. The art o f consumption suggests that ritual drink was served at the
ballcourt, at competitive feasts, at mortuary feasts, to the ancestor spirits and to the
living in West Mexico during the Late Preclassic Period.
The perception that West Mexicans did not use the Mesoamerican calendars has
led scholars to conclude that West Mexican history Is in many ways one o f separate
development from the rest o f Mesoamerica (M. Miller 1986:54). Therefore, if the
notion that West Mexicans did conduct seasonal feasts in the annual Mesoamerican
round is correct, then West Mexican history may not be as unique as was once thought.
The social relationship that descent groups, staking claims to land, held ritual
feasts for venerated ancestors during the Late Preclassic Period is investigated next in the
archaeological record o f the Huitzilapa region.
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CHAPTER V
THE COMMUNITY OF HUITZILAPA
My study has proposed that a Late Preclassic Period society thrived in the agaverich landscape o f the Tequila valleys. To maintain access to the agave lands, residents
recognized the founding landowning families as their own kin. This reconstruction o f
West Mexican prehistory derives in part from my reading o f the parallel messages o f
ancestor worship, social group membership, and mortuary feasting in the ceramic art.
Using the conjunctive methodology, my study now investigates those social issues
in the Late Preclassic Period community o f Huitzilapa in Jalisco. Here my analysis o f
settlement remains explores the possibilities that early Teuchitlan inhabitants used descent
principles to control access to resources and power, and to construct a community in the
Huitzilapa area.
KINSHIP IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD
My settlement pattern analysis from the Late Preclassic Period o f West Mexico is
predicated on the notion that architectural remains may reflect prehistoric social units (per
McAnany 1995:58; Willey 1981:391, 395). Studies o f contemporary indigenous peoples
raise the possibility that ancient settlements can mirror sociopolitical organization (Blanton
240
1978; P.Carrasco 1976; Fash 1983; Flannery 1972; Gregory and Urry 1985; Hirth 1989;
Howell and Kintigh 1996; Lipe and Hegmon 1989), kinship structures (Deez 1968; Nutini
1976:9; Vogt 1956, 1983b; Willey 1956), community function (Coe 1965b; Manzanilla
1996; Weeks 1988), cultural values (Friedrich 1970; Gero 1985), and religious systems
(Deal 1987; Drennan 1983; Lowe et aL 1982). For example in Mexico, Evon Vogt
(1983a:18-19) proposed that the plan and layout o f one modem Mayan community was a
blueprint of native cosmology. At the village o f Zinacantan, Vogt (1961) suggested that
the staging of ceremonies held at domestic plazas and community centers had prehispanic
origins.
My study uses the definition o f community recently formulated by archaeologists
Kolb and Snead (1997:611): a mtntmal, spatially defined locus o f human activity that
incorporates social reproduction, subsistence production, and self-identification (see also
E.Adams 1983; Coe 1965b; Dozier 1965; Smyth and Dore 1992). The community is a
socio-geographic unit which, applied to a scale of settlement, lies above the individual
household and below the regional levels o f analysis (Ashmore 1981; Blake 1988; Braun
and Plog 1982; Cordell and Plog 1979; Fash 1983; Smith 1993).
The community is a level o f settlement pattern analysis appropriate to my research
goals. Descent groups operate on varying spatial scales from regional to local, and may or
may not have a residential aspect. Descent reckoning can integrate whole tribes o f ranked
lineages involving thousands o f members occupying vast territories. They also exist as
local groups with a shallow genealogical depth o f only four or five generations (Service
241
1968:113-117) that may correlate spatially to the community level o f settlement. Scholars
have found that the composition o f some Mesoamerican communities coincides
specifically to descent groups (Hayden and Cannon 1982:147).
The settlement data presented here are amenable to an interpretation that at least
two exogamous descent groups operated in the Huitzilapa community during the Late
Preclassic Period. The proposed descent groups were centered at the two main sites of
Huitzilapa and El Zapote, where residents may have established an exchange o f marriage
partners. My interpretation is that descent group members set up residences in patio
groups with other family and kin. These residential social units composed o f extended
family members are, by the definition used here, the corporate kin groups. To further
substantiate my interpretation o f a kin oriented community, I pursue the possibility that
domestic altars in the patio groups were loci where descent group members honored the
founding ancestors. My analysis o f the settlement data also suggests that the Huitzilapa
descent groups did not comprise an autonomous or isolated society, but integrated with a
regional social hierarchy affiliated with the Teuchitlan Tradition (see Ohnersorgen and
Varien 1996; Weigand 1990a).
The community is a level o f analysis that has not previously been investigated in
the Late Preclassic Period archaeological record of West Mexico. Ultimately, the
Huitzilapa community described here can be compared to units in a regional hierarchy
(e.g., Kowalewski 1994), and with settlement studies of comparable societal units outside
o f West Mexico (e.g., B. Nelson 1995).
242
HUITZILAPA SALVAGE ARCHAEOLOGY PROJECT
The Huitzilapa area (Figure 5.1) is located in the heart o f West Mexico, about
sixty kilometers west o f Guadalajara, between the modem towns o f Tequila and
Magdalena, Jalisco. The architectural remains belonging to the Late Preclassic Period
occupation of the Huitzilapa area are the foundation of the current study.
From the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, Phil C. Weigand and colleagues
recorded the archaeological sites in the Huitzilapa area. They used walking and aerial
surveys to explore the perimeter o f Tequila Volcano. Weigand and colleagues mapped
and surveyed the site o f HuitzUapa-Cerro de Navajas (Figure 5.2), and other Teuchitlan
Tradition sites around Tequila Volcano. The name, Huitzilapa - Cerro de Navajas for
the largest site, combined the title o f the local hacienda (Huitzilapa) with that of the hill
containing abundant obsidian blades (Cerro de Navajas).
In May 1993, authorities were notified about the destruction of the archaeological
site of Huitzilapa which stood in the right-of-way o f a superhighway under construction
from Guadalajara to Tepic. Construction crews had already bulldozed a part of the site
center of Huitzilapa, leveling platform mounds. Comparing the extant mounds with
Weigands 1980 topographic map of Huitzilapa (Figure 5.2), archaeologists determined
that several platform mounds had been destroyed.
Other architectural remains fared
better, with only the upper few meters removed, leaving the stone foundations in place.
A salvage archaeology project was quickly begun, directed by Jorge Ramos de la
243
too
EL LXEMZi
LA ftOBLEOA
KOXTZXLAPA
-Xi
LA MIMA
Figure 5.1. Map o f Archaeological Sites in the Huitzilapa area (by K. Butterwick)
244
Vega from the Centro INAH Jalisco, and assisted by Lorenza Lopez Mestas Camberos
from Centro INAH Colima (INAH refers to Mexicos Instituto Nacional de Antropologja
e Historia). Rescue operations began in September 1993 and shortly thereafter, Ramos
and Lopez Mestas discovered the Huitzilapa shaft tomb. The Huitzilapa tomb is one o f
very few shaft tombs that scientists, rather than looters, have discovered. A published
account describes the tomb, the six interred human skeletal remains, and the lavish
offerings (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996), and is summarized
below. The Mexican government, under the auspices of the INAH Departamento de
Salvamento, sponsored the project, and maintains records of the excavations at INAH
headquarters in Mexico City.
In addition to the recovery o f the shaft tomb contents, archaeologists Ramos and
Lopez Mestas directed excavations and survey throughout the Huitzilapa area.
The
excavation of the sites o f Huitzilapa and La Robleda resulted in an enormous amount o f

ceramic and lithic materials. Chapter VI presents a preliminary analysis and functional
interpretation o f the unearthed ceramic materials.
Ancient work areas, small scale versions o f those described earlier for TeuchitlanGuachimonton, are evident in the accumulation o f obsidian debitage removed from cores
during extraction, roughing, and refining o f obsidian tools. Analysis o f the obsidian and
other lithic materials by Ramos will add insight into the economic structure o f the Late
Preclassic Period society o f the Huitzilapa area.
245
*.
t* a a % p
02iU
rari
HUITZILAPA
CERRO DE LAS
NAVAJAS.
rm i
ro
0
l r
tifltf
/
/
Figure 5.2. Map ofHuitzilapa from 1980, courtesy o f Phil C. Weigand
246
Excavations also produced considerable information on architectural forms,

features, and building techniques that are applicable to those unexcavated structures in the
Huitzilapa area identified from survey alone. A survey o f the Huitzilapa area and the
superhighway right-of-way was a continuous effort during field investigations, guided by
Carlos Santos, an INAH architect and cartographer, who specializes in prehispanic
monuments.
The C urrent Fieldwork
I was granted permission to conduct an archaeological survey of the Huitzilapa

area for six weeks from November 1993 to February 1994. My work focused exclusively
on the surface remains, rather than on the Huitzilapa shaft tomb. Under the direction o f
Jorge Ramos, and with the help o f various assistants, I personalty examined all the
architectural remains and resources in the Huitzilapa area. We identified natural resources
in the area, including obsidian outcrops mined prehispanicalty, and a major fresh water
spring utilized today at Rancho Huitzilapa. My investigations included settlement remains
previously recorded, and newly discovered archaeological features. From the walking
survey, it became apparent that a nucleus o f archaeological remains was contained within
an approximately four square kilometer area o f the Huitzilapa area.
Huitzilapa is a rare gem in West Mexican archaeology, not only because o f its
intact shaft tomb. O f equal significance to archaeologists is the well preserved architecture
247
and settlement remains articulated into prehistoric patterns, with only limited looting and
partially bulldozed. The sites in the Huitzilapa area represent the first studied settlements
associated with a deep West Mexican shaft tomb, and the first excavated TeuchitMn
Tradition architectural remains around Tequila Volcano. Recognizing the primacy o f the
Huitzilapa area settlement analysis to Late Preclassic Period West Mexican studies, my
investigation drew on settlement pattern research conducted throughout Mesoamerica
(R.Adams 1981; Andrews and Fash 1992; Ashmore 1981, 1994; Blanton 1978; Chang
1983; Feinman and Nicholas 1990; Flannery and Marcus 1983; Flannery and Winter 1976;
Hirth 1989, 1993a, 1993b; Nfillon 1973; Wilk and Ashmore 1988; Willey 1956, 1981),
including North and Western Mexico (Crespo 1992; Deraga and Fernandez 1986; Diehl
1976; Di Peso 1974; Gorenstein 1985; Jaramillo 1984; Kelley 1956; Ramos de la Vega
and Ramierez Garayzar 1992; Trombold 1976; Weigand 1989).
My fieldwork in West Mexico used a microregional approach. My premise was
that coeval settlement remains in the Huitzilapa area represented one discrete prehispanic
community (Kolb and Snead 1997; B. Nelson 1995; Valdez 1994) that ultimately linked to
a larger interaction sphere o f the TeuchitMn Tradition.
Because my goal was to
understand the social underpinnings o f the community level o f ancient West Mexico, my
study concentrated on recording every surface domestic mound, every architectural
feature, and the variability o f prepared space in the Huitzilapa area.
The specific attributes for each architectural feature or platform mound were
recorded on a standardized form. The attributes examined were: length, width, height,
248
foundation shape, compass orientation, building material o f welded tuff and/ or obsidian,
presence o f worked or cut stone, size o f stone, number o f courses, the presence o f stepped
platforms, stairs, landings, stone walls, other stonework, and unusual architectural traits.
During classification, the categories for individual architectural features were
described and defined, heeding Vogts (1956:181) and Ashmores (1981:42) advice to use
standard (Mesoamerican) typology and terminology when compiling a regional database.
The individual features were classified first by shape, either quadrangular or circular.
Quadrangular refers to square to rectangular platform mounds with ninety degree comers.
Quadrangular mounds have two expressions, plain ones generally constructed with field
stone, and large stepped ones with architectural elaboration.
The designation o f round applies to the distinctively circular architectural
elements. The round platform mounds also exhibit variety, with plain ones made with field
stones, rings o f stones in centers o f patios, architecturally elaborate circular platform
mounds, and stepped conical mounds (Table 5.1).
The platform mounds in the Huitzilapa area are made with two local volcanic rock
types, black obsidian bombs or welded volcanic tuf and with dirt fill The quality o f the
construction stone ranged from unworked field stone, to blocks o f cut stone that show
evidence o f working on at least four o f six sides. These blocks, cut from the softer welded
tuff measured up to 90 by 40 cm (Figure 5.3). It appeared that outcrop proximity, rather
than purposeful architectural elaboration, determined the type o f rock used in platform
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construction. Dirt filled the interior o f the large or elevated platform mounds.
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Figure 5.3. Unstepped platform mound made with large blocks of cut stone
(F1C - Huitzilapa, photography by K. Butterwick).
Spatial relationships were measured in the articulation of individual mounds into

groups arranged around patios, and the conjoining of patio groups into sites (Rice and
Puleston 1981:140). The documentation of spatial relationships for each mound included:
each mounds placement relative to other mounds; the shape and size of patios formed by
mound articulation; and if a mound was part o f a patio groups or isolated. In addition to
collecting these data, my fieldwork included surface collections at each patio, maps made
with a tape and compass for each patio group, and a photographic record of
archaeological features.
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250
My settlement survey o f the Huitzilapa area recorded elements from 212

architectural features, arranged in 48 patio groups, and nucleated into seven distinct
clusters or sites. However, to focus exclusively on the Late Preclassic Period community
of Huitzilapa, the study has since excluded approximately 20 percent o f the archaeological
remains originally documented in the settlement survey. For the current analysis, only
settlement data from sites with reliable chronological markers indicative o f the Late
Preclassic Period occupation o f the Huitzilapa area are included. It is likely, but not
certain without excavations, that the remaining architecture1 reflects the political
expansion of the TeuchitMn Tradition during the Classic Period.
The Late Preclassic community o f Huitzilapa consists today o f four sites sprawled
out across a countryside made blue by modem plantings o f the Agave tequilana Weber.
For the purposes o f try analysis, these four sites o f Huitzilapa, El Zapote (previously
called Cerro de las Navajas), La Robleda, and La Mina, comprise the archaeological
remains o f one discrete West Mexican society with ties to other Teuchitlan peoples during
the Late Preclassic Period (Figure 5.1).
Excavations conducted at La Robleda and
Huitzilapa confirmed that they were occupied contemporaneously from A D . 1 to 200,

and surface sherds collected by me from El Zapote suggest the same conclusion. The
existence o f a shaft tomb in the small site o f La Mina indicates that its occupation was
coeval with the Huitzilapa shaft tomb, the latter radiocarbon dated to A D . 1 to 100
(Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996: Table 3).
'The sites of Potrero Grande (or Huitzilapa Sur), El Lienzo, and Los Solis.
251
KIN IMPRINTS IN THE HUITZILAPA COMMUNITY
The settlement patterns in the Huitzilapa area are investigated next to build
inferences about how descent principles may have affected the organization o f one
prehispanic West Mexican community.
The data are presented within a framework
structured by levels o f settlement (individual mound to site), and by increasing order o f

confidence (inference to scientifically based conclusions) in ascribing social meaning to
architectural and archaeological features. Based on my interpretation of West Mexican
shaft tombs, on ethnographic analogy, and on settlement studies from Mesoamerica and
the American Southwest, my study proposes that the following elements may pertain to a
Late Preclassic Period West Mexican society grounded in land inheritance and organized
by descent groups:
1. An emphasis on building domestic architecture
2. Patio group residences o f extended families (corporate kin groups)
3. Two mam barrios or neighborhoods (descent group interaction)
4. Domestic and public ritual space (altars, terraces, ballcourts)

5. Domestic burials o f revered ancestors (the Huitzilapa shaft tomb)
The remainder o f the chapter focuses on investigating these possible kinship to
land imprints in the Late Preclassic Period cultural remains o f the Huitzilapa community.
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Arguably, each represents variations in descent group practices, from residences o f

individual families (a platform mound), to corporate entities of related families (the patio
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group), to interaction o f different descent groups (separate sites or neighborhoods),

celebrated at ritual space, and confirmed in burial chambers.
Prevalence of Domestic Architecture
Recent household studies in Mesoamerican archaeology have contributed to an

understanding o f the prehispanic use and definition o f domestic space (Amould 1986;
Flannery 1976; Kramer 1982; Santley and Hirth 1993; Sheets et aL 1990; Spencer 1981;
Webster and Gonlin 1988; Whalen 1983, 1988; Wilk 1988).
My study uses the term domestic to reference habitation areas serving individual
social units (such as the household or nuclear family) in subsistence activities, daily tasks,
and private ritual The household is an individual social unit that is defined not by
genealogy, but by the sharing o f domestic, economic, and reproductive activities (H.
Moore 1982; Netting et aL 1984; Tringham 1991; Wilk and Rathje 1982). The public
arena, on the other hand, refers to a built environment that serves a social group larger
than the individual household, and one that is not used for daily habitation At prehispanic
sites, the abundant platform mounds that form discrete patio groups are widely recognized
as residential space. Thus, the Late Preclassic Period platform mounds in the Huitzilapa
area that aggregate around patios are herein considered to have served a domestic or
residential function
O f the 175 distinct architectural elements in the Late Preclassic Period settlement
survey, all but nine (those that form the ballcourts), belong to the domestic realm. The
data presented in Table 5.1 reveal that the Huitzflapans built their domestic mounds in a
range of sizes, shapes, and architectural elaboratioa In size, the domestic mounds range
from below the 20 meter square threshold established for Mesoamerican dwellings
(Ashmore 1983), to approximately 200 m2 in area. Nearly 70 percent of the domestic
mounds exhibit simple quadrangular (n=105) to round foundations (n=T 1) of unworked
field stone. Few plain mounds have cut stone materials or patio walls. Some (n=14) are
too small, with an average area o f 12 m2, to have served as foundations for residences o f a
household. These ancillary mounds do not immediately face a patio, but adjoin a larger
mound that does, as shown in Figure 5.4. The small, peripheral mounds may have served
as kitchens, workshops, steam rooms, ceremonial space, animal pens, or storage units.
Table 5.1 Characteristics of Individual Architectural Features.
M ound
Shape
Min.
area
nz
Max.
area
mz
Avg.
area mz
Range in
height
Cm
Avg.
Height
Cm
Cut
stone
Stepped
platform
Stone
W all
n=l6
15%
n=21
46%
Quad
Unstepped
105
141
40
10-200
35
Stepped
Quad
Unstepped
Round
Central
Circle
Round
Platform
Stepped
Conical
46
35
199
91
20-200
100
n=3
3%
n=15
35%
11
14
76
34
10-60
20
n=46,
100%
11 >1 plat
0
225
13
8-15
10
47
80
62
50-80
70
128
567
n/a
170800
n/a
n=2
66%
n=2
100%
n=l
33%
2 > 1 plat
100%
II
j
ii
ii
n=l
1%
0
n=2
66%
0
254
Architectural elaboration used in the construction o f domestic platform mounds

include the use o f cut stone to face the platform exterior, as opposed to field stone
matprial; stepped basal foundation (platforms built with one or more banquettes or tiers
encircling the perimeter); more than a single rock course to build each tier; internal walls
or possible room divisions; and the articulation o f a stone wall that demarcates a patio or
terrace (see discussion o f construction techniques in Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas
Camberos 1996:123). Table 5.1 shows the distribution o f these architectural traits among
the individual features that comprise the settlement analysis.
Architectural elaboration is expressed by the stepped quadrangular platform
mounds that comprise approximately 30 percent o f the structural remains that face
domestic patios (Table 5.1). In addition to the banquettes rimming the structure, many o f
these large platform mounds have cut stone feeing, more than one stepped tier, and stone
walls delimiting patios. Two o f the stepped, quadrangular platforms have the only known
staimasfi<; in the Huitzilapa area (Huitzilapa F4N and CCN; see Figures 5.5 and 5.6). The
largest platform mounds may have served the residential needs of more than an individual
household, and instead supported an extended family (Hayden and Cannon 1982:147;
Wilk 1988:141).
In the art o f West Mexico, the ceramic Compound Models o f my study sample
may serve as a means to interpret the function o f the large quadrangular mounds in the
Huitzilapa area. The architectural elements o f the Compound Models emphasize a multiroom floor plan. Certainly the elaborate platform mounds at Huitzilapa were large enough
255
to have supported more than one superstructure or room (see same conclusion posited by
Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996:123). The figurine imagery o f the
Compound Models is adorned male and females whose costumes advertise a social group
identity. The social groups, particularly the cloaked figures, suggest the possibility that
lords or high ranking kin members gathered at Huitzilapas biggest platform mounds.
That the inhabitants of the Huitzilapa area built architecturally elaborate mounds
and plain mounds into formal patio groups suggests to me that these mounds served
similar household functions in the domestic realm. (Chapter VI investigates this premise
further using the ceramic data). They presumably functioned as platforms for multi
functional dwelling units, designed to accommodate families rather than individuals
(Flannery 1972:38-39). The variability in elaboration o f the domestic mounds suggests
that all sectors o f the Huitzilapa society emphasized the residential and private realm when
planning and building their community.
It is reasonable to infer that the formal and qualitative differences apparent in the
construction o f the Huitzilapa area residential mounds mirror a social inequality stemming
from the domestic realm. Studies have shown that differentiation in size and function o f
residential buildings reflects status levels o f ranked societies. In egalitarian societies,
individual households function autonomously, and their domiciles show little variation in
size (Whalen 1983:34-35). Importantly, in communities guided by descent, the tendency
toward social inequality stems from social principles related to genealogy (Ashmore and
Wilk 1988:19; McAnany 1995:116-117; Rice and Puleston 1981:141).
256
D @ o
Cto.7
o
B
0 _
;
Ooap
C O
Isoutc
CCd.S
r
CORJUIltD
bolata
pwoyec to
CENTRO
<70 O Cta**
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
Large Central Stepped Shrine

Small Centred. Round Shrine
Rectangular Patio Group
Small Circular Patio Group
Guachimontone: Large Circular Patio Group
Isolate Mound
Ancillary Mound
Figure 5.4. Classification of architectural remains in the HurtzQapa area

(by K. Butterwick).
257
Figure 5.5. Photograph o f staircase at HurtzQapa, Conjunto Circular Norte;

scale is 5 x 7 notebook (by K. Butterwick).
Patio Groups
Beyond the individual household, the extended family or corporate residential

group is the next societal unit that I propose is represented in the settlement data from the
i
Huitzilapa area. Corporate residential groups are described as strongly coherent and
relatively independent groupings o f families within communities (Hayden and Cannon
1982:147), a definition that applies also to the extended family, as an association o f adult
siblings and their nuclear families (Service 1971:39). My study uses the term corporate
kin group in discussing the occupants o f West Mexican patio groups because the social
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258
elements o f descent and corporation are made implicit

The use o f extended family and residential group concepts, such as the multiple
family household group (Wilk 1988:139-141), the patrilocal extended family sitio
(Willey 1961:136), the lineage segment comprised o f a patrilineal-patrilocal extended
family group (Le., brothers living on house sites near the parental home) (Collier
1975:69), and the corporate kin group (Hayden 1996), indicates the recognition by
Mesoamerican archaeologists o f the importance o f genealogy in forming multifamily
residential groups in prehispanic societies.
The level o f settlement that reflects the
extended family corporate group is the pan-Mesoamerican courtyard or patio group

(Ashmore and Wilk 1988:156).
A formal patio group is defined as several individual platform mounds that share a
single central patio (Ashmore 1981:49). Ideally, the structures built on each platform
mound serve an individual household, and altogether the patio group represents the
residence of a corporate, multifamily group. Mesoamerican archaeologists have proposed
that patio groups were planned architectural entities, with the structures occupied
simultaneously or in a predictable sequence o f family development (Le., beginning with the
founder, his marriage unit, children, etc.) (Ashmore and Wilk 1988; Fash 1983:264, 281;
Haviland 1963,1988; Leventhal 1983).
The patio group data from the HuitzQapa area may highlight one level o f the the
spatial behavior o f lineages (Byland and Pohl 1994:44). The level would be consistent
with exogamous vertical and horizontal kin reckoning involving, for example, two siblings
259
with their spouses, their offspring, and possibly a founding parent or house chief While
the suggestion is made that the corporate residential groups were kinship based, the actual
composition o f the ancient households probably included, unrelated neighbors linked by
the ideology o f descent (Allen and Richardson 1971:46-49), rather than exclusively by
blood. Anthropologists have long noted the lack o f correspondence between descent
principles, and the practical workings o f society (Levi-Strauss 1969:197; Lowie 1920;
Weeks 1988:92). Real life situations, flexible living arrangements, and economic necessity
may override traditional affiliation with a residential kin group (Kramer 1982:673;
Ashmore and Wilk 1988:3fl; Conkey 1991:69; Wilk and Ralhje 1982:620).
The Late Preclassic Period inhabitants o f the Huitzilapa area organized their
domestic space into 33 discrete patio groups. They built two types o f formal patio
groups, rectangular and circular. The quadripartite patio group is a settlement pattern
shared by many Mesoamerican societies, whereas the circular or guachimonton
arrangement is found only in West Mexico. It is tempting to propose that the two
residential formats mirror two founding descent groups of the Huitzilapa area.
Rectangular Groups. Rectangular patio groups are the most common residential
grouping at HuitzQapa. Square or rectangular patios form the nucleus o f 82 percent of the
33 Late Preclassic Period patio groups identified in the Huitzilapa area. The configuration
o f four mounds around square patios exhibits considerable variation (Table 5.2). The
formal quadripartite group without central mounds is the predominant type o f all patio
!
groups (Conjuntos 3, 8 El Zapote; Grupo 4 La Robleda; 1, 2 La Mina; FI 7 Huitzilapa).
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1
260
Ancillary mounds also occur in more than half o f these (see Grupo 1 La Robleda; F20,
F12 Huitzilapa; Conjuntos East, 6 El Zapote).
Formal, square patio groups with central stone rings (Grupo 2 La Robleda;
Co nj u n to
Circular A
Figure 5.6. The site center o f Huitzilapa showing diverse

large patio groups, quadripartite and circular (by K. Butterwick).
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261
Table 5.2. Variation in quadripartite patio groups.

Rectangular Patio Groups
(with four main mounds facing patio)
No center mound
With round center mound
With square center mound
Irregular number of mound, and
No center mound
/
14
8
1
5
F4/PW, F18, F19 Huitzilapa; Conjunto 1 El Zapote), or round platforms (F 10 HuitzQapa;

Conjunto 5 El Zapote) comprise an additional eight groups (Figure 5.7). An uncommon
configuration is the single rectangular patio group with the square ahar (FI Huitzilapa).
Other rectangular patios are framed by two or three platform mounds (F3, F9 , FI 1, F14,
and FI 5 Huitzilapa) and have no center mound (Figure 5.8).
Circular Groups. Platform mounds arranged around a circular patio form a
distinct settlement pattern in West Mexico.
The circular patio groups are called
guachimontones. Guachimontones show two levels o f development in the Huitzilapa

area (Table 5.3). The five circular groups in the Huitzilapa survey are differentiated by
Table 5.3. Variation in circular patio groups.
Circular Group
Large Guachimonton
Small Guachimonton
Small Guachimonton, no
central mound
/
2
2
1
Number of
mounds
9,11
6,6
6
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262
size, with three small circular groups (Conjuntos 5,7 El Zapote; F 16 Huitzilapa), and two
large guachimontones.
The small guachimonton groups are circular because o f the round shape o f the
patio. They have fewer and simpler mounds than the large guachimontones, and are not
invariably marked by a central mound or stone circle. The mounds o f the small circular
groups are small and rounded (F16 Huitzilapa), or a mix o f quadrangular and rounded
shapes (Conjuntos 5, 7 El Zapote), constructed from field stones (see Figure 5.4).
A large guachimonton, on the other hand, is made circular first by a broad, round
earthen platform upon which the individual structural foundations were built. On top of
the circular platform, nine (CC Huitzilapa) to eleven (CCP El Zapote) large, quadrangular
mounds face a stepped conical mound that sits in the center o f a circular patio. Thus, not
including the earthen platform, the only rounded structure built at the large
guachimontones is the central one. The quadrangular mounds that surround the central
feature show two alternating sizes: large and smalL The pattern o f a small mound built
between two large mounds is especially apparent at Conjunto Circular at Huitzilapa (see
Figure 5.6). It is possible that the four large mounds were built first, with the smaller ones
squeezed in at a later date by heirs or new recruits; or that the size difference represents
diverse domestic functions, or levels o f social rank.
Corporate K in Group Behaviors. Trends in the patio group data may help to
identify ancient organizing principles elemental to the operation o f West Mexican
corporate kin groups. These include the sharing of status by all members o f corporate kin
263
C to .7
Isolate
("
Cto.6
Od
C to J
C to .8
Conjunto
E! Zapote
Cto.2
Isolate
PROYECTO 06 RESCATS AROUEOLOCICO
CEWTROIMAH JALISCO
datum
i 1460 m
\ ibova sea level
CtD.l
1 /2 m contour) on structures
Telegraphic Contours Approximate Only
Si
K etfbrm M ound
bawd on ft*d urvwy v u t

19H Mao by Canos Saraos R . INAH
Figure 5.7. She Map of El Zapote (by K. Butterwick).
264
groups, the presence o f a founding family or house chief in every patio group, and the lack
o f singular residences indicative o f either isolated families or residences o f Big Men.
An analysis o f architectural differentiation per patio group suggests the possibility
that social status was similar in those families sharing platform mounds around a common
patio. Data analyzed by patio group indicate that platform mounds within each patio
group are architecturally similar in terms o f size and elaboration. In other words, the
architecturally elaborate mounds articulate together to form large patios, as the plain
mounds cluster into small patio groups (see Figure 5.5). The premise can be made that
societal members o f like rank or status lived together. This interpretation stems from
spatial patterns evident from data analyzed from the four sites presented in Table 5.4, and
from the sites maps (Figures 5.4, 5.6 - 5. 12).
Shape o f patio and platform mounds apparently does not correlate with the
presumed social rank Data presented in the lower portion o f Table 5.4 demonstrate that
aggregations of low and small mounds create both circular and quadripartite patio groups.
Similarly, the large stepped platform mounds, with cut stone feeing also occur in either the
rectangular or circular patio groups. The expansive patios o f some large patio groups in
the Huitzilapa area are further enhanced by cut stone rock walls that demarcate the patio
and may have restricted community access (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas
Camberos 1996:123). The elaboration o f architecture may be a measure o f corporate
labor investment.
Another pattern that emerged in the Huitzilapa area settlement analysis is that all
265
patio groups have a relatively large mound. In other words, given the average size o f four
mounds in a patio group, one is consistently larger than the others. Cardinal direction
does not determine the location o f the large mound. This pattern in size difference
appears in the right columns o f Table 5.4, showing the range in area for each mound in the
33 patio groups.
A social explanation, that the large mound represents the remains o f the home of a
founding family or house chief may apply. Hayden (1996:37, 59) has determined that the
founding family or recognized titular owner o f each corporate kin group holds higher
status, and lives in the largest house in the patio group. Kin a genealogical step removed
from the house chief such as siblings or offspring, may have occupied the smaller mounds
in each patio group. The control o f resources by the founding family draws others to the
residential unit, and accounts for the authority o f that family within the corporate group
(Hayden 1995; Hayden and Cannon 1982:148-149).
Within the community, power, and the control o f resources, becomes
concentrated, in the person o f house chief and his associated elite families, and not
with independent families (Hayden 1995:59). The feet that the two known shaft tombs
located in the Huitzilapa area were each dug under large mounds in their patio groups,
suggests further that in West Mexico social rank transferred from the living domestic
realm to the underworld home.
The noticeable lack o f isolated large platform mounds is another characteristic of
the Huitzilapa settlement data. The presence o f single large residences would raise the
266
H uitzilapa
Figure 5.8. Huitzilapa site map

(by K. Butterwick, based on field survey, the 1994 map by Topographic DepartmentICA
and by Gabriela Ulloa Sotelo, and the 1980 topographic map by PM C. Weigand).
267
F -ll
Plaza Oeste
F -4
F -3
Shaft Tomb
F -6
50 m
Figure 5.9. Map of western area of Huitzilapa

(by K. Butterwick, based on field survey, the 1994 map by Topographic Department-ICA
and by Gabriela Ulloa Sotelo, and the 1980 topographic map by Phil C. Weigand).
268
F -17
F -12
F -1 5
F-13
50 m
Contour Interval 2-50 m

Elevation in meters above sea level
Figure 5.10. Map o f northern area of Huitzilapa

and by Gabriela Ultoa Sotelo, and the 1980 topographic map by Phil C. Weigand).
269
PROYECTO DE RESCATE ARQUEOLOGICO
I
II
I
i
i
F-7
F -6
F -8
F -2 0
F -1 0
F -9
a D
B a llc o u rt
t
50 m
Figure 5.11. Map of southern area of Huitzilapa

and by Gabriela Ulloa Sotelo, and the 1980 topographic map by Phil C. Weigand).
270
Table 5.4. Characteristics o f Patio Group Elements,

listed in order o f patio size, with the largest patios first.
Patio Group
Designation
Patio
Shape
Altar
Size1
Largest
Domestic
Mound2
Range of
Domestic
Mound Size2
m
1690
E1Z -CCP
Round
m
572
m2
177
615
Huitz - CCP
Round
100
199
499
485
475
529
314
302
289
285
225
226
212
210
183
182
168
179
135
133
133
106
103
100
84
69
68
58
57
55
54
56 1
Huitz- F4
E1Z- Cl
E1Z- C8
Huitz-FI
E1Z-C5
Huitz-F18
E1Z -C2
E1Z -C4
Huitz -F2
E1Z -C7
Huitz - FI 1
E1Z - C3
E1Z-C6
Huitz - F19
E1Z -CEast
Huitz - F12
LaRob-G2
La Rob - G3
La Mina-1
Huitz -F3
Huitz - F10
Huitz - F16
Huitz - F13
Huitz -F20
Huitz - F17
La Mina-2
Huitz-F9
LaRob-G4
LaRob-Gl
Huitz - F14
Quad
Quad
Quad
Quad
Round
Quad
Quad
Round
Quad
Round
Quad
Quad
Quad
Quad
Quad
Quad
Quad
Round
Quad
Quad
Quad
Round
Quad
Quad
Quad
Quad
Quad
Quad
Quad
Quad
(8)*
4
33 (Sq)
64
9
125
141
56
159
49
101
90
87
108
76
71
52
106
48
79
54
144
38
75
56
55
25
30
26
36
44
35
46
27
24
(frombig to little, m2)

177, 173, 150, 150,
132, 128, 118, 107
199, 128, 119, 51,
23*
125, 112, 111, 99*
141, 111, 82,49
56,54,47,38
159, 148, 140*
49*
101,82,72,56,36
90,81,77,73
87,54
108, 87,86*
76,74,54,46,38
71,43,34,28,27
52,40,38,32,30
106,51,49,48,43
48,34,32
79,44,25,29,22
54,48,41,35
144,112, 97,83
38,23
75,56,54
56,43,20
55,38,17*
25,22, 14,9
30,29,28, 17
26,22,21,14
36,28,23,19
44,35,26,25
35,30,27,20
47,36,35,34
27,25,24,23,22,19
24,23,15
Patio
size
57
-
3
-
13
-
47
5
-
36
-
* Denotes incomplete record of mounds in patio group due to damage

by modem bulldozing.
271
possibility that individual families or Bigmen held power in the Huitzilapa area, rather than
corporate kin groups. However, the largest platform mounds in the area (for example in
Huitzilapa FI, F2, and Plaza West) invariably occur with other big, elaborate mounds.
The few platform mounds in the Huitzilapa area that are removed from a patio group, or
isolated, are not particularly large nor architecturally elaborate (see Figure 5.5).2 Weigand
believes (personal communication 1996) that more isolate mounds exist, but these have
not been mapped or surveyed.
In sum, the variance in patio group form and size may correspond to social
behaviors related to the formation o f corporate kin groups (Andrews and Fash 1992; Cliff
1988:213; Hirth 1993b; Santley and Hirth 1993; Service 1962:156; Stark and Hall 1993;
Wilk 1988:146).
Data from the Huitzilapa area suggest the following settlement
tendencies: that the patio group was the predominant domestic format, that members of
corporate kin groups shared the same social status, that one family in each patio group
was ranked above the others, and that powerful individuals lived with a social group.
These data concord with the likelihood that Huitzilapan families claimed lineage seniority
(Rice and Puleston 1981:141) or nearness to the founding landowning ancestors
(Ashmore and Wilk 1988:19; McAnany 1995:116-117), in order to control access to
agricultural lands, essential resources, and regional exchange (Collier 1975; Hayden
1996).
2 Ofthe 175 platform mounds in the Huitzilapa area, I classified only three as isolates, based on
their spatial separation from the nucleation of settlement remains.
27 2
Descent Group Interaction
The Late Preclassic Period occupation o f the Huitzilapa area nucleated

presumably into four settlement clusters. A cluster is defined as an aggregate o f eight to
twelve patio groups that form a discrete settlement unit, such as an archaeological site
(Ashmore 1981). The Huitzilapa community thus consists o f three clusters, HuitzQapa, El
Zapote, and La Robleda, and a mini cluster o f La Mina (seemingly focused on obsidian
extraction). It is on this level o f settlement data, groups o f clusters spatially (within 1 km
o f each other, Figure 5.1) and temporally connected, that the interaction and relative status
o f competing descent groups are charted (Chang 1983).
Anthropologists suggest that barrio or neighborhood is a meaningful label for
the clusters o f prehispanic architectural remains (Cliff 1988:220-221). For the Maya, they
have also been interpreted as, some kind o f a kin gathering o f residences (Willey
1981:391).
Table 5.5 presents differences in the four clusters o f prehispanic settlements in the
Huitzilapa area. It is significant first to realize that the entire population o f the Huitzilapa
area was small. In keeping with Beekmans recent settlement work for the Classic Period
(1996a: 130-135), my estimated populations o f the Huitzilapa area derive from an arbitrary
assumption o f a 75 percent contemporaneity figure for occupancy o f the domestic mounds
(excluding the altars, ancillary, or isolated mounds), and using an estimated four persons
per mound for the calculations. Beekmans (1996a: 130) deviation from the standard 5.6
273
person per domestic structure (Ashmore 1981) calculates a conservative estimate o f

population densities. The calculations (Table 5.5), based on 75 percent o f the 146
platform mounds that face patios, suggest a Late Preclassic Period population o f
approximately 440 persons occupying the Huitzilapa area.
The estimated population for the Huitzilapa community o f under or approaching
500 persons during the Late Preclassic Period is too small to support an autonomous
social hierarchy, or regional integration (Kosse 1996). The small population estimate o f
the Huitzilapa community, combined with the elements o f social differentiation described
here emphasize its articulation in a regional sphere (Ohnersorgen and Varien 1996;
Weigand 1990a). A regional settlement perspective is not a goal o f my study however,
nor have excavations to test this scenario been conducted (see discussion in Chapter II).
Table 5.5. Distribution o f archaeological features by cluster.
Cluster
Huitzilapa
El Zapote
La Robleda
La Mina
Total H.
area
4
1
1
0
75 % of
domestic
mounds
52
38
13
7
Population
Estimate
(x 4
persons)
208
152
52
28
110
440
Plain
Dom.
Mounds
43
40
11
8
Elab.
Dom.
Mounds
26
11
6
1
Elab.
Altars
Ring
Altars
4
2
1
0
102
44
The analysis o f the spatial distributions o f architecture identified patterns in the

Late Preclassic Period clusters that may correspond to underlying social principles of the
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HuitzQapa area inhabitants. The small site o f La Mina sits on an obsidian ridge that
extends from Tequila Volcano. Two patio groups, with nine platform mounds built from
the abundant obsidian rock (Figure 5.12), constitute La Mina. The accumulation of
obsidian debitage testifies to an economic specialization for the inhabitants o f La Mina,
probably associated with obsidian extraction and working.
The site lacks socially
integrative features, suggesting that the large altars or facilities of Huitzilapa or El Zapote
drew in persons living in the periphery o f the Huitzilapa area.
The site of La Robleda is also small, consisting o f four domestic patio groups. Its
inhabitants, however, built several socially integrative facQities, including two ballcourts, a
circular terrace, and domestic altars. The replication o f built forms, mirroring those found
at the larger centers, suggests a branching off from the main descent group.
This
interpretation conforms to an organizational pattern o f corporate kin groups, which

Service (1971:157) has described as a, budding off o f families that have low potentiality
in the inheritance scheme.
The Late Preclassic Period inhabitants o f the area aggregated primarily at the two
biggest sites of HuitzQapa and El Zapote. Both sites share several essential characteristics
that support the premise that their inhabitants formed cooperative social groups within the
area. Below the inference that each cluster was home to a founding descent group in the
Huitzilapa area is explored.
The settlement data indicate that both Huitzilapa and El Zapote were organized by
a broad distribution o f powerful corporate kin groups, rather than by individual families
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La Robleda
Ballcourt
Ballcourt
50 m
1/2 m contours on structures

Topographic Contours Approximate Only
Si
Platform Mound
Stone Wall
Shaft tomb
Hill of Obsidian
La Mina
Figure 5.12. Map o f La Mina and La Robleda (by K. Butterwick).
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(see Brumfiel 1994:11). This reconstruction derives from the feet that patio groups o f
presumably High ranking families nucleate in each site center. The centers of El Zapote
and Huitzilapa are characterized by numerous large patio groups with impressive patios,
altars, and elaborate domestic platforms. Comparatively, El Zapote has the largest altar
and patio, however Huitzilapa has the single largest domestic platform, the only
quadrangular altar, and more architecturally elaborate domestic mounds. The presence
and grandeur o f the domestic altars demonstrates that members o f both clusters were
intent on the public recognition o f family blood.

At the two sites, the impressive patio groups are surrounded by residences of
lesser means. The patio groups located around the perimeters o f Huitzilapa and El Zapote
consist of small patios enclosed by plain, small mounds. This observation supports the
inference that members o f important descent groups lived in the site centers and not on the
outskirts o f their settlement.
Service (1971:157) has noted that the distance from a
communitys center corresponds to rank differences among residents, equivalent to a

genealogical distance calculated by a pervasive mode o f primogeniture that governs
residence rules in many descent groups (see also McAnany 1995:15).
Along w ith the nucleation o f large patio groups, the centers o f El Zapote and
Huitzilapa also feature at least two impressive socially integrative structures, such as a
ballcourt, open terrace, or stepped conical mound. Such multi-focus sites are
uncommon in some Mesoamerican regions (Kowalewski 1994:127).
Prehispanic
communities in the Valley of Mexico and in Oaxaca, for example, usually exhibit just one
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mode o f central architecture. Kowalewski (1994:127) suggests that these dual modes o f
central architecture represent a division or dynamic that bound or separated a
community.
The question can then be asked, were the kin clusters o f Huitzilapa and El Zapote
competitive or cooperative? Societies organized by descent groups are subject to fission
along kinship or factional lines (Lipe 1989:65). The prospect o f competing descent
groups suggests that genealogy was the connecting link between the political and the
domestic (Fortes 1953:30). Hayden (1995:51) has argued that blatant competition
between corporate groups typifies some communities run by aggrandizers.
In the
Huitzilapa area, however, the numerous ballcourts raise the proposition that political
competitions were played out at ballgames rather than on the battlefield (see discussion
below).
The benefits o f alliance and cooperation among adjacent residential descent
groups seem obvious. In some communities, related lineages combine forces to increase
their strength, and network with even more distant kin (Service 1971:117). According to
Hayden (1995:53), agreeable community relations serve societies that produce a large
surplus and engage in regional trade. The indications in the Huitzilapa area are that kin
members, living in corporate residential groups, cooperated socially and economically, and
shared in the bounty o f the lands claimed by their ancestry. It is possible, following
Richard F. Townsends (personal communication 1996) general comment about West
Mexico, that the sharing and exchange between the two descent group groups were
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seasonally based, as among the Tewa Pueblos moiety division o f the seasonal feasting and
political cycle.
Ritual Use of Space
In this section, three features o f the Late Preclassic Period built environment are
identified where the Huitzilapans possibly conducted ceremony and rituaL These are
domestic altars, open terraces, and ballcourts.
The data suggest that each feature
represents a prepared space for increasing levels o f social integration and ritual activity in
the community.
Domestic Altars. In many traditional societies, domestic altars are ritual space
that serve as a means o f social integration on a private or domestic leveL They function as
low level facilities for a restricted portion o f the community (Alder 1989:36). In the
Huitzilapa area, the identification o f an architectural feature as a domestic altar or shrine is
determined solely by locationin the center o f patio groups (see Figures 5.6, 5.7-5.11).
The altars located in the center o f residential patio groups may have served to integrate
members o f Huitzilapas corporate kin groups.
Thirteen o f the Late Preclassic Period patio groups have central architectural
features.3 In addition to the central location, the mound shape for the West Mexican
attars is round (with the one lone quadrangular exception). Like all the domestic features
3 In addition, at least one central mound had been removed by the bulldozing associated with
highway construction (compare the 1980 map of Huitzilapa with the current version).
279
in Huitzilapa, the attars exhibit a huge range in size and architectural refinement They
include the smallest and largest architectural features in the Huitzilapa settlement survey
(Tables 5.1, 5.3).
The majority are the simple stone circles (n=8) that are located
exclusively in the center o f patios.

Investigations into ancient and modem domestic altars built by indigenous
societies permit the inference that the function o f West Mexican center mounds was that
o f altar, shrine, or religious oratory. At archaeological sites o f the Maya, for example, the
altars are distinguished from other structures in patio groups by a consistent spatial
location, a small platform, and associated ritual artifacts (Leventhal 1983; Rice and
Puleston 1981:142). In residential patio groups, the small altar lies on the east side o f a
patio (Tourtellot 1988:110). The ubiquity o f small shrines in Maya patio groups suggests
the importance o f daily ritual practices for all social members (Leventhal 1983:74-75).
Similarly, at sites in the prehistoric American Southwest, ritual structures were
centrally located, with a consistent location relative to other structures (S. Plog 1989:147).
Some kivas, the sunken round structures built by the Anasazi and Pueblos, were ritual
facilities for extended families. Richard Wilshusen (1989:102-103) found that small kivas
served a distinct residential or social group, consisting of from two to eight households.
Continuity o f domestic shrines persists today in indigenous Mesoamerican
communities. For example, the Tzeltal Maya build a family lineage shrine in every
household patio (Vogt 1983b:l 13; Gossen 1974:12), a place where the living
commemorate the dead (D. Carrasco 1990; Coe 1975,1981; Nicholson 1976).
280
The Huichol o f West Mexico also maintain family altars. They call the altars,
Shirfld or House of the Ancestors (Berrin 1978; Garcia de Weigand and Weigand 1992:
223; Weigand 1969, 1970 1985b, 1992c). Each Shirfld represents a different patrilineage
where venerated ancestors are commemorated with offerings o f food, and other rituals.
Although the traditional Huichol inter the dead in sacred caves distant from the villages,
they offer parts of the dead, like clippings o f hair, at the Shirflti. According to Garcia de
Weigand and Weigand (1992:223), one traditional Huichol village has six or more
ancestor shrines, one for each ancestral patrilineage. Those Shiriki are actively maintained,
the ancestors still venerated by the Huichol, while other shrines have turned to ruins.
In the Huitzilapa area five altars are large platform mounds made with cut stone
rather than the plain rings o f stone.
They
seem to be magnified versions o f the
comparatively simple stone rings. Their size suggests that they integrated a wider social
group beyond the single corporate group. The impressive altars may have served as a
venue for rituals that involved the entire community or distant members of the descent
group.
Interpretations o f the great kivas built in the American Southwest may apply to the
large central altars of West Mexico. In the indigenous villages of the early Pueblos, the
biggest kivas operated as community ritual space, serving as the ceremonial facility for a
social group comprised o f 20 to 30 households (WUshusen 1989:102-103; Lipe 1989:57).
Like all the architectural features in the Huitzilapa area, the altars come in the two
forms that possibly reflect the signal architecture o f two founding descent groups. One is
281
quadrangular, and the other four are distinctly round.4 The two largest central mounds are
the stepped, conical ones found in the middle o f the circular patios o f large
guachimontones (Conjunto Circular at Huitzilapa, and Conjunto Principal at El Zapote).
The impressive central altars may symbolize powerful descent groups, capable o f
enlisting members to build relatively massive structures to honor their ancestors. Hayden
(1995:56, 62-64) suggests that aggrandizers and hereditary chiefs build ritual structures,
temples, and shrines to promote their ancestors. The massive, stepped conical mounds
probably served to broadcast the kin rank o f the leadership o f El Zapote and Huitzilapa.
If the altars are "monuments (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996:123;
Weigand 1989), then they probably were built as monuments to the descent groups and to
their founding ancestors.
The distribution o f altars across the Huitzilapa area reveals another spatial pattern,
namely the lack ofsmall altars at those patio groups lying nearest to the large shrines. The
trend suggests that the inhabitants o f smaller patio groups did not build family altars
because they participated in ceremonies at altars o f the more powerful kin groups.
Perhaps the Huitzilapan leaders recruited members into their faction or descent group, and
then consolidated and integrated the larger social group at ceremonies held at their large
altar.
Open Terraces. Historic accounts from Mexico express that public festivities
take place at outdoor plazas (c.f, Schuster 1997). In addition to the numerous outdoor
4 The principle of honoring two lineages may explain a unique altar at Ixtln del Rio that
combines square and circular architectural forms. Bilateral descent structures may explain the altar form.
282
patios built in the domestic realm, the inhabitants o f the Huitzilapa area constructed three
terraces that may have been used for public rituals (Huitzilapa F6, El Zapote Conjunto 4,
and La Robleda Grupo 3). The celebrations o f annual calendar days, harvest festivals, or
accession rites, for example, involve the participation o f entire communities. These ritual
events required open public space for ceremony and for the feasting participants. In the
Huitzilapa area, the stone fortified terraces encircle relatively large outdoor spaces, with
only one or two mounds, and they are elevated above ground leveL
The walled space or terraces were possible outdoor space for public ritual, such as
the proposed Huey Miccaylhuitl pole ceremony, or other community events. Weigand
(1992b; 1992e: 18-19) has suggested that the loci for mounting the pole for the flagpole
performances were the tops o f the large conical altars. Although this interpretation may
be correct, it is important to point out that, in the West Mexican ceramic art, all o f the
xocotls or poles are shown planted in the ground, like a tree (Figure 4.9). In the ceramic
art, at least, these poles do not sit atop conical mounds (see Bell 1971: Figures 17 a, c).
Beyond these prepared terraced spaces, the Late Preclassic Period sites do not
seem to have public plazas capable o f hosting a gathering o f the entire Huitzilapa area
population.5 The largest patios, listed at the top o f Table 5.4, are associated with the
presumed domestic patio groups whose central altars take up much o f the available patio
space. The large plaza o f Patio Group F-4 or Plaza West has only a small altar, and its
walled in outdoor space could have accommodated community rituals.
' Modem bulldozing however may have obscured ancient patio space.
283
Ballcourts. The ballcourt is the primary ritual structure or public building in the
Huitzilapa area. In terms o f function, platform mounds at Mesoamerican sites that
articulate to form ballcourts are the least ambiguous to identify. Ballcourts clearly are not
residential architecture. Instead, the baQgame was used in Mesoamerican societies for
economic and religious functions, and to resolve political conflict through ritual enactment
o f competitions (Day 1996b; J. G. Fox 1996; Weigand 1991; Uriarte 1992). As public
arenas, ballcourts are high-level facilities for specialized rituals that integrate a crosssection o f social and economic groups (Adler 1989:35; S. Plog 1989:146).
Inhabitants o f the Huitzilapa area built three ballcourts during the Late Preclassic
Period. (A fourth ballcourt at the site o f El Lienzo probably dates to the Classic Period).
The three ballcourts are surprisingly consistent in width but not length, suggesting that
width o f the playing field was predetermined by requirements o f the game. The width o f
the playing field foils within a 6.5 to 7.0 meter range. The six parallel rectangular mounds
that bound the three playing fields measure from 3.7 to 4.2 meters in width, and vary in
length from 26.2 to approximately 37 meters.
The ballcourts cluster along the northern perimeter of the Huitzilapa area. The
grandest ballcourt, with a playing field ten meters longer than the other two, is located at
the southeast perimeter o f the Huitzilapa site. It is I-shaped, with two terminal mounds
that demarcate the ends o f the playing field. All four mounds that enclose the court have
cut stone facing, more than one course o f stone, and stepped platform constructioa Two
s m a lle r
ballcourts are located approximately 500 meters to the east at the La Robleda site.
284
Compared to the construction evident in the Huitzilapa ballcourt, these mounds of field
stone and dirt are qualitatively inferior.
If the purpose o f ritual structures or public architecture is to, impress a regional
audience (Brumfiel 1994:11), then the ballcourts in the Huitzilapa area may have hosted
regional interaction and competitive strategies, rather than domestic or community affairs.
Indeed, Weigand (1991) has defined the ballcourt as one architectural feature of
Teuchitlan Tradition sites.
The ballcourts in the Huitzilapa area probably marked
participation in competitive exchange or ritual activities that integrated ties with distant
groups (per S. Plog 1989:143), or with other communities belonging to a larger
Teuchitlan culture.
Domestic Burials of the Ancestors
Most prehistoric Mesoamerican peoples buried their dead, who later became
ancestors, under house floors. Domestic interments are associated prehistorically with
periods of evolving social complexity. The living, by burying presumably prestigious
family members under their house floors or in nearby cemeteries, essentially claim the
rights to land and prestige held by the ancestor (McAnany 1995; Pearson 1993; Whalen
1983, 1988).
In the Huitzilapa area, archaeologists Jorge Ramos de la Vega and Lorenza Lopez
Mestas Camberos (1996), determined that the two known shaft tombs were both dug
285
beneath residential platform mounds. The fact that the burials were found in the domestic
sphere, implies that the Huitzilapa patio groups served as domestic sepulchers
(McAnany 1995:50). The practice o f domestic burials gives the power o f maintaining the
dead to female residents, who frequently control the domestic domain, below and above
ground (Hodder 1990; McAnany 1995:12-13).
La M ina Shaft Tomb.
One shaft tomb was identified at the small site o f La
Mina (Figure 5.12). The shaft measured 2.75 meters deep, and led to a single chamber.
The tomb chamber, approximately three meters in length, had been looted, making its
contents unknown. As mentioned previously, the shaft tomb was dug underneath the
largest platform in a quadrangular patio group.
Huitzilapa Shaft Tomb.
The shaft tomb o f Huitzilapa was discovered and
excavated by Jorge Ramos de la Vega and Lorenza Lopez Mestas Camberos (1996). It is
located in the site center o f Huitzilapa, under a large, stepped, residential platform mound
in Patio Group F-4 or Plaza West. Radiocarbon tests date the tomb to the Late Preclassic
Period, from approximately A.D. 1 to 100 (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas
Camberos 1996:130-131).
The Huitzilapa burial feature is a double chambered tomb with a vertical shaft
approximately eight and a half meters deep (Figures 5.13, 5.14). The shaft had been filled
with a pumaceous volcanic ash, and one whole footed metate had been placed halfway
down the shaft. At the shaft bottom, two stone slabs sealed the entrances to each burial
286
Figure 5.13. Illustration o f the north chamber o f the Huitzilapa shaft tomb, courtesy o f
Jorge Ramos de la Vega and Lorenza Lopez Mestas Camberos (1996: Figure 4 ),
drawn by Carlos Santos and drafted by Gabriela Ulloa Sotelo.
287
Figure 5.14. Illustration of the south chamber of the Huitzilapa shaft tomb, courtesy of
Jorge Ramos de la Vega and Lorenza Lopez Mestas Camberos (1996: Figure 12), drawn
by Carlos Santos and drafted by Gabriela Ulloa Sotelo.
288
chamber. Steps led from the shaft down into the floor o f the chambers. Just inside each
chamber, an incense burner had been placed. The north chamber measured approximately
four meters in length, three meters wide, and one meter high. The south chamber was
similarly sized, but shorter, measuring 3.5 meters long (Figure 5.14) (Ramos de la Vega
and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996:126f Figure 3). Three individuals were interred in
each chamber. The principal figure for both tombs was a male skeleton o f the north
chamber, named Burial Number One. Skeletal anomalies o f damage to the hip suggest the
possibility that he was a ballplayer (Pickering 1996). The prominence o f the principal
figure was marked by lavish grave goods. Tens o f thousands o f pieces of cut shell beads
covered the remains o f Burials Number One. At one time, these shells had been attached
to a burial shroud. Intricately carved and painted shell armbands covered each o f his
lower arms. Three jade figurines were dedicated to the primary figure, one placed on his
chest. Three conch shell trumpets decorated in pseudo-cloisonne rested on his pelvis (per
Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996:126, Figure 4, Table 1). The
presumed wife o f the principal figure was also adorned in shell jewelry. Six polychrome
pottery spindle whorls accompanied her in death. The north chamber o f their burial also
included the remains o f a male skeleton associated with two atlatl rings. Hundreds o f
other objects were offered in the north chamber (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas
Camberos 1996: Table 1), from jade and quartz beads, a large quartz crystal, and obsidian
prismatic blades, to 78 ceramic vessels, and six large hollow ceramic figures.
The ceramic figures in the north chamber, three male and three female images,
289
wear strikingly similar costume. The photographs published of the two female figures
show that both wear identical earrings, nose rings, and a set o f upper armbands (Ramos
de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996: Figures 6 and 7). The photographs
published of the three male figures demonstrate that each wears identical head bands.
Two wear the same style of armbands as do the female figures, while the ballplayer figure
does not wear jewelry (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996: Figures 8,
9,10). It is consistent with notions o f kin or clan members wearing the social group label,
that the three skeletal remains in the north chamber all wear similarly styled bracelets or
armbands made o f shell (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996:126).
The south chamber contained the skeletal remains of two females and one male.
Compared to the north chamber, the offerings were o f a lesser quality and amount, and the
bones in a greater state o f deterioration. The remains of one female had been placed on
top of two rectangular and footed metates. Grave goods included two large ceramic
figures, two ceramic spindle whorls, shell jewelry, and 36 polychrome pottery bowls
containing food remains (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996: Table 2).
The photograph published of one ceramic figure (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas
Camberos 1996: Figure 13) shows a standing female wearing the same headband as the
males wear in the north chamber.
Following the removal of the tomb contents to a laboratory, Robert B. Pickering
(1996, 1997) conducted an osteological analysis on the six skeletal remains.
He found
that Burial Number One suffered from a congenital defect of the spine called Klippel-Feil
290
Syndrome Type II (Pickering 1996). Five o f the six skeletal remains in the tomb exhibit
the spinal defects associated with this inherited genetic disorder. These data suggest that
four o f the dead are related genetically to Burial Number One. The remains o f a single
individual, a female and presumably the wife o f Burial Number One, do not have the
spinal defect. Her relationship to the primary figure as well as her presence hi the tomb
was, unlike the others, not reckoned by blood. She apparently belonged to another
prominent kin group, one worthy o f a high status burial, and one perhaps linked to the
founding ancestors.
Analysis o f the human remains indicates that members of two descent groups,
including five genealogically related persons, shared the double chambered Huitzilapa
shaft tomb. This accords with the assessment that the West Mexican shaft tombs served
as below-ground charnel structures (Nelson et aL 1992:310) used to accumulate
ancestral remains.
Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos (1996) believe that the ritual
interment o f six human remains was a single event O f the six skeletal remains, only Burial
Number One went in as a recently dead body. The other five individuals, three female and
two males, were interred as wrapped desiccated remains. Pickerings analysis (1996,
1997) indicates that upon their deaths, the corpses o f five family members were prepared,
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wrapped and held out o f the tomb until the proper time o f interment: the death o f the
principal figure.
The data from the Huitzilapa shaft tomb offer rich insights into the social
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structures operating in one West Mexican Late Preclassic Period society. First, the
osteo logical abnormalities shared by five o f the interred skeletal remains favor a
genealogical basis, consistent with unilineal descent principles o f corporate descent
groups, for their joint buriaL
Second, the shared adornments worn by the skeletal remains and by the ceramic
figures indicate that costume may have communicated kinship affiliation in the Huitzdlapan
society.
Third, the prominence o f Burial Number One suggests that he was a venerated
ancestor, who may have gained status through his descent group.
His prominence
supports the idea that individuals within the kin group attained differential status, perhaps
stemming from genealogical nearness to, or his position as, a founding ancestor, or house
chief o f a corporate kin group.
Fourth, the amount o f non-local goods accompanying Burial Number 1 testifies to
an aggrandizers successful negotiations and control o f a long distance exchange network.
That the conch shell trumpets, shell beads, jade beads and figurines, and slate pendants
occur only in this presumably family burial, suggests the corporate control and
manipulation o f restricted prestige items into the Huitzilapa area. The principal figure,
wearing most o f the imported goods, raises the prospect that, in life, he was the head
strategist for the corporate kin group that participated in a regional trade network. He
may have accumulated the foreign wealth that eventually adorned him in death. Certainly,
he was an ancestor so highly esteemed that adornment o f his corpse by family members
292
validated the status o f surviving kin. The evidence suggests that control o f trade goods
was corporate based (Hayden and Cannon 1982:149), and basic to the power acquired by
Burial Number One (per Hayden 1995:56; Hodder 1982). It is interesting to speculate
that the principal figure had once been a ballplayer who dramatized his regional
competitions at feasts in the public ballcourt arena.
Fifth, the tomb contents shed light on the female role in the Huitzilapa society.
Women held high status based at least in part on their genealogy (as witnessed by the two
blood related female skeletal remains). The role o f wife, represented by the one unrelated
remains in the tomb, may have had political emphasis, cementing ties in the regional
network, or may have served social functions. Perhaps the wifes descent group was the
powerful group which had founded or owned the Huitzilapa lands (either exclusively, or in
addition to other kin groups). The metate, a womans tool, which marked the shaft fill,
hints at the prospect that the tomb honored the female counterpart, or that women
controlled the tomb, and the home and land that it staked.
Sixth, the meaning and undeniable evidence for mortuary feasting, in the
Huitzilapa ceramic vessel assemblages and accompanying food remains, are discussed in
the following chapter.
SUMMARY
The domestic emphasis in the Huitzilapa built environment may mirror descent
293
principles, such as the seemingly family orientation o f descent reckoning, kin based social
systems, and societies that venerate the ancestors. The pattern o f mounds articulating into
groups around patios suggest that corporate kin groups rather than individual families
were the basis o f social organization for this Late Preclassic Period West Mexican society.
In the Huitzilapa community area, the most elaborate structures are in site centers,
where they are associated proximately with impressive central shrines. The prehispanic
community was organized in nucleated clusters, arguably characterized by socially
integrative facilities for private and public ceremony. Private family rituals may have
occurred at the domestic altars. There, members o f the descent group may have honored
the claims o f their founding ancestors to land and resources.
The idea that early West Mexicans recognized bilateral descent structures may be
imprinted in the repetition o f circular and quadrilateral shapes in the architecture. The dual
modes are expressed in the altar shapes, in the patio group formations, and horn the two
centers o f architecture in the Huitzilapa area.
Together the Late Preclassic Period
occupation o f the Huitzilapa area may represent what, William Fash (1983:262) has called
ancient Maya communities, that is, a lineage cluster writ large.
Lastly, the social complexities interpreted for the Huitzilapa community during the
Late Preclassic Period are inconsistent with its low population estimate. Scholars o f the
American Southwest prehistory consider that societies with populations below a 500
person threshold, and even those with populations from 500 to 2500, are unable to
independently foster or maintain the complexities o f social ranking or o f regional
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interaction (Cameron 1990; Kosse 1996). The anomalous combination o f low population
with the interpretations o f ranked corporate kin groups, high status of house chiefs and
chosen ancestors, and long distance trade indicate that the Late Preclassic Period
community of Huitzilapa was not an autonomous polity but an entity belonging to a larger
sociopolitical web. It is thus probable that the proposed Huitzilapa descent groups were
linked to other Teuchitlan peoples occupying neighboring sites in the Tequila valleys.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm ission of th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout perm ission.
CHAPTER VI
RITUAL CONSUMPTION AT HUITZILAPA
My study o f the ceramic sculpture o f West Mexico indicates that mortuary feasts
and other strategies o f ritual consumption were a significant theme communicated
regionally by artists during the Late Preclassic Period. This chapter investigates the
validity o f my interpretation o f ritual and mortuary feasting in ancient West Mexico using
an analysis of sherds excavated from the Huitzilapa area.
The analysis focuses on archaeological data related to kin based feasting strategies,
and the mortuary, competitive, and calendrical feasts graphically depicted in the ceramic
art o f consumption. While interpretations o f ritual feasting seem reasonable given the
clarity o f the artistic depictions, the rich West Mexican environment, and the detailed
ethnographic accounts of feasting, the evidence for ritual consumption in the
archaeological record is more ambiguous.
The preparation and consumption o f a feast requires the same kinds o f equipment
used to prepare and partake o f the daily meal Traces o f ancient feasting practices may be
detectable, however, in prehispanic ceramic assemblages comprised o f larger or finer
containers than those used for daily service. Large vessels are needed to cook for and
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serve more consumers than the number gathered for a daily meaL In some cases, the host
may present food and drink using the finest serving wares.
The spatial distribution o f ceramic assemblages at archaeological sites may also
hold clues in identifying ritual, rather than everyday, consumption practices (G. Foster
1960; Schuster 1997). The locale for the family meal may be staged at the hearth or other
small domestic space. Whereas, a feast may necessitate a facility appropriate to the ritual
itself or a facility that accords with the number o f anticipated participants. Perhaps the
feast that is easiest to identify in the archaeological record is the mortuary feast. In West
Mexico, the containers with food and empty jars found in the chambers o f shaft tombs
verify their final purpose for feeding the dead.
My study will argue that functional groups o f West Mexican ceramic vessels from
the Late Preclassic Period represent the kinds o f containers necessary for hosting ritual
feasts. Toward that end, the ceramic wares known from the funerary context of West
Mexican tombs are first described. These assemblages provide an index for the range of
ceramic containers used by West Mexican hosts o f ritual consumption events. In addition,
most o f the Late Preclassic Period ceramic vessels, and especially those containing organic
remains, come from the protected environment o f the burial chambers.
My study then formulates functional groups o f feasting wares, from fine wares to
cooking wares, in the sherds excavated from the Huitzilapa area, and explores their
distribution and meaning in one Late Preclassic Period West Mexican community.
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WEST MEXICAN TOMB WARES
A review o f the Late Preclassic Period ceramic wares from the Atemejac Valley,
the Tequila valleys, and the Huitzilapa shaft tomb places my analysis o f the sherds from
the Huitzilapa area in a regional context.
For the most part, the extant body of
information about West Mexican ceramics derives from interred whole vessels. They
include finely made and decorated bowls, jars, and bules, for individual or small group use
and storage, and coarser made vessels for food preparation.
Atemejac Valley Tomb W ares
Archaeological salvage operations in the Atemejac Valley o f modem Guadalajara

have yielded a rich body o f ceramic information from the ritual context o f shaft tombs
(Galvan 1991; Aronson 1993, 1996). As discussed in Chapter H, the Atemajac Valley
shaft tombs are shallow and contain comparatively lesser offerings than that offered in the
deep shaft tombs around Tequila Volcano.
Over a period o f several years, IN AH
archaeologist Javier Galvan Villegas1 (1976, 1991; Schondube and Galvan 1978)
recovered ceramic vessels and other offerings from approximately 24 shaft tombs located
within the Atemajac Valley. Galvan has generously shared the excavated materials with
1Jalisco Center of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, and Regional Museum of
Jalisco in Guadalajara.
2 98
scholars, including then doctorate students Meredith Aronson (1993) and Christopher
Beekman (1996a).
Using a type-variety system, Galvan. (1976; 1991:262ff) classified the ceramic
wares from the Atemajac Valley into two mam groups, a fine ware and a coarse utilitarian
ware. In broad terms, the fine wares belong to the Tabachines group, and the utilitarian
wares to the Colorines group. A third group, Arroyo Seco, may date to a later period.
According to Aronson (1993:132, 142), the Arroyo Seco ceramics are later, and as time
progresses.. -the group Tabachines is replaced by Arroyo Seco
I therefore focus on the
two main ceramic groups associated with the Late Preclassic Period.
Tabachines is a fine textured, well made serving ware with a shiny paste that is
brown, gray, cream, or black in color (Galvan 1991:262). The vessel walls, which are
thini measure from three to seven mm thick. Surface finish is variable, as the type names
indicate: Oconahua Red on Cream, and Polished Black, Cream, Orange, and Red types
(Beekman 1996a:453).
Tabachines vessels have a variety o f forms: cups, bowls, plates, cups, and the bule
or guaje. The cups o f the Tabachines ware are small, with capacities o f approximately
100 ml, or the siVft o f a small individual serving. The Tabachines forms have an organic
look, and the bowls were probably made using the interior o f a gourd as the support for
the vessel (Aronson 1993:286). The average capacity for most o f the forms is about a
half liter (400 ml).
Galvan (1991:67, 263) suggests the fine Tabachines wares were made for the
299
table, for use as individual serving vessels, and not just for mortuary purposes.
Approximately 30 percent o f the Tabachines vessels found in the mortuary context show
some signs o f prior use (Aronson 1996:165; Galvan 1991:261).
These have limited
interior erosion and residues. The remaining 70 percent rarefy shows use wear (Aronson
1993:200-201, 207). The repair holes for maiding breaks on some Tabachines vessels
demonstrates an intent to reuse the vessels, as well as their preciosity or high value
(Aronson 1993:208-219).
The artistry, polished finish, and final use in chambers o f the dead suggest that
West Mexican people regarded the Tabachines vessels as a prestige ware, worthy o f ritual
use. They may have served the members o f high ranking families in two contexts, in
funerary and in ritual consumption.
According to Aronson (1993:343, 347), the
Tabachines vessels were status markers that served a decorative or explicit mortuary
purpose.
The fine wares from the Atemajac Valley have been compared to the Late
Preclassic Period wares interred in the core shaft tomb region o f the Teuchitlan Tradition.
Ceramic studies (Aronson 1993, 1996; Beekman 1996a; Galvan 1991) have explored the
relationship between the Tabachines fine wares and the prestige wares from the deep shaft
tombs o f the Tequila Volcano region.
Beekman (1996a:452ff) observed a strong
resemblance between the Tabachines wares o f the Atemajac Valley and the Ameca Grey
wares from the shaft tombs o f the Tequila valleys. The Oconahua Red on Cream is
strikingly similar to the Teuchitlan Red on Cream wares from the Tequila Volcano region
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(Beekman 1996a:496). The vessels found in shaft tombs of both areas are so alike that
Galvan (1991:264) believes that the Tabachines wares may have been imported from
pottery producers living in the Etzallan-Magdalena region, but this possibility has not been
tested.
The second ceramic group from the Atemajac Valley is Colorines ware,
comprised o f utilitarian vessels typed by different surface finishes (Galvan 1991:262ft).
The paste of the Colorines ware is coarse and poorly sorted, especially when compared to
the fine Tabachines wares (Aronson 1993:156). Local potters made the Colorines vessels
for domestic purposes. Colorines wares are mainly serving and cooking vessels, with
ollas the primary form o f cookware (Aronson 1996:165). The average capacity of the
Colorines ollas is 1200 ml, with the largest holding 20 liters. Colorines vessels, show
heavy, active use, and reuse o f broken pieces (Aronson 1993:207-208). Many display
fire blackened walls from cooking food.
The tripod legs of some ollas may have
functioned to prop a vessel over a kitchen fire (Galvan 1991:262ft).

As with the comparison made for the West Mexican fine wares, the Colorines Red
on Cream also has a corresponding type, Ahualulco Red on Cream, found in the shaft
tombs o f the Tequila Volcano region. Beekman (1996a:514, 534ff) in feet places the
coarse Ahualulco Red on Cream from sites in the Teuchitlan area within the Colorines
ware.
It is gignifirant that in the shaft tombs o f the Atemajac Valley, cooking wares were
2 According to Christopher Beekman (personal communication 1996), a finer textured ware

from the Tequila valleys, also referred to as Ahualulco Red on Cream, will be renamed in the future.
301
interred alongside the fine wares and other exotic offerings. Aronson (1996:165) surmises
that, the olla or bowl serves the same purpose in life as it does in the journey after death.
Tequila Valleys Tomb W ares
In the valleys surrounding Tequila Volcano, most information on ceramic wares

buried with the dead comes from salvage archaeological operations conducted at looted
shaft tombs. The ceramic assemblages of the deep shaft tombs, as discussed below, are
well known. Less publicized is the feet that the many common burials also contain small
ceramic offerings to the dead. The mortuary assemblage is usually a small ceramic vessel
and a pottery figurine (Galvan 1991). The custom o f burying the dead with a ceramic
vessel for consumption needs in the afterlife may have been a widespread phenomenon in
West Mexico, practiced by all social members, rather than one restricted to members of
prominent descent groups who dug deep shaft tombs.
Stanley Long (1966a, 1966b) described the retrieval o f ceramic materials from
looted shaft tombs. After seasons of fieldwork at the shaft tombs at archaeological sites
around Etzatlan and Magdalena Lake, Long (1966b:44) concluded that the ceramic
vessels interred in the shaft tombs around Tequila Volcano were created for mortuary
and special ceremonial purposes.
Usually, the looters themselves were the source o f Longs information about the
tomb contents. Adding field excavations to the verbal reports, Long (1966a, 1966b)
302
reconstructed the ceramic assemblage from the San Sebastian tomb in its entirety. In the
San Sebastian chamber, ceramic vessels were placed near the skulls o f nine adults. The
vessels consisted o f 33 decorated bowls, two small mouthed black jars, and eight ceramic
boxes with lids (Long 1966b:l 1; Figure 3a). Longs description o f the fine vessels, which
he called Ameca Grey wares, places them in the same class as the Tabachines wares. Like
the Tabachines wares, the ceramic paste o f the Ameca Grey vessels is a characteristic
grey, with a finely sorted and finely tempered texture. The purpose or contents o f the
lidded boxes was never determined.
Long (1966a,1966b) examined dozens o f other ceramic vessels that had been
looted from the shaft tombs near Etzatlan and Tequila Volcano. He observed numerous
bowls, a small tripod dish, and from the El Arenal tombs, two yellow slipped oval bowls.
At the Mary Perez site, ceramic assemblages from two looted shaft chambers had three
ollas, two bowls with negative resist designs, and a cup and a dish (Long 1966a,
1966b:33).
In addition to these fine Ameca Grey (or Tabachines) vessels, Long (1966a,
1966b:34) identified a ceramic ware made with a coarse textured paste. In one case, a
shaft tomb at the island site o f Las Cuevas contained two vessels made from a coarse
paste. A large bowl with concave walls and an olla had a coarse textured, dark brown
paste (Long 1966a, 1966b:34). The coarser vessels correspond to the description o f the
Ahualulco / Colorines ware, both in texture and in the larger olla and bowl forms.
303
Huitzilapa Tomb W ares
Huitzilapa is one o f few West Mexican shaft tomb sites for which ceramic data
exist from dual archaeological contexts: the underground tomb and the living surfaces. An
overview of the ceramic vessels interred in the tomb at approximately 100 A D ., as
discovered and described by Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos (1996),
offers a brief background for my examination o f sherds representative o f the living
surfaces.
Both o f the chambers of the Huitzilapa tomb contained ceramic offerings. The
north chamber contained 75 thin walled decorated ceramic vessels, classified as 31 dishes,
19 bules, 16 plates, five bowls, two ollas, and two bottle jars (Ramos de la Vega and
Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996: Table 1). In a published report, Ramos de la Vega and
Lopez Mestas Camberos (1996:126) identified the surface finish o f the fine vessels as Red
on Cream Bichrome, Red on Cream Polychrome, and Polished Monochromes in black
and red. Thirty-five ceramic vessels interred in the south chamber included 20 dishes,
three bowls, one tripod, one cup, one incense burner, three plates, two ollas, and four little
cups made in the bule shape. These are finished in a style similar to those of the north
chamber, in polychrome patterned designs and burnished monochromes, and in size,
represent an individual or small group serving size (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas
Camberos 1996: Table 2).
Final analysis and determinations regarding the type-variety of the ceramic wares
304
interred in the Huitzilapa tomb have not been made public at the present time. The fine
paste, decorated finishes, and the thin walls o f most of the vessels clearly indicate an
association with the Tabachines prestige wares o f West Mexico. It is also probable that
some vessels demonstrate the utilitarian and coarser aspects o f the Colorines ceramic
ware.
O f the total sample o f 113 ceramic vessels placed in the Huitzilapa tomb, two are
incense burners, 36 are empty, and 75 hold visible organic offerings. The shaft tomb
environment protected organic foods placed in the vessels. Ramos de la Vega and Lopez
Mestas Camberos (1996:126; Table 1) recovered several samples of organic materials,
presumably food, from a majority o f the vessels. Bruce Benz (1996) an ethnobotanist for
the Institute Manantlan de Ecologta, o f the University o f Guadalajara, and o f the Botanical
Research Institute o f Texas is conducting analyses of organic remains and residues
obtained from the vessels. The identification o f organic offerings will provide valuable
information regarding ritual consumption practices from the Late Preclassic Period society
centered at Huitzilapa.
The vessels that contain organic substances are mainly the individual sized plates
and dishes, and the bules that can contain a few individual servings. Faunal remains,
possibly from a fish or bird, appear in three bowls in the north chamber (Ramos de la Vega
and Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996: Table 1). Some empty bowls served as lids that
covered offerings in a vesseL One ceramic bowl covered a greenstone figurine that had
been placed in a ceramic vessel. Another lid covered an offering comprised o f shell beads,
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a quartz crystal, and a carbonized com cob (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas
Camberos 1996:126; Tables 1 and 2).
Several ceramic vessels interred in the Huitzilapa tomb have no detectable residue,
nor apparently did they function as lids. It is probable, but at this time speculative, that
some of these held liquid offerings to the dead, such as natively prepared agave based
beverages, which have evaporated, or another substance which did not leave any visible
remains. The presence o f bottle jars, a form o f liquid container, suggests that pulque,
mescal or tesguino may have been offered in the Huitzilapa tomb, but analyses are not yet
completed (c., J. Moore 1989). Yeast residues, that would reveal the presence o f
fermented liquids, are the same for either pulque or tesguino. The detection o f the
traditional root bark additive, ocotil (Acacia spp.), in the residue o f ceramic vessels would
distinguish the prehistoric presence o f pulque from other ritual drinks (Litzinger 1983:12).
Summary
A few conclusions about ceramic feasting assemblages can be drawn from my

survey o f vessels found in the funerary context of the shaft tombs o f the Atemajac Valley,
and the Tequila Volcano region. Two groups of ceramic wares consistently appear as
ritual feasting wares. One group is comprised of the fine wares, with sugary, fine textured
pastes, made in forms and sizes characteristic o f small or individual serving vessels.
'
Following Beekmans (1996a:452) recommendation, all the Late Preclassic Period fine
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wares, including the Ameca Greys, belong to and should be referred to as Tabachines
ware.
A coarse, utilitarian ware frequently appears in the same mortuary context with
the Tabachines wares. This group o f serving wares and cooking pots shows use wear and
fire blackened walls. Beekman (1996a:514) suggests that the entirety o f these vessels fell
into the Colorines group.
The ceramic data from a mortuary context give the impression that the spirits o f
the dead required a complete assemblage o f vessels useful for meal preparation and eating
in the afterlife. It is apparent that the ceramic wares buried with the dead were not
exclusively made for the tomb. They include the finest polychrome serving wares and
bichrome cooking wares that the West Mexicans considered appropriate for food
presentations to venerated ancestors. This portion o f the mortuary assemblage includes a
range o f vessels available to West Mexican hosts o f Late Preclassic Period ritual
consumption events. From this base o f information, a wider range of wares and vessel
shapes are examined to identify how the ritual consumption strategies operated in one
Late Preclassic Period West Mexican society.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SURFACE CERAMICS
The Huitzilapa excavations unearthed, in addition to the first complete
307
documented assemblage of"ceramic vessels from a shaft tomb, a sizable amount of sherds
from the context o f the living surfece.3 In July 1994,1 conducted a brief ceramic analysis
on these matpn'ak under the auspices o f the Institute Nacional de Antropologia e
Historia. Jorge Ramos de la Vega and Lorenza Lopez Mestas Camberos not only
facilitated this study, but also assisted enormously in the laboratory analysis.
Methods
The investigation o f Late Preclassic Period ritual consumption strategies was the
hade for the ceramic analysis at Huitzilapa (Butterwick 1995). Therefore, I used a
functional classification scheme, rather than a type-variety system, for my analysis o f the
excavated shgrrls. The steps o f my ceramic analysis were, 1) the formation o f a functional
classification scheme for excavated sherds, 2) the placement o f sherds into groups
according to inferred vessel function, and 3) the detection of meaningful spatial patterns in
the distribution o f the ceramic groups. The functional aspect o f the ceramic analysis also
applies to the use o f space and architectural features in the Huitzilapa area.
Most o f the ceramic artifacts excavated from the Huitzilapa living surfaces were
sherds.
Only rim sherds were analyzed by me because they give the most reliable
indication o f vessel shape and function when a complete analysis is not feasible. Studies
demonstrate (Lind 1987:11) that counts o f rim sherds provide a more accurate reflection
3 A rough estimate of excavated sherds is 30,000. This estimate is derived by multiplying the
approximately 300 hags of ceramic material by a conservative estimate of 100 sherds per bag.
308
o f relative frequencies of vessel types in the archaeological record than do total sherd
counts.
In addition to rim sherds, the ceramic sample consists o f all decorated sherds and
handles (n=89). The low frequency o f this group o f decorated rim and body sherds permit
their inclusion in the sample. We also suspected that the decorated sherds represented the
fine prestige wares that would allow for tests related to the presence of ritual feasting.
At a laboratory in Colima, we first collected every rim sherd and every decorated
sherd that had been unearthed during the Huitzilapa excavations.
We pulled
approximately 2600 rim sherds and 89 decorated body sherds from over 300 bags. Sherds
from each bag shared a common number that referenced a master list of excavation units
and levels, or locations of surface collections.
As the work o f placing sherds into functional groups began, it became apparent to
us that the designation of function based solely on rim shape was not entirety satisfactory.
The majority o f sherds were highly eroded and lacked surface finish, but even worse, they
were small with poor definition o f vessel shape. We thus incorporated attributes o f the
clay, such as tempering material, texture, sorting, color, and core darkening, to
differentiate the mass o f similar sherds. The resultant classification scheme o f 24 ceramic
groups combines a functional analysis with a type-variety system, the latter a goal o f the
ceramic analysis by Ramos and Lopez Mestas. The functional groups o f ceramics used in
the current analysis are combinations o f less than half o f these 24 types. The study focuses
on ceramic types with the clearest functional, rather than type-variety, indicators.
309
Limitations
As with many salvage archaeological projects, the data from the Huitzilapa project
excavations were not always recovered under ideal situations. In terms o f artifact analysis,
a wide path of bulldozing had leveled several structures in the site center, and removed
cultural strata from open plazas. Three meter High piles o f backdirt laden with obsidian,
groundstone, and ceramic artifacts lined the path o f destruction. Thus, the bulldozer
destroyed a great deal o f stratigraphic and spatial integrity at the site.
We have taken steps to mitigate the loss o f integrity to the artifact assemblages at
the Huitzilapa area. We e liminated several sources o f materials &om the ceramic sample
analyzed here, such as all artifacts collected from the surface, those that lack a designation,
and those collected from surfaces associated with the path o f the bulldozer. Excavations
o f platform mounds and patios at Huitzilapa and La Robleda were conducted in two by
two meter units, and by two meter wide trenches. These were dug, and the artifacts
recorded, in arbitrary 20 cm levels. Ramos de la Vega identified for me the mounds and
excavation units that were stratigraphically intact. He also aided my analysis by identifying
the excavation units most likely to be associated with living surfaces, based on
architectural features and stratigraphy, rather than fill materials.4 The ceramic sample o f
my study represents sherds selected from those units, levels, and features.
The provenience o f most artifacts recovered outside o f the tomb is considered by
4 The final report to ENAH, to be authored by Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos,
will include the detailed description of the excavation techniques and results ofthe Proyecto Huitzilapa.
310
me to be from a secondary, rather than a primary, deposit The final sample of 1771
sherds represents 65% o f all the rim sherds (and includes all the decorated body sherds)
that we processed at the ceramic laboratory in Colima. The sherds unearthed during
controlled excavations o f mounds and plazas, and from the layer o f earth covering the
rock fill of the platform mounds comprise the sample used in the current study.
The following ceramic analysis must be viewed as preliminary and inconclusive
due to factors mentioned above. The hope is ofiered that the questions that my study asks
o f the data, and the preliminary conclusions that are reached, will inspire and give a
theoretical underpinning to future ceramic studies conducted at West Mexican sites. A
research project designed to recover the kinds o f data necessary to fully test the presence
o f ritual consumption strategies in West Mexico would be an important future
contribution
A FUNCTIONAL CLASSIFICATION
At private and public feasts, the host acquires vessels for serving the food and
pouring the drink, the guests require containers for the consumption o f food and drink,
and the cook needs vessels for the preparation o f large quantities of food and drink. Here,
four ceramic groups from the Huitzilapa area are broadly defined by functional attributes
that accord with possible feasting activities.
Function is determined by specific use
attributes of a container shape, by vessels whose form restricts diverse use, and by the
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selection o f forms with rims that reflect a known or an assumed function (Lischka
1978:226).
The functional basis o f the ceramic groups also permits interpretations
regarding domestic or ritual use o f space, and, in general, regarding chronology.

The functional groups o f ceramic containers formulated for this study are
individual serving vessels (bowls and cups) o f prestige wares, food serving vessels, liquid
serving containers or pulque jars5, and large utilitarian vessels. Observations from ethnoarchaeological ceramic studies, texts, and from artistic representations of vessels in West
Mexican and other Mesoamerican art support the functional basis for these proposed
ceramic groups.
Prehispanic depictions o f containers, usually artistically rendered in polychrome
vessels or in ceramic sculpture, may give a context or function to certain vessel shapes.
Portrayals o f containers in Mixtec (Figure 4.8), Chohilan (Figure 1.3, 6.1), Aztec (Figure
4.4), and Maya (Figure 4.8) art substantiate, along with written descriptions in some cases,
inferences o f vessel function from depictions o f specific vessel forms. My formulation o f
the functional ceramic groups also relies on parallels in artistic and real vessel shape that
exist in the Late Preclassic Period ceramic heritage o f West Mexico.
Individual Serving Vessels of Prestige W ares
The first group o f ceramics exists both inside and outside of the Huitzilapa tomb.
5 The term pulquejar is used as a shorthand referent for a more inclusive term such as liquid
container for ritual drink.
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The determination o f form and function is based on equivalencies between the 113
interred vessels at Huitzilapa and sherds outside the tomb. Sherds from individual serving
vessels o f prestige wares are infrequent outside o f the tomb setting (see Tables 6.1, and
6.2). At the Huitzilapa area many other rim sherds derive from individual serving vessels,
but they are not o f the same fine quality as the decorated and fine prestige wares found in
the shaft tomb.
Artistic Representations and Texts. Individual cups and mating bowls were
identified in the feasting scenes depicted in the West Mexican ceramic models. The
miniature vessels always correspond to one individual figure, whether held in the hands
(cups), lap (bowl) or placed adjacent on a floor (bowl). The diminutive individual serving
vessels are invariably empty. This motif repeats in the numerous large hollow figures that
hold their own bowl or their own cup (see Figure on title page), as well as in a ceramic
figure from the Huitzilapa shaft tomb (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos
1996: Figure 7). The individual bowls and cups in the West Mexican art represent cups
for ritual drinking, or the empty vessels held by hungry ancestors, found in the Huitzilapa
tomb and in decorated sherds.
Prehispanic renderings o f Mixtec ceremonial scenes show figures that hold
individual serving vessels. Lind (1987:16-17, Figure 5) proposes that the individual sized
bowls with tripod legs seen in depictions of ritualized drinking scenes are pulque cups.
The marks above these fancy individual vessels indicate pulque, the beverage o f choice at
prehispanic Mixtec ceremonies (Figure 4.8). Lind (1987) compares the ceramic wares
313
n r-J.
Figure 6 I. The Pulque Drinkers mural at Cholula (from Marquina 1971).
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illustrated in Mixtec codices to identify similar ceramic forms that appear in the
archaeological record o f Oaxaca.
At Cholula, scholars have been able to decipher the function of ceramic forms
found in the archaeological record using the vivid imagery o f ceramic vessels painted in
the Bebedores or Pulque Drinkers mural (Lucel976; Marquina 1971; McCafierty 1996a,
1996b; Muller 1971). Mural panels o f Figure 6.1 show several male drinkers who flank
large jars or vats filled with the frothy, fermented drink o f pulque. Revelers raise their
cups, and others dip cups into the jars. A black dog, perhaps Xototl, the dog o f the
underworld, is present too. Young and old female attendants pour pulque from special
serving jars. Each vessel form painted in the mural has a match in the Chohilan material
record.
The functional interpretation o f ceramic vessels at Cholula is particularly
appropriate because the artistic rendering and the ceramic vessels have a stratigraphic
correlation and shared provenience. Individual serving vessels in the Cholula murals are
pulque cups, which exhibit two shapes: one a distinct shape o f a vase with constricted
waist and flaring rim, and a second with a hemispherical shape o f a bowl or gourd vessel.
In addition to painting cups and bowls in illustrations o f their ceremonies, ancient
Maya scribes identify individual serving vessels in hieroglyphic texts (Reents-Budet
1994:75). The one word or glyph for vessel applies to all forms o f drinking containers:
. . .from which liquid and semiliquid foods are consumed in a drinking fashion and is not
correlated with any o f these specific vessel shapes (MacLeod and Reents-Budet
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1994:161). The Maya describe their fine polychrome vessels in phrases such as: his
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plate, his drinking vessel for his food cacao, his thin gourd, his drinking vessel, ...
great lineage member (Reents-Budet 1994: Figures 6.24, 3.5). The designation o f
individual vessels for Maya lineage leaders may apply to the meaning o f hollow Colima
architectural models made into drinking vessels (Figures 3.7, 3.8).
These liquid
containers, shaped like houses or patio groups, may have communicated an ancient
message such as, his drinking vessel,...house chief o f corporate kin group.
The Aztec used small individual drinking vessels for ritual drinking at the annual
pulque feast, called kcalli, or The Growing. The Aztec served a fiery hot chili sauce,
and precious green stone tamales (Sahagun 1950-1981, Book 2:160). After eating the
spicy foods, pulque was drunk to cool the taste. Children also drank pulque for Izcalli,
there were quite small drinking vessels; only exceedingly small ones. And all were giving
pulque to the small children. Hence this was named pulque drinking for children
(Sahagun 1950-1981, Book 2:165).
At Huitzilapa. The decorated sherds from individual serving vessels found on the
living surfaces o f the Huitzilapa area derive from the same fine vessels as those found in
the Huitzilapa shaft tomb. The excavated sherds from prestige wares thus correspond to
the Tabachines wares from the Atemajac Valley (Galvan 1991), and the Ameca Grey
wares from the Tequila Valleys (Long 1966b:20).
Analyzed decorated rim and body sherds from the Huitzilapa surface show that
individual serving vessels o f prestige wares took the form o f thin walled bowls with
outslanting sides, cups, and dishes. The individual serving vessels are small, about the size
316
o f a modem day saucer, with an average rim diameter o f 12 cm. The vessels have very
thin walls, that average 3 mm in thickness.
The texture o f the fine tempered clay is sugary, with well sorted, very fine
particles. Paste color includes very pale brown (10YR 8/3), dark gray (10YR 4/1), and
pink (7.5YR 8/4). Variation in the surface finish includes cream, black, and red slips;
polychrome painted with white, black and red; bichromes o f red on cream, and polished
monochromes in black, red, and cream. The finish of some sherds apparently has eroded.
Key data that would contribute to the identification o f mortuary feasts at shaft
tomb sites are sherds from the assemblage o f interred vessels found outside o f shaft tombs.
Stanley Long (1966a) attempted such a study at the Las Cuevas island site in Magdalena
Lake. At a depth o f 120 to 180 cm below surface, one test pit yielded approximately 600
sherds. Only seven, or approximately one percent, of the sherds were fragments o f bowls
similar to those from the shaft tombs, in that they showed the same fine textured gray
paste (Long 1966b:45). At the site o f Huitzilapa, excavators uncovered only 20 sherds
o f fine polychrome ware, representing less than one percent o f the total sample collected
at the site.
The low frequency o f the finest sherds at the living surfaces o f Huitzilapa and at
Las Cuevas accents the specialized and restricted use o f prestige wares outside o f the
tomb. The spatial context o f the individual serving vessels o f prestige wares inside and
outside the Huitzilapa tomb is consistent with the idea that the finely crafted vessels were
used ritually by the living and the dead, perhaps at times, concurrently, at mortuary feasts.
3 17
In Mesoamerica. The link that connects the West Mexican prestige wares to
shaft tomb chambers also connects Maya polychrome vessels to a funerary context
(M. Coe 1978). At the point when they pass below the horizontal plane o f the earths
surface, the purpose o f the vessels changes, from a ritual use aboveground to a funerary
ritual below. Reents-Budet (1994:75) points out that many o f the Maya funerary wares
show heavy use, consistent with food service and ritual functions, prior to the final
placement in tombs.
At the Classic Maya site o f Kaminaljuyu, the finest vessels appear in the religious
or public context (Lischka 1978:227ff). Sherds from small, fine black bowls record
special events, such as the cuch ceremony, a ritual feast commemorating the first maize
harvest (Lischka 1978; Nimis 1982:323; Pohl and Lawrence 1982:299).
Certain styles o f fine vessels o f individual serving size may indicate a use for ritual
drinking. At Cerros, a type o f decorated drinking cup was interred in tombs along with
decorated jars. The co-occurrence o f cups and jars suggests that these held the ritual
beverages, such as balche or cacao, consumed at Maya ceremonies (Robertson 1983:
136).
A similar pattern exists in prestige wares o f West Mexico for the Early Classic to
Epiclassic Periods. Sets o f cup and olla with a pseudo-cloisonne finish were interred in
burials that postdate the construction o f shaft tombs in the region (Aronson 1996:166167; Holien 1977:301). This common West Mexican assemblage has appeared at Classic
Period sites in the Atemajac Valley, Lake Chapala, and the Tequila Valleys. Aronson
318
(1993:345) interprets the pseudo-cloisonne vessel pairing o f copa and olla as evidence for
ritual or ceremonial drinking.
The absence o f individual serving vessels in prehispanic residential areas suggests
to some investigators that gourds were used by individuals for daily use instead o f ceramic
vessels (Lischka 1978:230; Robertson 1983:134). The pattern o f low frequency o f sherds
o f small vessels at West Mexican sites (see Beekman 1996a) may also indicate the
prehispanic use o f gourds in the domestic context
However, contemporary West Mexicans use gourd vessels at ritual drinking
events. The Cora, Tarahumara, HuichoL, and Tepecan prepare the gourds into cups of
individual serving size (Lumholtz 1902:1:386,520, 1902:11:244; Bruman 1940:65; Mason
1981:68). At funerary rites, the Tarahumara use the gourd dippers when serving
alcoholic beverages (Pennington 1963:152). Likewise, the Maya today believe that gourd
cups are appropriate vessels for interment at mortuary rituals. Cups fashioned from
gourds are placed with the dead perhaps, as June Nash (1970:132) suggests, because, the
gourds, having grown from a plant, have a souL
In the Huitzilapa area, the presence o f relatively abundant sherds from individual
serving vessels may specify the success o f Late Preclassic Period community leaders in
hosting feasts, over other less successful communities whose leaders did not host feasts, or
whose feasts did not include the serving o f ritual drinks, such as pulque or mescal, in
ceramic copas.
In sum, the presence of sherds from broken individual serving vessels o f prestige
319
wares on the Huitzilapa living surface may have significance in interpreting ritual feasting.
The data are not available at this time to determine which Huitzilapa tomb vessels exhibit
signs o f use wear. We can predict however, that like the Tabachines vessels interred in
the shaft tombs at the Atemejac Valley, about thirty percent display evidence o f prior use
(Galvan 1991:286). The fine prestige wares used by Huitzflapans were presumably
reserved for ritual feasting and drinking events, such as, but probably not restricted to,
mortuary feasts. The sherds o f individual serving vessels o f prestige wares strongly imply
consumption in a ritual context
Food Serving Vessels for Feasts
Serving a large quantity o f food for a feast requires particular vessel forms. Food
serving wares for feasts must generally hold more food than those vessels used to serve
the daily meaL The presentation and publicity aspect o f food serving at feasts also implies
that the serving wares are of a finer quality.
Wooden plates preserved in the dry
environment ofHuanuco Pampa indicate that not all feasting ware used by the Royal Inea
was ceramic (Morris and Thompson 1985:90). Examples o f organic material possibly
used as West Mexican serving vessels include baskets, wooden platters, woven mats, large
gourds, and maguey leaves cut into plates and trays.
Artistic Representations. My study o f feasting scenes in the West Mexican
ceramic architectural models described the depiction o f food serving containers (see
320
Chapter IV). These clay miniatures appear as low bowls, dishes, and platters. Round and
flat vessels, like platters or trays, seem to hold the cylindrically shaped food. The round
bowl and dish shapes hold globular food.
The Chronicles o f Michoacan illustrates Tarascan food serving bowls used at
ritual feasting events, such as the mortuary feast portrayed in Figures 4.1 and 4.2. In front
o f a public display o f the dead, large bowls hold a large amount of globular food. The
Tarascan depictions o f food serving vessels have a consistently large size and rounded
bowl shape.
Prehispanic art from Central and Southern Mexico also portray food serving
vessels for feasts (Figures 4.4, 4.8). Ceremonies painted in the Mixtec codices illustrate
large bowls filled with either ears o f maize or with pulque (Lind 1987:16-17). In painted
vessels and codices, Maya artists frequently depicted food serving bowls and dishes, some
with tripod legs. The large serving vessels hold a variety o f foods, including ears o f com
and a globular food that has been identified as tamales (Taube 1989: Figure 7), and
dismembered human and animal remains (Reents-Budet 1994:81).
A t Huitzilapa. One group o f sherds from the Huitzilapa living surface fits the
description o f food serving vessels for feasts. The sherds derive from large and decorated
vessels. They are from a Red on Cream Bichrome ware that is a larger and coarse version
o f the fine individual serving vessels. The sherds, made o f a coarse paste, may correspond
to the Red on Cream Bichrome o f the Colorines ware. In the Atemejac Valley, Colorines
bichrome vessels appear in both the mortuary and the domestic contexts. Perhaps the
321
Huitzflapans also used the utilitarian vessels o f Red on Cream Bichrome for cooking or
serving the foods for feasts.
In the Huitzilapa area, 29 sherds o f the coarse Red and Cream Bichrome were
excavated (Table 6.1). The pink (7.5YR 8/4) to pinkish gray (7.5YR 6/2) paste, with dark
gray core, has a medium to coarse temper o f volcanic ash. The surface is finished with a
smooth, cream to pink slip, and the interior is painted with wavy designs in red paint. The
rim shapes have corresponding forms in large bowls with outslanting rims, and in dishes
with everted outslanted rims. Rim diameter estimates range from 14 to 20 cm. The walls
are usually from 7 to 9 mm thick.
These are not the only rim sherds o f this shape excavated at Huitzilapa. However,
they are the only ones whose diagnostic bichrome surface finish allows for their inclusion
into a decorated serving vessel group.
In Mesoamerica. Historic and contemporary studies document the use of fine
serving vessels at special feasts.
Not uncommonly, a ritual or ceremonial feast in
Mesoamerican communities was prepared and presented on the finest ceramic wares. The
Yucatec Maya, when planning the feast, obtained new ceramic kitchen pots, and new
serving wares (Robertson 1983). Some o f the chefs preferred to cook the ritual foods in
traditional clay pots rather than in the metal pots used daily (Robertson 1983:116). At
altars prepared for the Day o f the Dead feast, the Yucatec Maya served the food to the
ancestors in new serving bowls (Arnold and Nieves 1992:96).
At Mixtec sites, Lind (1987:34-35) identified large and small serving bowls for
322
ritual consumption. The vessels in both sizes are serving dishes for soupy foodstufis, like
atole, beans, or pozole. Lind (1987:16-17) deduced that the Mixtec used the large bowls,
with diameters measuring from 16 to 24 cm, for the main serving dishes at ritual events,
and offered small portions and condiments in the small bowls.
Pulque Jars
The feasting strategies proposed for inhabitants o f the Huitzilapa area depended
on the availability o f agricultural surplus to prepare and ritually consume. My study
proposes that the native growth o f Agave tequilana Weber permitted ritual feasting and
drinking opportunities to Late Preclassic Period Huitzilapan leaders and their descent
groups. The ritual consumption o f agave based beverages required the individual cups,
bowls, and gourds, previously discussed. In addition, the preparation o f pulque requires
fermentation in large hide vats, and the transport, storage, and serving require medium to
large sized jars and ollas. Although the term pulque jar is used here to refer to large
storage jars, my study acknowledges that other ritual beverages native to West Mexico,
including mescal or maiVe tesguino, may have been served in the Huitzilapa area.
Artistic Representations and Text. Two main shapes characterize the liquid
serving jars depicted in the West Mexican ceramic models (Figure 4.4) (Record Nos. 9,
29).
Jar shapes include a large wide mouthed vat and smaller, closed ones. On one
model (Record No. 14), the vat shaped vessel is inside, and outside on the porch are two
323
smaller closed jars (Figure 1.2). These vessel sizes are described for the Tarahumara.
They use an olla for storage o f tesgmno, and a bucket containing three (for males) or
four (for females) dippersfuL . . for serving (Merrill 1988:180).
Indigenous artists o f Mexico depict pulque jars in a few standard ways. One
prominent form is the large, jar shape with outslanting rim familiar in Aztec and Maya
codices and vessel scenes. The Aztec pulque jar is frequently footed, and shown with
handles and rope. The rope and handle motif suggest the transport o f pulque to the ritual
site. The Maya depict large jars with outslanting rims used to contain ritual beverages.
On one, a hieroglyph for maguey may label the contents o f the large jar as a mescal wine
(see Figure 4.8) (Reents-Budet 1994:82). Scheie and Freidel (1990:254-255) suggest that
the maguey liquid contained in the depicted vessel was for administration o f ritual enema,
a practice known for other Mesoamerican societies (also pulque used for ritual vomiting)
(Litzinger 1983:9), and proposed for West Mexico too (von Winning 1972b:36-38).
The Bebedores murals o f Cholula show two distinct vessel forms for serving
pulque (see Figures 1.3, 6.1). The largest are vats or wide, open containers, with flared
sides. These large pots hold presumably alcoholic and possibly hallucinogenic pulque
(McCafferty 1996b:308). Revelers dip their cups in the enormous vats and bubbles mark
the pulque froth. The second jar shape is a specialized serving vessel with tall, vertical
walls. Female attendants carry and pour pulque from the distinctive tall vessel.
In the Chronicles ofM ichoacan, drawings of jars accompany recurrent references
to inebriation, maguey wine (pulque), and other alcoholic beverages. The drawings of
3 24
Tarascan jars illustrate the reference to maguey wine and drunkenness in the text The
shapes o f the Tarascan vessels include a large jar, similar to the Aztec and Maya pulque
jars, and a smaller shape that may reflect a bottle jar for pouring.
The froth o f pulque, drawn as bubbles and dots at the jar orifice, specifies the
contents in the Mixtec, Aztec and Chohilan imagery. Tarascan artists did not employ this
symbolic device, at least not those who illustrated the Chronicles o f Michoacan.
At Huitzilapa.
Sherds o f jars with outcurved necks and wide mouths may
represent the shape o f the Aztec and Maya pulque jars (Figure 4.4). In the excavated
ceramic materials from the Huitzilapa area, rim sherds o f large jars are plentiful. The
selection o f some sherds as possible pulque jar fragments is tenuous, though, because
water jars have a similar form. Water, and other utility jars should however be more
common than ritual drinking vessels, and appear in every residence (Lischka 1978:229).
To represent the pulque jar, I have chosen a group o f jar sherds that is
differentiated by neck shape, paste texture and color, and a medium to large size. The
paste o f the sherds ranges in color from white (8/2) to very pale brown (10 YR 7/4) to
pinkish gray (7/2). The temper is coarse to very coarse volcanic ash. Wall thickness
ranges from 6 to 9 mm. Traces o f slip, a red or a red on cream, exist on a small
percentage of the sherds.
Other surface finish may have eroded. The average rim
diameter is 16 cm. The shape o f the rim sherds is outslanting necks, with rounded to
beveled-in rims. They do not occur in every excavated domestic mound in the Huitzilapa
area, as might sherds o f broken water and other utilitarian jars.
325
The archaeological record o f the Huitzilapa area also has the scraping tool, or
ocaxlte, used by native peoples to produce pulque. The rounded end scrapers from
Huitzilapa come in various sizes and are made from the local black and red obsidians,
and from the welded volcanic tuff (Figure 6.2). Based on a photograph o f some o f
these Huitzilapa tools, Payson Sheets (personal communication 1994) identified them as
I'r'i'i'iri'i'iM 'i'ri'i'i
IO O
T ~ - T g r. T
cm
"r
. r~- V T
Figure 6.2. Ocaxtles or maguey scrapers found at the Huitzilapa area

(photograph by K. Butterwick).
maguey scrapers. They presumably functioned in scraping the agave heart to increase the
flow of sap needed for pulque production (Manzanilla 1996:235).
My analysis o f the excavated ceramic materials preceded the study o f the lithic
326
materials excavated from the Huitzilapa area. My study was therefore unable to determine
the distribution o f the ocaxtles, and whether the agave scrapers co-occurred with the rim
sherds from pulque jars. This type o f correlation among artifact categories would add
substantially to our knowledge o f feasting and economic strategies in an early West
Mexican community.
Information regarding the size o f the eight spindle whorls found in the Huitzilapa
shaft tombs was also not currently available (Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas
Camberos 1996:Table 1, Table 2). The attributes and weight o f the spindle whorls may in
the future corroborate that Late Preclassic Period inhabitants o f the Huitzilapa area used
the native agave for a variety o f purposes, including textile production.
In Mesoamerica. To produce pulque, traditional methods o f fermentation use
pulque vats constructed from deer hide and not ceramic vessels (Litzinger 1983:12). In
West Mexico today, the HuichoL, Cora, Tarahumara, and Tepehuan use cowhides
suspended between poles to ferment agave based beverages (Bahre and Bradbury
1980:399; Lumhohz 1902:1:183; Pennington 1963:154; Pennington 1969:109).
This
suggests that the pulque jars portrayed and utilized in ancient West Mexico may have been
jars and ollas to serve, transport, and store ritual beverages.
For the preparation o f mescal from cooked agave juice, West Mexican people use
several clay ollas for the fermentation process. The Tarahumara place the sweet ju ice...
in a large mouthed pot to cool and then put [the juice] into a fermenting pot (Bye et a i
1975:88). The choice o f containers for processing ritual beverages is not limited to hide
327
and pottery. During the mid eighteenth century, the Tarahumara used hollowed-out
pumpkins (Le., gourds) as containers to ferment their tesgumo (Pennington 1963:154).
The Tarahumara utilize natural depressions or cavities in rocks for pounding and
collecting juice from the agave. Once the plant is squeezed dry, the juice within the
hollow o f the rock is removed to an oDa for boiling;
or the juice with parts o f the
agave plant may even remain in the rock cavity for fermentation (Pennington 1963:
154). This observation suggests the difficulty in identifying containers specific to agave
juice fermentation.
The preparation o f maize tesgumo uses a series o f clay ollas. Pennington (1963:
151-152) notes that when preparing tesgumo, the Tarahumara boil a com mixture in a
large olla. The boiled substance may then be strained into another olla. Due to
contamination o f the ollas by certain herbs added to flavor the tesgumo, the Tarahumara
may utilize up to three ollas during the cooking and fermentation process.
In the past, the Tarahumara buried clay jars o f maize beer underground in houses
or in pits during the fermentation period (Litzinger 1983:29; Pennington 1963:154). The
Maya o f Southern Mesoamerica may also have used underground chambers, called
chultunes, for the preparation o f ritual beverages (Dahlin and Litzinger 1986).
Large Plain Vessels of Utilitarian W ares
A final functional group of sherds represents the large plain vessels needed for the
328
preparation o f the feasting food.
Large plain pottery is not frequently illustrated in
prehispanic art, because the primary theme of Mesoamerican art is ritual rather than
mundane and utilitarian,
A t Huitzilapa. Rim fragments derived from the large plain vessels indicate that
the biggest vessels used at Huitzilapa were primarily jars and ollas. The shapes o f the neck
vary from outcurving to incurving. The Huitzilapans probably used the large vessels for a
variety o f domestic purposes, such as cooking for feasts, storage o f food surplus, and
water storage.
The large vessel sherds have a very dark gray paste (2.5YN3), or a very pale
brown paste (10YR8/4) with a dark gray core (5YR4/1). Inclusions o f coarse to very
coarse volcanic ash temper the clay matrix. Wall thickness averages 7 to 8 mm The rim
diameter o f the jar shapes average approximately 23 cm, whereas that o f the ollas average
18 cm. Slips o f cream or red color survive on a sm a ll percentage o f the large vessel sherds
initially examined (n=T,121). We do not know if the large plain vessels were slipped, or if
their plain surface is a result o f erosion. As a rule, these sherds represent larger vessels
than those belonging to the pulque jar group.
Refinement o f the functional interpretation is not possible because I did not collect
the data necessary to
d is tin g u is h
a large cooking vessel from a large storage vessel. Fire
blackened vessel walls, diagnostic o f cooking use, were not identified because we studied
only rim sherds.
In Mesoamerica. Ethnoarchaeological studies o f the contemporary use o f large
329
ceramic vessels may be applicable to an interpretation o f the sherds o f large vessels

excavated at the Huitzilapa area. In a Guatemalan village, Ben Nelson (1985:322ff)
identified large vessels, with a capacity o f approximately 35 liters. Nelson (1985:324)
found that the large vessels, excluding water jars, were used primarily for food preparation
at holidays, fimflrals, and cargo meetings. The Yucatec Maya use enormous cooking pots
for preparation of foods for large feasts. Robertson (1983:116) describes large plain
vessels used for feast preparations that cook up to 400 tamales at one time. Everyday
pots normally contain only 25 tamales.
Ethnographic studies o f large plain vessels show that cooking pots have a much
higher breakage rate than do storage pots. Cooking involves movement and carrying that
leads to breakage, whereas storage vessels are untouched (Sinopoli 1991:87).
In
Guatemalan households, Nelson (1985:327) found that large cooking pots are not only
five times more numerous than water jars, but also have a high breakage rate. Unlike the
cooking vessels, storage jars, once in place, are rarefy moved and are not subject to
thermal shock.
The ethnographic examples indicate, but do not verify, that the sherds from large
plain vessels at Huitzilapa mainly represent large cooking vessels o f utilitarian wares used
for food preparation at feasts. In my ceramic study, the functional category o f utilitarian
wares differ from the category o f domestic wares by representing larger vessels.
330
Summary
This section has described the classification o f ceramic vessels into clear functional
groups, for the purposes o f identifying traces o f ritual consumption in the ceramic
materials from the Huitzilapa area. Integrating ethnographic, historic, and archaeological
sources, my study has outlined an assemblage o f pottery containers necessary to host a
feast, O f the vessel shapes essential for ritual consumption, three shapes are also depicted
in the West Mexican ceramic sculptures. These are all serving vessels, used for individual
consumption, for presenting a quantity of food, and for pouring ritual drink. The ceramic
architectural models in my study sample do not show the fourth container type needed for
a feast, the large utilitarian wares o f cooking and storage vessels.
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF CERAMIC GROUPS
The distribution o f sherds excavated from the living surfaces o f Huitzilapa and La
Robleda forms patterns that may be meaningful in the identification and interpretation o f
Late Preclassic Period feasting strategies. Archaeologists have used the distribution o f
reramie materials as an indicator o f community organization, the domestic realm, ritual
use o f space, public places, elite residences, feasting centers, religious structures,
prehistoric kitchens, ceramic production areas, and trash middens (Arnold 1985; Hirth
1993b; Lischka 1978; B. Nelson 1985; Sinopoli 1991; Stark and Hall 1993). The goals o f
my spatial analysis o f excavated ceramic materials are twofold. First is the identification of
331
the social contexts for ritual consumption in the Late Preclassic Period West Mexican
society of Huitziiapa Second is the further assessment o f private and domestic space, in
comparison to public and community arenas, that I proposed earlier using settlement
patterns in the Huitzilapa area.
The Sherd Parameters
The functional groups o f ceramic feasting vessels identified from the Huitzilapa
area are the foundation o f the spatial analysis o f sherds. The analysis includes sherds
unearthed from a total o f 42 excavation units (the two by two meter pits, and two meter
wide trenches) at the sites o f Huitzilapa and La Robleda
The final report on the
Huitzilapa project by Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas Camberos will provide further
information on their excavations.
For the identification o f spatial patterns, the ceramic data from the Huitzilapa
excavations were analyzed differently because sherd counts alone do not reliably predict
use o f space or even high vessel use (B. Nelson 1985:3245; Sinopoli 1991:86). However,
crucial information that would enable standard manipulation o f the ceramic sample was
unavailable due to the unplanned and less than ideal conditions o f the salvage excavations
at the Huitzilapa area Whole vessel counts, or calculations o f artifact density per unit o f
excavation, or per cubic meter o f excavated material were not possible. I therefore
calculated ratios for the frequencies o f sherds. Ratios are considered a more reliable
__________
332
method o f analysis than raw frequencies (Walsh 1990:28).

To create the most confiable and meaningful values to compare in the ratios, some
classes o f ceramic data were conflated by me. For example, a value called decorated
prestige wares was established to test for the presence o f ritual consumption in the
Huitzilapa area.
The decorated feasting wares include all sherds in the groups o f
decorated prestige vessels, individual serving vessels, and Bichrome serving vessels. The
frequent co-occurrence o f these fancy serving wares (Table 6.1) indicates a shared
function, or arguably, evidence o f ritual consumption strategies.
The pulque jar sherds were not used to build ratios due to my inability to
independently test or confirm the designation o f some jar sherds as belonging to ritual
drinking vessels. The pulque jar sherds also represented a vessel size smaller than those
included in the category of large plain vessels o f utilitarian wares. Rather than weakening
the values o f the ratios, pulque jar sherds are viewed separately when they form patterns
o f possible significance.
Another refinement in the data was the formulation o f a baseline value to help me
assess sample bias, and explore theoretical issues. The baseline group o f excavated sherds
contains a category of domestic wares. Compared to the large plain vessels characteristic
o f the utilitarian wares, the domestic wares are small vessels. Unlike the four functional
groups o f sherds that denote special use, the rim sherds o f the domestic plain wares appear
in every excavation unit, and reflect multiple uses. The vast amount o f domestic sherds are
medium textured and unslipped. They probably represent multi-use vessels for individual
333
Table 6.1. Raw frequencies of sherd groups

MOUND
FIN
FIS
F1W
F1C
F2S
F2E
F2W
PWN
PWS
PWE
PWW
PWPatio
F7
FI OS
F10W
F10C
FI 1-1
FI 1-2
FI 1-Pat
F12W
CCW
CCNW
CTN
CCNE
CCE
CCC
CCPatio
JPN
JPS
JPE
JPW
JPCourt
Gl-1
Gl-2
Gl-3
G14
Gl-5
Gl-6
G2-1
G2-2
G2-3
G2-4
G2-C
G3-1
G3-2
G3-Patio
Decorated
Prestige
Vessel1
2
3
1
2
2
AO
Individual
Vessel2
5
9
4
3
2
1
6
3
3
2
3
1
3
I
5
I
2
3
3
5
4
5
I
3
5
5
1
1
Btehrome
Serving
Vessel
I
1
I
2
1
1
I
1
Pulque
Jar
1
10
1
4
4
4
1
1
Large
Utilitarian
Ware
28
23
5
II
16
9
4
24
20
21
10
12
10
I
29
1
I
1
1
2
Domestic
W are
30
30
17
14
29
14
13
40
30
37
6
8
15
18
10
31
2
8
4
10
28
15
10
6
4
5
4
9
6
1
9
2
I
4
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
I
1
1
1
7
7
9
3
8
47
26
12
14
20
8
15
25
12
5
8
2
6
I
7
4
4
7
14
added in (from first column), black monochrome, and red on cream.
6
1
1
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prehispanic social units for daily cooking, serving, and storage (per Sinopoli 1991:94).
My study uses three ratios to explore my research questions. The ratios are: 1)
decorated feasting wares compared to large plain vessels of utilitarian wares, a measure o f
large scale feasting,6 may indicate ritual or public ceremony; 2) decorated feasting wares
compared to domestic wares, a measure o f small-scale feasting, may indicate private
ritual in the domestic realm; and 3) large plain vessels (also referred to as large utilitarian
wares), compared to domestic wares, a measure o f domesticity, may indicate the presence
o f storage or kitchens.
My study next identifies and interprets patterns in the sherd distribution at
Huitzilapa and at the neighboring cluster of La Robleda. Table 6.1 lists the provenience o f
the sherds used in the analysis. These data are derived from excavators logs and records
provided to me by Jorge Ramos de la Vega. They include a range o f architectural features
described earlier, such as the Huitzilapa ballcourt, the large guachimonton (Conjunto
Circular), several large and small residences, central altars, and the platform mound
overlying the shaft tomb. Ceramic materials from test pits at other patio groups, and from
El Zapote were not available at the time of my analysis. For reference, the site maps of the
Huitzilapa area (Figures 5.6-5.12) are located in Chapter V.
Ballcourt - Juego de Pelota (JP)
The analysis o f the distribution o f sherds excavated from the Huitzilapa area
6Hirth (1991:138) refers to a similar ratio of serving ware to utilitarian ware as: a useful
indicator of the feasting and food-sharing functions associated with elite behavior.
335
begins at the main ballcourt at the Huitzilapa site. The ballcourt represents one end o fa
continuum, public to private, of functional use o f space. The Huitzilapa ballcourt is
unequivocally public and ritual space. Ballcourts are a special use area where presumably
neither work, storage, nor residential activities occurred.
The assemblage o f sherds
excavated from the ballcourt may reflect its public and ritual function, and apply to
sociopolitical interpretations o f ritual consumption in West Mexico.
An analysis o f sherd distribution at the Huitzilapa ballcourt (referred to as JP for
Juego de Pelota in Tables 6.1, and 6.2), comprised o f four mounds and the playing field,
reveals three discernible patterns.
First, sherds from individual serving vessels are
associated with the two mounds that bound the length o f the playing field (JP East and JP
West). Sherds from pulque jars also appear at the ballcourt. This pattern summons forth
the image o f spectators drinking pulque from fine bowls. Ritual drinking in the ballcourt is
an intriguing model of behavior to consider, especially considering the modem equivalent.
Second, the lack of sherds from large vessels, either decorated for serving or plain
for cooking, accentuates that feasts and cooking were not conducted at the ballcourt. The
ballcourt ceramic assemblage accords with a public area in its preponderance of decorated
serving wares, mostly individual in size, rather than food preparation vessels.
Archaeologists interpret similar ceramic assemblages o f small decorated serving wares at
Kaminaljuyu (Lischka 1978:227) and at Pikillacta, a Wari site in Andean South America
(Glowacki 1996), as one associated with a religious or public context (Sinopoli 1991:94).
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Table 6.2 Ratios for Ceramic Analysis

MOUND
FIN
FtS
F1W
F1C
F2S
F2E
F2W
PWN
PWS
PWE
PWW
PWPatio
F7
FI OS
F10W
F10C
FI 1-1
FI 1-2
FI 1-Patio
F12W
CCW
CCNW
CCN
CCNE
CCE
CCC
CCPatio
JPN
JPS
JPE
JPW
JPCourt
Gl-I
Gl-2
Gl-3
Gl-4
Gl-5
Gl-6
G2-1
G2-2
G2-3
G2-4
G2-C
G3-1
G3-2
G3-Patio
Ratio Decorated
Feasting to
Large Utilitarian
I : 4.6
1 : 23
1: 1
I : 3.6
I : 1.1
1 : 4.5
I : 2
1 : 22
1 : 2.5
1 : 2.6
Ratio Decorated
Feasting to
Domestic
1 5
1 3
1 3.4
1 7
I 73
1 7
1 13
I 5.7
1 73
1 93
0 6
1 4
1 3.8
1 18
1 10
1 7.8
1:
1:
1:
1:
1:
4 :0
1 :-2
0 : 8
0 :4
1 : 33
1:6
1 : 1.6
1 : 1.6
1 : 12
0 :4
1 : 12
1: 1
1 : 1.5
1 : 1
I :0 3
1 : 4.5
1: 2
1
1
0
0
1
I
1
I
1
0
1
1
1
I
I
1
1
1:7
1 : 3.5
1 : 1.1
I : 0.75
I : 0.8
I : 1.7
I : 1.7
1 : 13
1 : 23
I : 5
I : 1.6
1 : 3.8
1 : 18
1: 2
I : 5
1 : 0.9
1: 1
0
0
1
0
0
1
1
1
1
0: 6
0 :1
1 :7
1 : 3.5
1: 7
0 : 14
I : 1.8
1 : 33
0: 6
0:1
0:1
1:3
I
1
I
1
1
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
5
2.4
10
1
6
2
I
2
1
1
12
1.4
0
2
1.8
7
9
7
2.6
11.7
5
3
4.6
20
2.6
5
5
2.4
2.5
8
2
Ratio Large
Utilitarian to
Domestic
1 : 1.1
1 :13
1 :3.4
1 :13
I : 1.8
1 :L5
1 :3 3
1 :1.6
1 :L5
1 :1.7
0.8
13
1.8
10
1.1
1: 3
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Third, the prehispanic residents o f Huitzilapa probably maintained a clean playing

field, a behavior confirmed by the low frequency o f sherds in the court
Competitive strategies involving the ballgame and the serving o f ritual agave based
drinks may have been played out on the ballcourt. The carved panel that lines the El Tajin
ballcourt (Figure 4.12) depicts warriors or leaders in the act o f ritual consumption o f
pulque prior to or following a ballgame (von Winning 1972b:36-37). John G. Fox (1996:
495) found evidence for ritual feasting at other Mesoamerican ballcourts, and concluded
that some ballcourts were a strategic arena for the negotiation o f power relations.
The data uncovered in the Huitzilapa shaft tomb suggested that the principal
individual possibly filled several societal roles as a ballplayer, a descent group leader, and
an important player in a regional trade network.
These factors, combined with the
evidence for ritual drinking, allow the supposition that during the Late Preclassic Period,
aggrandizers conducted regional competitions in a feasting atmosphere at the Huitzilapa
ballcourt.
Patio Group F12 West (F12W)
Excavators placed a test pit in a platform mound at F12, an undisturbed patio

group to the northwest o f the Huitzilapa site center. Using architectural measures, my
settlement study classified F12 as a residential patio group. The sherds from F12 West
therefore should reflect a domestic ceramic assemblage to which sherds from more
338
ambiguous sectors o f the community can be compared.

Although excavators recovered a
few sherds from individual serving
vessels on the surface o f the platform mound designated as F12 West, none was found
during subsurface testing.
In feet all sherds in the
s a m p le
are large plain vessels
of utilitarian wares and domestic wares, in a nearly equal 1:1 ratio. The high ratio
o f 9:0, Le., domestic wares to decorated feasting wares, affirms the residential
status o f the F12 patio group.
The absence of individual serving vessels o f prestige wares in this residential group
may be a meaningful pattern. It suggests the possibility that gourds were used for
individual serving vessels in residential areas away from the site center. Alternatively, the
lack o f sherds from individual serving vessels may indicate that everyone ate from a
communal cooking pot, or ate elsewhere. The pattern supports the premise that the
prestige wares were restricted to use or ownership by High ranking corporate kin groups
living in the center of the Huitzilapa community rather than on the outskirts. Further, the
residents o f F12 may not have hosted ritual feasts, but attended feasts held at other parts
o f the community.
My settlement analysis suggested the inhabitants of the outlying and smaller
residential groups may represent families drawn to Huitzilapa by aggrandizers who hosted
the best feasts and giveaways. The social group o f F12 may represent new labor recruits,
rather than, or in addition to, lower ranked descent group members.
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La Robfeda [G1 (1-6), G2 (1-4), G3 (1-2)]
The ceramic analysis focuses next on other small, and apparently domestic, patio
groups at neighboring La Robleda (Figure 5.12). Archaeologist Jorge Ramos de la Vega
excavated a cluster o f three patio groups (G l, G2, and G3) at the site o f La Robleda. The
artifact sample is relatively reliable due to the undisturbed nature o f the site, and the
extensive excavations and cleaning o f the platform mounds.
The occupation of La
Robleda is considered contemporaneous with Huitzilapa.

A few patterns o f possible significance are discernible in an analysis of the ceramic
data. As Table 6.1 o f ceramic frequencies shows, virtually no individual serving vessels of
prestige wares occur at the three main patio groups at La Robleda. The s in g u la r fragment
o f an individual vessel is not statistically meaningful, nor are the three sherds from the
Bichrome Red on Cream serving ware sufficient to support a functional interpretation.
The predominance o f sherds from domestic wares confirms the residential
designation o f the La Robleda patio groups. Domestic wares outnumber (or equal to, in
two instances) large utilitarian wares in ratios calculated for every mound. This pattern
indicates that if the inhabitants o f La Robleda hosted feasts, they did not use large cooking
pots and storage vessels. The La Robledans perhaps hosted kinship feasts, consistent with
descriptions o f the small scale feasts hosted by families o f Mississippian societies
(discussed in Chapter I). The appearance o f sherds from large jars at G-2 suggests the
possibility that ritual drink was served at family feasts held at the largest patio group at La
340
Robleda
No distinctive sherds nor patterns of ceramic assemblages mark the round
architectural features at La Robleda Low sherd frequencies characterize both the stone
ring altar (G2-C) and one rounded outdoor terrace (G3-Patio). This may result from the
feet that both round architectural features are in high use patios where accumulation o f
debris was probably intentionally minimized (Hayden and Cannon 1984).
It is not
unreasonable to suggest that the open and rounded terrace was used for public gatherings.
Like the low sherd count o f the playing field o f the ballcourt, the low sherd density o f the
rounded terrace may similarly reflect a high use ritual area, consistent with community
celebrations o f the seasons.
Differential sherd amounts occur within the three excavated patio groups at La
Robleda One mound in each patio group has substantially more sherds in both number
and variety (see G l-1, G2-4, and G3-1). That the mounds o f G l-1, and G2-4, are both
the smallest domestic platform in their respective patio groups suggests that they represent
kitchens, or a food preparation and consumption area G3-1, alternatively, as the larger of
two mounds built on the rounded terrace, may have been the site for food preparation in
conjunction with ritual activities on the open terrace.
Patio Group F2
Bulldozers struck all but the South mound o f the F2 patio group, located on the
341
eastern edge o f the Huitzilapa site center. It had been a large patio group, comprised o f
quadrangular and architecturally elaborate platform mounds.
Three trends mark the
ceramic assemblage from this group. First, sherds derived from individual serving vessels
o f prestige wares occur at all three surviving platform mounds. Second, F2 South, the one
mound least affected by the bulldozer, has a diverse ceramic assemblage.
The co
occurrence of sherds from pulque jars, and from fine individual serving vessels points to
the South mound as a locus for ritual consumption that included drinking. Third, a high
ratio o f domestic wares compared to large plain vessels of utilitarian wares at F2 West
indicates the preparation and consumption o f the daily meaL
Patio Group F7
Following bulldozing o f the F7 patio group, one platform mound was left
unscathed. The sherds excavated from the one unaffected mound represent a range o f
vessel functions. They occur, however, in comparatively low numbers. The nearly even
ratio between the domestic wares and the large utilitarian wares indicates a residential
context. The presence o f sherds from decorated feasting wares and from large plain
vessels may attest to ritual consumption or a food preparation area for a large social
group. Lending credence to this interpretation is the proportionally low count o f sherds
from the smaller domestic wares.
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Patio Group F ll
The patio group o f FI 1 sits on a hilltop overlooking Huitzilapa. The northern

location is somewhat isolated from the site center. The patio group design of five mounds
arranged around a rectangular patio is unique in the Huitzilapa area. It is therefore not
unexpected that the sherds excavated from FI 1 also represent an unusual assemblage.
The test pit at FI 1-2 yielded a high proportion of sherds from decorated feasting wares,
and none from large plain vessels. The resultant 4:0 ratio o f decorated wares to large
utilitarian wares is the highest calculated for the entire site. Sherds from the domestic
wares are comparatively few.
These data allow for the interpretation that FI 1 was not exclusively a residential
area.
Neither does the evidence allow for a primarily public or community center
interpretation, given the remote location and lack of large vessels for serving large social
groups. The ceramic data give the impression of a ritual assemblage geared toward
individual consumption. Perhaps scientific observations or religious rituals, held by a
restricted membership, account for the distinct ceramic assemblage. The hilltop location,
overlooking the Rio Santiago trade route, may indicate that regional or competitive
strategies were planned from the F 11 patio group.
343
Patio Group F10
The F10 group is also called Terraza Sur, or the Southern Terrace, for its
geographic relationship to the site center o f Huitzilapa. Extensive excavations focused on
three mounds.
Two other platform mounds in the patio group had been recently
destroyed.
The three surviving mounds each have different ceramic assemblages that suggest
their separate social functions in the patio group. Analysis o f the sherds suggests the
identification of a possible kitchen at the small southern mound. At F10 South, an even
ratio between domestic wares and large plain vessels o f utilitarian wares may represent a
food preparation area. Ceramic assemblages associated with kitchens have lots o f big and
small cooking pots, and large storage containers (Sinopoli 1991: 94-95). The absence o f
decorated feasting wares from F10 South reinforces a daily (as opposed to ritual)
consumption area or kitchen interpretation.
A central round and tiered altar is a distinctive feature of Terraza Sur. The
ceramic assemblage at the architecturally elaborate altar includes decorated feasting wares,
and large amounts o f both domestic wares and large utilitarian wares (1:1 ratio). The mix
o f decorated feasting wares and large vessels leads to the proposition that the altar served
as a feasting site.
The west mound in the patio group is differentiated by a high proportion o f sherds
derived from domestic wares rather than from large utilitarian wares (10:1 ratio). The
344
lack o f decorated feasting wares, and preponderance o f sherds from smaller domestic
wares assign a residential status to F10 West. The ceramic data suggest that daily meals
were prepared and consumed at F10 West, rather than ritual consumption events being
present.
Patterns that emerge in the spatial distribution o f sherds suggest functional
differences in the platform mounds. The trends noted at F10 may demarcate a kitchen, a
residence, and the altar which may have functioned to integrate members o f the resident
corporate kin group.
Patio Group FI
Sherds from Huitzilapas finest individual serving vessels of prestige wares and
from the decorated feasting wares are concentrated in the site center at the three largest
patio groups o f FI, Conjunto Circular, and Plaza West (also called F4).7 I next describe
and interpret possibly meaningful patterns in the ceramic materials excavated from these
three patio groups.
The mounds o f the FI patio group are among the largest and most elaborate at
Huitzilapa. The feet that its altar is the only square one at Huitzilapa adds to the groups
significance. At platform mounds o f the FI group, investigators unearthed a third o f
Huitzilapas sherds from the finest polychrome prestige wares (South n=3; North n=2;
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7 Total sherd quantity and the confiability of the data would be much higher had many of these
mounds in the center not been bulldozed.
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and West n=l).

An analysis o f the distribution o f sherds identifies patterns o f possible social and
ritual significance at Patio Group FI. The square altar marks the center o f the patio
group. Compared to the sherds recovered from the platform mounds, the altar has the
least amount and least variety o f all sherds, and a notable lack o f fine individual serving
vessels. That domestic wares overwhelm decorated feasting wares in a 7:1 ratio gives a
private ritual context to the ahar. Should this pattern reflect actual use, one explanation is
that the family that maintained the unique altar, offered food and drink in daily domestic
ware, or in gourds or other organic containers that did not survive the archaeological
record. The daily presentation o f food on a domestic ahar fits the model o f living
Mesoamerican people who regularly offer food to the ancestors at the family shrine.
One platform mound, the southern one, contained nearly twice as many decorated
feasting wares as the other mounds of Patio Group FI. The abundant domestic wares and
large plain vessels combine in a nearly 1:1 ratio. The characteristics of this ceramic
assemblage, combining sherds from prestige wares, and food preparation vessels, permit
the inference that FI South supported the residence o f a highly ranked Huitzilapan family,
and one that hosted ritual feasts. A similar assemblage occurs at FI North, the mound that
also articulates with the Conjunto Circular, however, its destruction by bulldozing
precludes making sound inferences.
Sherds excavated from FI West, the fourth largest platform mound in the
Huitzilapa area (see Table 5.4), suggest a domestic context. The ratio between the
346
domestic wares and the big utilitarian wares is nearly 4:1. The assemblage substantiates
the findings from my settlement pattern analysis o f Chapter V that the huge quadrangular
mounds at Huitzilapa functioned as platforms for domestic groups.
Conjunto Circular (CC)
The functional interpretation o f the guachimonton at Huitzilapa is an enigma first

because of its large size and unique shape at the site center. In addition, radiocarbon dates
o f A. D. 150-300 for materials tested from the north mound indicate that the Conjunto
Circular may belong to a period following the shaft tomb burials (Ramos de la Vega and
Lopez Mestas Camberos 1996: Table 3). Further, the feet that FINorth, a rectangular
patio group, articulates with Conjunto Circular demonstrates a prehistoric construction
plan to link the two impressive yet distinct patio groups together (see Figure 5.6). Lastly,
my analysis challenges a premise held by West Mexican archaeologists (e.g., Weigand
1987) that guachimontones were ceremonial architecture (a premise formed in part from
interpretations o f ceramic art showing figurines dancing outdoors in the round, see Figure
6.3). The ceramic data presented here support a domestic interpretation for the function
o f Conjunto Circular o f Huitzilapa. An analysis o f the ceramic data collected from
Conjunto Circular may shed some light on these issues critical to understanding social
issues and community organization ofHuitzilapa.
Although chronology is not a focus of my study of the Huitzilapa area, the ceramic
Figure 6.3. Ceramic sculpture o f dancing performed outdoors, in the round,

top, shows figurines dancing in patio group, h=14.0 cm (from von Winning
and Hammer 1972: Figure 40); and lower, shows ring o f dancers,
h=13.2 cm (from von Winning and Hammer 1972: Figure 119).
348
data that I analyzed allow a few observations. One insight concerns the detection o f some
Classic Period sherds in the Huitzilapa area. Their distribution, however, does not
implicate Conjunto Circular. From over 2600 rim sherds in my Huitzilapa ceramic data
base, 61 sherds belong securely to the Classic Period (these include sherds from glazed
wares, miniature pots, and those with a distinctive rolled or enrollado rim) (per Aronson
1993). Surface collections at the ballcourt yielded approximately half o f the Classic Period
sherds. At the Conjunto Circular, there were only four Classic Period rim sherds, and
those were found on the surface.8 On the other hand, a Late Preclassic Period presence is
indicated by sherds of the fine prestige wares excavated from test pits within Conjunto
Circular mounds. Excavations in the Northwest, North, Northeast, and East mounds o f
the Conjunto Circular (CC) yielded an abundance o f the sherds from individual serving
vessels o f prestige wares, in all finishes previously described.
A sample from the CC Northeast test pit suggests that sherds from individual
serving vessels o f prestige wares may represent an offering. From a two by two meter
unit, at the 150 to 200 cm level, excavators recovered an assemblage o f the finest sherds
from individual serving vessels, finished in polychrome (n=l), Bichrome (n=2), and Black
Monochrome (n=l). This sample, although tiny, does represent one fifth o f all the finest
sherds excavated at Huitzilapa (Table 6.1). The significance o f this one sample is not
clear. The deposit o f sherds from fine prestige wares may mark the beginning o f an epoch
ofbuilding or rebuilding at Huitzilapa. The occurrence o f sherds from prestige wares in all
8 Archaeologists for the Proyecto Huitzilapa bagged approximately 546 rim sherds from
excavations and the surface of Conjunto Circular.
349
the mounds argues against the proposal (discussed in Chapter V) that the four large
mounds (including FI North) o f the Conjunto Circular were built first, and the smaller
ones interspersed at a later time).
Patterns discerned in the sherd distribution at Conjunto Circular may allow for a
functional interpretation of the Huitzilapa guachimonton architecture. Beginning with the
central tiered altar, the unearthed sherds may demonstrate a feasting assemblage. An
equivalent 1:1 ratio between decorated feasting wares and large plain vessels o f utilitarian
wares may indicate a ritual site. The data permit the inference that the Huitzilapans
consumed and/ or offered food and drink at the ahar, and prepared food elsewhere. The
double amount of domestic wares over big utilitarian wares repeats the pattern described
at the FI altar, where domestic sherds predominated that ceramic assemblage.
The
presentation o f food on the ahar belonging to a corporate kin group fits the model o f food
and drink repeatedly offered to the ancestors.
The donut shaped patio o f Conjunto Circular has a distinctive ceramic assemblage
unearthed in a two by two meter unit placed midway between the ahar and CC North.
Bedrock lies only 60 cm below surface.
Sherds o f domestic wares predominate the
assemblage, outnumbering decorated feasting wares 20:0. The ratio o f 5:1 between
domestic wares and large utilitarian wares corresponds again to a domestic or private
venue. The impression o f domesticity for the round patio, ranked second in size o f all the
patios in the Huitzilapa area (see Table 5.4), contrasts with other ceramic assemblages
excavated from patios. Sherds discovered at the patios o f the ballcourt and Plaza West
350
represent very low frequencies o f diverse wares, including decorated feasting vessels.
CC North is the biggest residential platform mound in the Huitzilapa area (second
in platform size only to the altar marking the center o f El Zapote). Its tiered platform even
has a staircase (see Table 5.4; Figure 5.5). Sherds collected from a two meter wide trench
transecting the mound derive primarily from the domestic wares. The ratio o f nearly 12
domestic ware sherds for every sherd o f decorated feasting ware implies a residential
function. Sherds from large plain vessels o f utilitarian wares are also present, in a 6:1 ratio
over decorated feasting wares.
These data are in accord with the proposition that
elaborate stepped mounds at Huitzilapa, whether in circular or square patio arrangements,

served as platforms for houses.
Low frequencies o f sherd assemblages characterize other platform mounds in the
Conjunto Circular at Huitzilapa. The sherd frequencies at CC East, another large stepped
mound, is minimal compared to CC North. Sherds from each ceramic group appear in
comparatively equal but low frequencies. The resultant ratios connote a public, religious,
or special use area rather than a domicile o f a corporate residential group.
A similar pattern o f sherd distribution emerged at the small mound o f CC
Northwest. At CC Northwest, low overall frequencies result in possibly invalid values for
the decorated feasting wares, large plain vessels, and domestic wares.
The low
frequencies o f all ceramic groups give the impression that CC Northwest was a special use
area, not associated with a regular or daily food consumption. Like CC North, these
mounds with low sherd distribution may represent special use areas, for a craft or a
351
workshop, that required frequent cleaning and/ or infrequent ceramic use.

The sherd assemblage from CC Northeast, the other small mound in the
guachimonton, agrees with a domestic interpretation- A combination o f diverse ceramic
forms, including sherds from domestic wares and large utilitarian wares, denotes a
residential context. Sherds from fine individual serving vessels appear with a nearly equal
amount o f pulque jar sherds. The presence o f sherds from pulque jars as well as from
individual serving vessels (a Late Preclassic Period copa and olla set?) indicates a possible
location for ritual drinking.
In sum, preliminary analysis of the sherds excavated at the Conjunto Circular
demonstrates the following patterns:
Mounds in the guachimonton represent different domestic functions.
The size, position, and architectural features o f the mounds do not dictate
function. The ceramic analysis identifies different functions for each o f the
two large mounds and for each of the two small mounds.
The North mound is the most architecturally elaborate in the group. The
ceramic evidence suggests that it most likely served as a residential platform.
A complete feasting assemblage, including sherds from decorated feasting

wares and large plain vessels, appears only at Conjunto Circular North.
Domestic wares from CC North may have been tossed into the patio.9
The small mound o f CC Northeast, probably served as a residential platform
9 Weigand (1976) argues that flagpole or other dances took place in the round patios of
guachimontonesi the sherds stamped into the dance surface (see Figure 6.3).
352
perhaps for a pulque producer, or tlachiquero.

A non-domestic ceramic assemblage characterizes two mounds (Northwest
and East). Interpretation o f sherd patterns gives a ceremonial, public, or
workshop function to these platforms.
The round, tiered altar, CCC, may have functioned as a place for descent
group ritual offerings and consumption, but not for food preparation.
Plaza W est
Late Preclassic Period evidence for mortuary feasting in the Huitzilapa area can
best be assessed at the one known patio group associated with an elaborate shaft tomb
burial, Plaza West (or F4). A review o f the ceramic data indicate that several features of
mortuary feasts are made manifest at the high status patio group of Plaza West.
One critical element is the appearance o f sherds from individual serving vessels of
prestige wares. These do occur at Plaza West, as discussed below, in very small amounts.
Plaza West is one o f four architectural groups (along with FI, ballcourt, and Conjunto
Circular) that each has nearly a quarter o f all sherds from individual serving vessels o f
prestige wares at the site. Of a total o f only 15 polychrome sherds that are strikingly
similar to the wares found in the Huitzilapa tomb, four appear in Plaza West, two in the
North mound, and two in the South. In Plaza West South, the placement of one of these
in the fill o f the shaft tomb at a depth o f 150 to 250 cm may indicate an intentional ritual
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deposit. It, along with the metate found in the shall, may represent offerings to the dead.
The ceramic assemblage from the South mound corresponds to a domestic
interpretation for the largest stepped platform mound in the Huitzilapa area, that also
overlies the shaft tomb. A high ratio o f nearly 8:1 between domestic wares and decorated
feasting wares indicates a private rather than a public or religious site.
The nearly
equivalent amounts o f sherds from domestic wares and large plain vessels o f utilitarian
wares tentatively identify a domestic consumption assemblage. The additional presence of
pulque jar sherds and decorated feasting wares implicates a ritual aspect to the domestic
consumption at Plaza West South. The possibility of pulque consumption at this mound
corresponds to my basic argument that highly ranked corporate kin groups feasted their
founding landowning ancestors in order to control access to the restricted growth of the
Agave tequilana.
The North mound in Plaza West was least affected by the bulldozing o f 1993. Its
architectural remains show a stepped platform mound with a central staircase. It has the
second highest count o f sherds derived from individual serving vessels o f prestige wares at
Huitzilapa. The presence o f sherds from pulque jars, and high ratios for domestic wares
and large utilitarian wares indicates another possible site for ritual consumption associated
with a residence. The domestic context for ritual consumption at the large stepped
platform mounds is a familiar pattern at Huitzilapa.
At Plaza West East, the preponderance o f sherds derive from domestic wares and
the large utilitarian wares. The ceramic patterns, with low values for decorated feasting
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wares, lend credence to the supposition that the East mound was a cooking and storage
facility, rather than one used for ritual consumption. That the East mound is the smallest,
at 98 meters square, in the patio group, may support a kitchen or storage designation.
The patio o f Plaza West is the largest quadrangular plaza in the Huitzilapa area,
measuring 499 square meters (see Table 5.4).
Excavations in the patio unearthed
comparatively few sherds, and no specific patterns in the distribution of the ceramic
materials. This pattern is consistent with high use prepared outdoor space, for both
private and ritual functions. The thick stone walls demarcate the patio perimeter, and
outline the rounded shape to the patio.
It is conceivable that this enormous patio with only a small altar (estimated at 8 m2
based on Weigands 1980 map, and now destroyed) was once used to plant a xocotl pole
to honor the ancestors. Given the pattern of grand altars in the large patio groups, it is
inconsistent that the biggest patio, owned presumably by the a high status corporate kin
group o f the principal individual buried in the shall tomb, did not have a substantial ahar
for paying homage to the great dead. The proposition that the annual Huey M iccaylhuitl
ceremony to the ancestors, that the ancient agricultural and feasting calendar was
commemorated here, makes sense. Harvested from the nearby agave fields, the pulque
that presumably gave wealth to the corporate kin group o f Patio West was most likely
served.
The model o f mortuary feasting depends upon a corporate kin group that lives
together in a patio group, and that hosts feasts honoring venerated ancestors.
The
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ceramic, architectural, and mortuary data from Plaza West raise the question; did descent
group members living in Plaza West host private and public mortuary feasts to honor the
dead buried in the shaft tomb beneath Plaza West South? The sherd assemblages o f the
North and South mounds o f Plaza West, representing fine individual serving vessels of
prestige wares (like those from the tomb), decorated feasting wares, and large plain
vessels for cooking, answers in the affirmative.
CONCLUSIONS
My study of the Huitzilapa and La Robleda ceramic materials confirms the

likelihood that members o f prominent corporate kin groups staged ritual consumption
events to maintain and protect their control of restricted agave resources. Sherds from the
Huitzilapa area suggest that feasts were held in the domestic realm, on the competitive
front of the ballcourt, and at private and public mortuary feasts for the dead.
My analysis o f the Huitzilapa ceramic material is only a preliminary step in
understanding how feasting strategies affected social and community organization in one
Late Preclassic Period society o f West Mexico. The questions that I have asked o f the
data limit my study to only a part o f the ceramic sample, and to areas o f the site where that
sample was unearthed.
Clearly, much more information can be derived from the
Huitzilapa ceramic collections, as planned by Ramos de la Vega and Lopez Mestas

Camberos. Recent West Mexican investigations on regional ceramics (Galvan 1991),
3 56
technological aspects o f West Mexican pottery (Aronson 1993), chronological and

comparative analyses (Beekman 1996a), and my own conjunctive methods that
incorporate art and text to interpret archaeological patterns demonstrate the possibilities
for further research.
CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
This final chapter discusses the significance o f my research into ritual

consumption and ancestor worship in some ancient West Mexican societies. It has
three parts. The first part outlines a model o f sociopolitical organization and social
structures for one Late Preclassic Period community, which we call Hnfrzilapa. The
second part examines the results o f the conjunctive perspective used to formulate the
societal modeL The strengths o f the analyses are identified, as well as areas for future
research. The last section establishes the significance o f the study to West Mexican
archaeology.
A MODEL OF LATE PRECLASSIC PERIOD

SOCIOPOLITICAL ORGANIZATION
My study has identified descent groups, composed o f corporate kin groups, as

the probable basis for social structures in the Late Preclassic Period society occupying
the Huitzilapa community in Jalisco. Descent groups are defined and integrated by
genealogical interrelations o f a social group (Feinman 1995:272). No conclusions
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were reached regarding which o f the many types o f descent reckoning may have
existed at Huitzilapa. However some data exist to suggest to me the presence of
strong lineal descent groups or bilateral kinship structures. More firmly established
was the probable existence o f corporate kin groups, which my study defined as
cooperative residential groups o f extended family members. My study perceived the
corporate kin groups as subunits o f the larger descent groups.
The formation of corporate kin groups in the Tequila valleys may have
occurred first during the Late Preclassic Period. Corporate kin groups may have
gained prominence from working and controlling access to arable land with exceptional
food producing capabilities (Collier 1975; Feinman 1995:273; Hayden 1995:26;
Hayden and Cannon 1982:148-149).
At the Tequila valleys, the power held by
prominent descent groups may have derived from corporate control o f prime lands for
the cultivation o f agave, and from restricted access to the obsidian resources o f Tequila
Volcano. Based on the available evidence, it is likely that the Huitzilapans followed
descent principles so that their inheritance o f land and authority was assured.
The early Huitzilapa community lies near the prime native agave lands, the
obsidian outcrops for making tools and items for trade, and near the Laguna de
Magdalena lakeshore. The organization o f the Huitzilapa community into patio groups
reflected a commitment to the social group. Living together in residential patio groups
was perhaps the spatial behavior o f lineages (Byland and Pohl 1994:44). Members
o f prominent corporate kin groups built large residences clustered together in the
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center o f the communities o f Huitzilapa and El Zapote. Lower ranked members lived
on the periphery, or branched off to form their own communities o f La Mina and La
Robleda.
Agave was the botanical staple that gave members of Htiitzilapan kin groups a
competitive edge in ritual consumption events. In the corporate ownership and harvest
of the Agave tequilana Weber, they had access to abundant food supplies, a surplus to
serve at feasts, a native plant for producing ritual beverages, and to the coarse and fine
fibers for textile and cordage productioa
My study suggests that corporate kin groups in the Huitzilapa community
legitimized their control o f the reliable food and drink resource with specific feasting
strategies. They may have used feasting strategies to commemorate the founding
families, those that first harvested the agave. At domestic altars, tying in the center of
the patio groups, the Huitzilapans probabfy held private rites for the family and to
communicate with the ancestral spirits (e.g., Hayden 1995:56, 62-64). They may also
have held public rituals, like the Huey M iccaylhuitl ceremony, calendar and accession
rites, that commemorated the ancestors who had provided the annual harvest, the
agave, and given status to their descendents.
The leaders or house chiefs o f corporate kin groups may have manipulated the
food and drink surplus for circulation, redistribution, and to assure economic stability
by acquiring new debt obligations. The geographic proximity to trade routes may have
given the Huitzflapan peoples access to a regional exchange network.
Using
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competitive feasting strategies, leaders and their descent groups may have maintained
their authority by controlling the distribution of trade goods. Non-local status items,
marriage partners o f high social rank, information, and supplies probably were drawn
to leading Huitzilapan families because o f their preferential access to exchange
networks (Buchler 1980:368; Hayden 1995:50-51). Regional competitions on the
ballcourt may have sealed alliances with distant kin, as well as non-kin (Whalen and
Minnis 1996).
Following the Late Preclassic Period flourish o f ritual feasting celebrations, the
corporate kin groups that had structured the ancient society disintegrated. Processes of
societal change are evident in the sociopolitical revolution that occurred during the
Teuchitlan I phase o f the Classic Period from A.D. 400 to 700 (Weigand 1990a, 1991,
1992d). The population decline at several sites in the Tequila valleys was balanced
regionally by the population explosion, estimated to have reached from 20,000 to
25,000 persons, at the main site o f Teuchitlan-Guachimonton (Weigand 1992e:5). At
this central site, monumental surface architecture that included 20 guachimontones, 13
ballcourts, and over a thousand patio groups represents the labor investment previously
accorded to the construction o f elaborate shaft tombs (Weigand 1990a). The reasons
for the geographic and cultural transformations of the Classic Period Teuchitlan society
are being investigated, but clearly they resulted in a transition to a larger polity with
centralized authority (Beekman 1996a).
The ancestors were forgotten in the new sociopolitical order, as the absence of
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shaft tomb burials and other evidence o f the rituals o f ancestor recognition reveal
A DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
The model o f Late Preclassic Period social organization outlined above derives
from a conjunctive perspective. Throughout my study, art, ethnographies, and historic
documents have served as heuristic tools in interpreting the West Mexican architectural
and settlement data, and in reconstructing the use and function o f ceramic wares. The
articulation o f information has provided both hard evidence and inferential conclusions
regarding the four main components o f this model The four central components are:
the formation of descent and corporate kin groups, feasts to commemorate the dead,
corporate control of trade routes, and the prehispanic use of agave as a basic resource.
My study has looked at how data derived from several sources contribute to
the efficacy o f a conjunctive perspective on West Mexican prehistory. In identifying
the proposed descent and corporate kin groups, the human figurines that occupy West
Mexican house models were found to communicate significant social themes. My
analysis o f ceramic architectural models showed that groups o f figurines on individual
models wear the same costume elements that may convey membership in distinct social
groups. Figurines on the Compound Models indicated that elaborate, multi-room,
stepped ceramic models portray the residences o f high ranking social groups. The
theme o f ancestor worship that I read in the art further reinforced the possibility that
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early artists depicted social groups based on the descent principles o f their actual
societies.
Settlement patterns in the Huitzilapa community were investigated on the
premise that they too may mirror ancient societal organization.
The architectural
emphasis on the domestic patio groups is the archaeological signature o f residential

corporate kin groups, according to my interpretation. The interpretation that this
settlement unit reflects descent groups was based on several lines o f evidence. These
included the location of a shaft tomb under the largest domestic platform mound in a
patjn group, the single large platform mound in each patio group possibly
representative o f a house chief and the potentiality of family altars in the domestic
patios.
The corporate sharing o f social status was evident in the similarly sized and
elaborated platform mounds within each patio group, and in the nucleation o f
presumably h ig h ranked residences in the site centers. The proposal was advanced that
prominent corporate kin groups related to the founding ancestors occupied the site
centers. This reconstruction was supported by the presence of fifteen equally large,
elaborate, stepped residential mounds constructed in the site center o f Huitzilapa, and a
r im il a r
pattern at El Zapote. In addition, there was little evidence o f singular massive
houses indicative o f individual rather than corporate power (e.g., Blake 1991). That
the Huitzilapa burials, shrines and feasting sites are all located in large and small
domestic patio groups accentuates the kinship basis o f social ranking. Each o f the four
t!
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sites in the Huitzilapa area was further interpreted as a gathering o f corporate kin
groups, with possible evidence o f ranked descent groups witnessed by competing
monumental altars to the ancestors.
My ceramic analysis from Huitzilapa also identified social patterns indicative of
descent group formation.
Sherd distributions helped to distinguish the largest
quadrangular mounds in the Huitzilapa area as residential platforms, where private

domestic feasts may have been hosted. The ceramic evidence supports my supposition,
derived from both the ceramic art and from the settlement data, that large stepped
platform mounds at Huitzilapa are loci o f ancient homes o f the heads o f powerful
corporate kin groups who hosted ritual consumption events at which they served
surplus agave products.
Analyses of the shaft tomb location and contents added to our knowledge of
descent and corporate group formations in ancient West Mexico. The placement at
Huitzilapa of the two known shaft tombs under house floors may signify the
recognition of descent groups at domestic burials (Freedman 1967:97). The socio
economic meaning for the widespread practice of interring the dead under house floors,
for the living to claim the ancestors rights to land and power, seems clear. To
members o f the descent groups, the location of the grave is o f critical economic
importance because burials mark their rights to land ownership (R. Foster 1995:99).
The principle o f first occupancy gives preferential access to land and resources to
founding lineages (McAnany 1995:162). The deep shaft tombs o f West Mexico cluster
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around the presumably valued lands near Tequila Volcano where the ancestors can
vigilantly monitor the territorial rights o f their bloodline.
The findings for a high status group burial o f genealogically related personages
in the Huitzilapa tomb, by Jorge Ramos de la Vega and Lorenza Lopez Mestas
Camberos (1996), and by Robert Pickering (1996, 1997), provide strong evidence to
support my model o f descent group social structures. Continued identification and
analysis of skeletal remains interred in West Mexican shaft tombs (Cabrero 1995), and
the possibility o f DNA testing (Pickering 1996), will add significantly to an
understanding o f the basis for the proposed descent group formations.
Mortuary feasts are a second societal component identified in the art,
archaeology, and ethnographic sources o f West Mexico. As described by Michael Coe
(1975:193), mortuary rituals concern:
. . . the journey o f the dead, the voyage o f the soul to the underworld,
and the reconstituting o f society after ihe ultimate dissolution o f the
body. .. As the body decomposes, as it turns to incorruptible bone. . .
so does the social group, which has been so tremendously broken up
and disturbed by this mysterious event, slowly reconstitute itself.
Mortuary feasts comprise a likely method by which Late Preclassic Period peoples of
West Mexico shook off death, and began the processes o f social reconstitution. At the
beginning of this study, my interpretation of the Tomb Models identified mortuary
i
feasts taking place in large lower chambers, and in the proportionally high amount of
I
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food and feasting imagery (Table 4.11).
The Tomb Models may depict actual
|
t
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j
i
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mortuary feasts, or a sequence o f rituals, with the living (on the upper floor) and the
dead (in the chamber) partaking o f a feast for the dead.
Corroborating information for West Mexican mortuary feasts came from
ethnographic accounts o f feeding the dead. The Huichol, Tarahumara, and Tarascan
peoples of West and Northwest Mexico all have long traditions o f feasts for the newly
dead, for the ancestors, and in seasonal celebrations.
Ceramic vessels from the Late Preclassic Period mortuary context testify to the
widespread and established practice of feeding the dead throughout West Mexico.
Preliminary analyses o f the ceramic vessels in the Huitzilapa shaft tomb, and o f their
organic content by Bruce Benz (1996) affirm the ritual practice o f feeding the dead at
approximately A.D. 100.
Lastly, the looted, two meter deep shaft tomb under a domestic platform in the
La Mina patio group accords with an interpretation o f family mortuary rituals, that
presumably included feeding the dead, practiced at several socio-economic levels.
Veneration of the ancestors may have been practiced by lower ranked families, as well
as by the leading societal members.
The conjunctive perspective gave rise to the proposition that feasts to the dead
may have been offered at the altars in the Huitzilapa area. The analysis o f the ceramic
art suggested that the round Basic Models may depict family altars. Analysis o f the
round models identified feasting scenes with a small social group, consistent with the
portrayal of family shrines where the dead are regularly honored. Some models with
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wrapped, prone bodies may portray a sequence in mortuary rituals.

Then an examination o f the settlement data determined that the round mounds
that invariably appear in the center o f patio groups are family altars. Next, the spatial
patterning o f ceramic materials at Huitzilapa and La Robleda attested to a domestic
assemblage o f offerings at the central mounds. Three central altars, F1C, CCC, and
F10C, have ceramic materials characterized by large amounts o f sherds from domestic
wares and lesser amounts o f decorated feasting wares. The sherd patterns confirmed
the likelihood that the central mounds at the Huitzilapa area functioned as repositories
for ritual offerings from families, rather than from a more public sector.
A sequence o f mortuary feasting that occurs among the modem Maya may be
analogous in several regards to an interpretation o f ancient West Mexican feasts for the
dead:
[The} ritual obligations o f th e heirs continue. Upon expiration,
the soul o f the deceased leaves his body and retraces the
routes o f its journey through life fo r three da ys, w hile heirs light
candles a t the head o f th e grave. For thirteen years thereafter
the soul rests in the grave b y day, leaving it a t d u sk to labor fo r
Gods forgiveness and returning w ith the daw n. Sundays and
sa in ts d a ys are days o f repose w hen w om en come to the
graveyard to light candles, the so u ls food, and decorate the
graves w ith flow ers. Each yea r a t the F east o f A ll Saints the
so u ls o f the dead revisit their hom es, and th e living deck
household altars w ith luxury fo o d w hose essen ce is consum ed
by the wandering souls. In the graveyard, graves are adorned
w ith flow ers and laden w ith fru it, and children o f the dead
gather in groups to relax and drink together. Year after year,
each group o f heirs is brought together in th is remembrance o f
the dead, w hich inevitably reaffirm s the solidarity o f the living.
(George A. Collier 1975:91)
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The third mam component o f the sociopolitical model is corporate control of

trade goods. Aggrandizers participate in a regional network of competitive feasts and
the exchange of prestige items. They strive to accumulate personal wealth and power
(Hayden 1995:24-26; Clark and Blake 1994; Hirth 1992), much o f which is eventually
buried with them.
Evidence for participation in long distance trade routes came from a variety of
substantive sources. The range o f non-local materials in the Tequila valley shaft tombs,
from the mineralogical specimens, pottery exchange, shell pieces and ornaments, and
chalchihuites, delimited an aggrandizers success in a competitive regional exchange
and a network o f debt obligations.
Several resources from the Tequila valleys,
including agave products, obsidian, ceramic wares, and minerals were examined as
possible export items.
In the Huitzilapa tomb, offerings o f non-local goods clearly identify an
aggrandizers success in acquiring debt obligations. It is apparent that Burial Number 1
in the North Tomb, and probably his kin group too, accumulated the wealth that
accompanied him conspicuously into the afterlife. The co-interment o f five family
members argues for a corporate burial o f this aggrandizer, an apparent esteemed
ancestor o f a descent group. Burying wealth with the dead indicates corporate control
o f access to regional exchange, and suggests the message that successful kin are
rewarded in this life and in the afterlife too (Hayden 1995:66-73).
The fourth component o f my model, the Agave tequilana lands, was also
368
presented with data derived from the conjunctive perspective. Agave use and ritual
drinking was first identified in the ceramic architectural models. Large vats, like those
depicted in the Pulque Drinkers mural, in Maya iconography, and in Aztec codices,
appear in several West Mexican ceramic models. The cultural information decoded
from the Porch Models indicates that ritual drinking took place outdoors on elevated
platforms (Record Nos. 9,29,31).
Information to support the proposition of ritual drinking came from the
archaeological record o f the Huitzilapa area, and from the environmental conditions o f
the Tequila valleys. The prominence o f maguey scrapers at Late Preclassic Period sites
in the Huitzilapa area suggests that early peoples scraped the hearts o f the Agave
tequilana to increase sap production, probably for pulque.
The ceramic analysis was inconclusive regarding production and consumption
o f ritual agave based beverages, due in part to my lack o f confidence in selecting a
group o f sherds representative o f pulque jars at Huitzilapa. It may be coincidence that
some distinct mounds and patio groups in the Huitzilapa area have a preponderance o f
individual serving vessels possibly representative o f ritual drinking. A possible ritual
drinking ceramic assemblage appears at the ballcourt, at FI 1 on the hQl, and at the
Northeast mound o f Conjunto Circular. Although these data are intriguing, testing the
archaeological record o f the Huitzilapa area, and other sites around Tequila Volcano,
for evidence o f pulque production requires considerable future investigation. These
tests might include correlating the distribution o f ocaxtles with pulque jar sherds,
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chemical tests for yeast and ocotil residues in bottle jars found in shaft tombs, and the
identification o f agave roasting pits for food and/ or mescal production.
The need for agave, processed to consume as a food or beverage, as well as
other foods to serve for feasts underscores the importance of agriculture to the
inhabitants o f ancient West Mexico. Early peoples may have conducted an annual
round of feasts not only because they belonged to a larger Mesoamerican tradition, but
because they honored the seasonality o f agriculture.
As portrayed in the ceramic depictions o f the pole ceremony, the annual feast
for the dead in West Mexico took place on a flat outdoor patio capable o f
accommodating a community gathering.
My settlement study identified possible locations for holding antecedent Huey
Miccaylhuitl ceremonies at the Huitzilapa area, including the open terraces, and the
largest domestic patio o f Plaza West, that also belonged to a venerated (pulque
drinking?) ancestor. These are places where members o f Huitzilapas corporate kin
groups may have solidified their alliances, commemorated their harvests, and thanked
the founding ancestors for the land and the bounty o f agave.
In sum, the finding that corporate kin groups, branches o f larger descent
groups, structured the Late Preclassic Period community o f the Huitzilapa area derives
from numerous sources.
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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CURRENT STUDY
Contemporary interest in West Mexican prehistory has inspired the

reassessment o f past scholarship and recommendations for new avenues o f research.
The new agenda calls for research that will permit evaluation o f West Mexican cultural
processes within a Mesoamerican framework, and give a settlement and cultural
context to the corpus o f looted art (Williams 1994a: 16-17). My investigations into
ritual consumption and ancestor veneration pertain to three issues o f the new research
agenda.
First, the intellectual and theoretical bases of my study place prehispanic West
Mexico within the framework o f Mesoamerican culture. Yet, to Eduardo Williams
(1994a: 16-17), a false dichotomy in scholarship continues to exist between West
Mexico and the rest o f Mesoamerica. That the traditional basis of culture history in
West Mexico is looted art (Taylor 1970) and reports o f bulldozed and sacked sites
(Ferdon 1955) contributes to the regions perceived marginalization.
Compared to
the high civilizations o f Mesoamerica (Le., the Maya, Aztec, and Mixtec), the seeming
absence in West Mexico o f pyramids, ancient cities, and hieroglyphic writing reinforces
a perception o f West Mexican societies as simple and marginal (see M. Coe 1984;
Boehm de Lameiras and Weigand 1992; Valdez 1994:23).
The apparent extent to which the West Mexicans revered their dead, rather
than gods, has labeled them further as a people o f limited achievements. Claims that
West Mexican peoples o f the Late Preclassic Period did not have gods (Covarrubias
1957:87; see discussions in Chadwick 1971; Hosier 1994:1311; Schondube 1980;
Weigand 1985a, 1992a, I992e) are ill-conceived considering that the worship o f the
dead may be a central tenet of some prehispanic religions in Mexico and South
America (Bawden 1995; Benson 1975; D. Carrasco 1990; Caso 1958; M. Coe 1975,
1978, 1988; Demarest and Conrad 1983; Layton 1991; Leon-Portilla 1971; Matos
Moctezuma 1995; Nicholson 1976; Quiher 1990). As discussed in Chapter I, historic
texts o f the Aztec and prehistoric hieroglyphs o f the Maya show that members o f
highly ranked kin groups may have deified their most venerated ancestors as part o f
ancient Mesoamerican devotions.
The ancient West Mexicans may also have
worshiped ancestral deities, and let blood in their honor. Bloodletting, an act o f
celebrating genealogy and offering ones blood to the gods, was a practice graphically
portrayed in the West Mexican art o f the Late Preclassic Period.
My study thus
identifies similarities rather than differences between West Mexican devotional

practices and Mesoamerican religion.
A second issue in the new research agenda is a debate regarding the evolution
o f cultural complexity in prehistoric West Mexico.
Some researchers o f West
Mexican prehistory (Deraga and Fernandez 1986:378; Fernandez and Deraga

1992:315-316; Palafox 1989) maintain that the archaeological record does not support
a view for the development o f advanced societies in West Mexico prior to the Tarascan
empire o f the Postclassic Period.
They contend that conditions did not exist in
37 2
prehistoric West Mexico; that there were simply not enough people to necessitate high
levels o f sociopolitical organization (Fernandez and Deraga 1992:315-316).
This
perception stems from longstanding theories that identify the pressure that population
density places on the environment as a mam variable in the development o f social
inequalities and political control that lead to the development o f the state (Athens 1977;
Cameiro 1967, 1970; Hass 1981; Hastorf 1993; Rathje 1971; Renfrew 1972; Sabloff
and Lamberg-Kariovsky 1975; Sanders 1968; Webster 1975; Wittfbgel 1957).
My research addresses this second issue in three ways. First, my study o f
ancestor worship showed that the recognition o f chosen dead has significant political
and socio-economic implications consistent with ranked social hierarchies. Nuances
shared by complex political societies and by ranked societies that honor chosen dead
include ascribed roles of political authority, hereditary social inequality, property
inheritance, and regional economic strategies. These societal elements, confirmed by
several lines o f evidence in the Late Preclassic Period archaeological record o f West
Mexico, are not representative of simplistic or egalitarian peoples.
Second, the political aspect o f hereditary rights to authority emerges in kin
based ranked societies. In chiefdoms, for example, c laims to power stem from descent
reckoning. Ideally, the chief and his or her heir belong to the line o f the original
ancestors, to the main line o f first bom sons o f first bom sons o f the original ancestor,
which is followed in rank by a kin o f first bom sons o f second bom sons (Service
373
1971:145-155). A succession o f chiefs maintains lineage unity, and is the nucleus of

strong lineal descent groups.
The writings o f the Aztec, Zapotec, and Maya illustrate the process o f ascribed
authority in Mesoamerican polities. Texts demonstrate that the lords and ladies o f
Mesoamerican societies recorded their genealogy and right to ascend the throne on
painted murals, carved public art, and etched hieroglyphic texts (Houston and Mathews
1985; A Miller 1995; Scheie and Miller 1986). Included in the message was their
genealogical position in the highest ranked royal descent line traced back to the original
ancestors, who usually were real persons. Other important roles in society, such as
scribes and administrators, were similarly passed down through the bloodline, usually
o f the father. If competition from rival factions induced more serious genealogical
accounting, a scheming noble could manipulate texts to reckon kinship to an older
brother, his mothers dynastic line, or, in the end, to the ancestral deities (Bawden
1995; Scheie and Freidel 1990:87,133).
Complexities o f Andean political structures stemmed from the recognition o f at
least two royal bloodlines (Bolton and Mayer 1977). Colonial documents refer to the
patrilineal order o f political power, stemming from a primary leader to his brothers and
sons, in birth order ranking, creating an unequal but dual system of power brokering
(J. Moore 1995:167; Netherly 1990). Competition among multiple dynastic blood
lines weakened the authority o f any one line, and elevated traditional funerary rituals to
new political levels.
To validate their authority, Inka leaders worshipped royal
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mummies. They displayed the mummies o f their ancestors, the dead kings, in public
shows and parades.
The Spanish witnessed the regal parades where the royal
mummified ancestors rode on litters, and were then returned to sacred caves until the
next outing (Salomon and Urioste 1991). The public display o f royal ancestors
acknowledged the descendants rights to inherit political power.
The emergence o f ascribed political power in the Late Preclassic Period
societies of West Mexico seems feasible given the evidence for ancestor worship,
descent groups, and the prospect o f hereditary social status. The data from West
Mexico are amenable to the analysis o f emergent political power by Gary Feinman
(1995). Feinman (1995:273) observes two complementary pathways to political
power: one, Big Men who attain status and individual gain through personal drive, and
two, descent groups that manipulate control of land through ancestor c laims. Although
not a focus o f my study, the data clearly point to the corporate and genealogical basis
of political authority in the Late Preclassic Period societies o f West Mexico.
My study addresses issues regarding the evolution o f cultural complexity in
West Mexican prehistory in a third important way. The strategies of feasting offer an
alternative explanation for societal developments in regions like West Mexico, with low
population densities yet with rich environments.
Scholars of other regions o f
Mesoamerican prehistory (Clark and Blake 1994:23; Lightfoot and Feinman 1982:81)
have argued that population growth can be a result rather than the singular cause for
societal developments. Based on the available evidence, West Mexican societies
375
developed in areas with relatively low population densities. Yet, in the environmentally
rich and diverse Tequila valleys o f highland Jalisco, early leaders could have controlled
the access to an abundance o f foods and rare resources, including agave, to sustain and
nurture the existing population and to attract new followers to their area.
Brian
Hayden (1995:25) argues that political strategies o f control o f food surplus associated
with competitive feasting precede the development o f true chiefdoms.
Control o f food surplus may have contributed to the emergence of inherited
leadership in several prehistoric societies. In the American Southeast, ceramic wares
and food storage areas correlate with developing chiefdoms at Mississippian sites.
John Blitz (1993a, 1993b) argues that chiefe or lineage heads controlled the
accumulation and storage o f community food surplus, which they then distributed at
framing events. Evidence from lower Central America indicates that the appearance of
chiefdoms during the first centuries A. D. was linked to successful maize production
(Bray 1984:331). Archaeologists studying Central America (Bray 1984; Linares et aL
1975) suggest that surplus maize was redistributed at ceremonial feasts and at ritual
chicha drinking events.
Excavations o f burials at the site o f Barriles in western
Panama revealed ceremonial metates, large ollas (possibly for chicha), and stone
figures carved with rank insignia and holding bowls and maces (Linares et aL
1975:141-142). These data may demonstrate a relationship between social rank, ritual
consumption, and mmVe agriculture expressed in early Panamanian chiefdoms (Bray
1984; Linares et aL 1975).
376
The third issue o f the new agenda that my research addresses concerns the
need for independent consideration o f each societys social, economic, and political
properties (B. Nelson 1994, 1995:599; Valdez 1994; Weigand 1992a:26). As an
alternative to forcing a society to fit the purported requirements for state or chiefdom
levels o f society, new scholarship promotes the independent consideration o f the many
facets of each society (Arnold 1993; Demarest 1992; Drennan 1991; Feinman
1995:273; Feinman and Neizel 1984; Hastorff 1990; McGuire 1983; O Shea and
Barker 1996; Shanks and Tilly 1987; Yofiee 1993; Yofiee et aL 1997). For West
Mexico, archaeologist Francisco Valdez (1994:23-24) supports the need for fine
grained societal investigations to assess the homogeneity or variability of indigenous
cultural developments, and to dispel the still prevailing concept o f a shaft tomb culture
area.
In this light, my research focused at the community o f Huitzilapa in Jalisco
advances our knowledge regarding essential social, economic, and political processes
that structured one Late Preclassic Period West Mexican society.
i
i
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APPENDIX A:
WEST MEXICAN
CERAMIC ARCHTTECURAL MODEL
STUDY SAMPLE
445
APPENDIX A
Guide to Symbols and Terminology
Record N umber: References the architectural models used in the current study sample. Numbers
are not consecutive
some models have been excluded from current study sample.
Model Class: Basic. Tomb. Porch, or Compound as described in Chapter m
Measurements in mm: Height (from base to roof top) x Width (measured across front of model).
Single measurement refers to height.
Location: Museum and accession number, or recent owner, venue, or gallery, if known.
Publication: Reference to prior publication(s)
A general description includes architectural traits of platform, floor plan, tombs, and stairs; the surface
color avt
elements, and roof shape. Number of human figures refers only to figurines not inside
lower chambers. Tomb figures are referenced separately in Key to Diagram only. In the diagrams, each
h u m a n f i g u r e is n u m b e r e d first, then food, and animals. The number ofanimal figurines references dog
and bird figurines.
SYMBOLS USED
Numbers - Apply, in order, to each human figurine not in chamber, to each icon of food or container
not in chamber, and then to each chamber
Letters - Apply to each a n i m a l figurine not in chamber

Floor Plan of Model
Wall
Ledge (narrow ridge)
Porch (elevated outdoor space)
Stairs
(down)
Post or
Column
Tomb
or niche chamber
1
Figurine (sitting or standing)

Prcce Figure
W
$
Platter of food (type unspecified)
Cylindrical food serving
Dog
@ >
Bird
Patio (ground level outdoor space)
Empty liquid container
&
Globular food serving

Discoidal food serving
Lump food serving
446
SAMPLE FORM FOR RECORDING ARCHITECURAL DATA
HOUSE G RO U P Museum____________________________
Date.
Accession Number_________________ Photo No_s _________________

Description:
von Winning's House Type:___________________________________________________________________

SIZE: Height__________ cm Width________ a n _Depth___________ a n
SUPPORT PLATFORM Round______ Square
Legs
Leg Dimensions________ x______ a n
ROOF Shape___________________ No. of R0 0 6 __________ No. o f Peaks per roof___________________

von Winning RoofType
STAIRS
Overhang depth: front________ a n R ear_________ cm Side______ cm
Number o f stair cases_____________Number of stairs per case______________________________
Avenge stair dimension_______________ Stair Activity_____________________________________________

PATIO Number o f patios_______ Patio dimension______________________ Patio Activity_______________
OUTSIDE Dimension
Outside Activity_______________________________
ROOMS No. of Rooms__________
DECORATION
Paine white
Pattern -
Room Dimensions___________________________________________
Slinoed
black
Straight lines
slio color
red-brown
Zigzut
dark brown
Dots
yellow
Plastic additive
other
Incisions
Locations o f Decoration
Walls: Outside_____Inside_____ Both_____ Roof_____ Stairs______Patio_____ Platform_____
Under platform
L egs
Other_________
.VRCHTTECTL'RAL ELEMENTS: Intenor Platforms_________ No.______ Dimensions_____________

Subsurface charaba
Dimensions H:
cm W: ________cm D:_____ cm
Other:
447
SAMPLE FORM FOR RECORDING FIGURINE DATA
FIG URIN E SH EET

Accession Number
Museum
Date
___
Photo No.s
Number o f Figurines in piece _

Total Dimensions of figurine: H__
Animal'
Dog
out o f _
_ This form is for number _

cm
Bird_
W________
Other
Traits o f animal: Eyes________ N ose.
cd
Crf ) L _
_Acuvity_
Plastic additive
. Related figurine_
H um an:______ Female_____ Male
Youth
Isolated
Describe:_____________________________________
Part o f Social Group
Body: N aked
No Eyes
B reasts
Eyes
Scarification
Incised
Painted
Slashed cheeks
Describe body position:.

Clothina: Loincloth
Decorated
M genitalia
Skirt
Paint
Incised
Infant
F genitalia
Big nose
Coffee bean
Plastic additive___________
Detailed appendages
Shoulder Puffs
Smoothed appendages
Cape_
Plastic Additive
. No. o f Loops
Other
Describe
H e ad g e ar Y es
No
Turban
Other_____
Plain_____
Decorated
Incised_
Rolled
Paint
Jewelrv: Eatrings_
von Winning type:
Nose rin g .
Bracelets
Pendant
Describe
Plastic Additive_
A ctivity: ______
Incised
Big ears
Painted
Other
Location o f Figunne_
Associated Props_
. Tending prone figure_
Number o f figures involved in activity_______
No. of closest figuruie_
Indicators o f consumption: Jug_______ Plate_
Bowl_______ Metate______
Lumps of food________ Number o f lumps___
Oval
Round
Other
448
Record Number 1
REGIONAL MUSEUM OF NAYARIT, TEPIC
Arqueologia 1994 Vol. 2 (9) cover
Tomb Model
270 x 160 mm
One structure with large lower patio; niche tomb under stairs. Red and black on cream, design in wavy
lines. Roof is saddled, broad, and extends over patio. One staircase, five stairs. Eight human figures,
two dogs.
Key to Diagram
Inside:
1. Male figurine; missing right arm
2. Female figurine, holds empty bowl
i i tap
3. Male figurine; missing right arm
in lap
9. Bowl filled with lump Ibod
10. Bowl filled w#h lump food
Outside o r patio:
5. Female figurine, holds empty bowl in
lap
6. Male figurine, holds food or bafi in
right hand
in lap
8. Male figurine, holds cylindrical food
in right hand
a.
Dog lays on patio, with food in mouth
Tomb cham ber
11. Dog, standing___________________
449
Record Number 2 _____ _____________________________________________

REGIONAL MUSEUM OF NAYARIT, TEPIC Compound Model
270 x150 mm
No references
Two mirror image structures face each crther across patio; Black and red on buff, with design of wavy
lines on outside walls. Saddled roofs have long peaks. Two staircases, with four steps each; eleven
human figures; one female grinds metate; doaked figure sits on top of each staircase.
Key to Diagram
Inside:
1. Female figurine, w*h arm Inked
wtth Figure 2
2. Male figurine
3. Female figurine, with arm on Fig. 4
4. Mate figurine, both arm s chipped
Outside on patio:
5. Male figurine, cylindrical food
in right hand
6. Female figurine, kneels by metate
7. Male figurine, cyfndrical food h
right hand
8. Male figurine, with arm finked
*
4
>
wth Figure9
9. Female figurine
12. Serving ware w8h globular food
13. CyGndricalfbod
14. Metate
Outside on top of stair iandng:
10,11.
Cloak figures sit on landing at
top of stairs; face outward
I
i
!
450
Record Number 3___________________________________________ _________

REGIONAL MUSEUM OF NAYARIT, TEPIC Compound Model
275 x 200 mm
No references
Three roomed structure, two very narrow. Lower room or patio; three staircases 7,8,10 steps. Red
and black on cream, with design of wavy lines. Three saddled roofs are connected. Three niche tombs.
Five human figurines, one dog.
Key to Diagram
Inside narrow room:
1.
Cloak figure
Outside on ground level patio:
2 Cloak figure
Inside mam upper room:
3. Female figurine
4. Female figurine
5. Male figurine
6. Empty and tipped bowl
Tomb chamber
a. Dog stands in rounded tomb
451
Record Number 4
DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY #7288
Porch Model
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig. 12; Day et al. I996:Fig. 9
334 x205 mm
Footed model with four legs, two lateral ledges, and two front porches. Two walls support saddled roof.
Red and white surface, with outer walls painted in wavy lines. One staircase with three steps. One
empty chamber at rear. Female youth figure may sit on small bench. Many figures are reconstructed,
with restored necklaces and armbands. Use of modem dark clay. Eight human figures. One dog with
perky ears sits by youth figure.
'
Key to Diagram
Inside:
1. Male figurine with jar or cup
in left hand
2. Male figurine
3. Male figurine, reconstructed
4. Small female figume
9. Platter with reconstructed food
a. Dog, with broken ear
Outside:
5. Male figurine
6. Female figurine
8. Female figurine, reconstructed
10. Platter with reconstructed food
4
*
r .
10
452
Record Number 5
MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM # 53410/ Accs. # 18742 Basic Model
No References
146 x 73 nun
Fiat, single structure with two walls, open front and back. Red and black on cream. Designs repainted.
Saddled roof has stripes on top and concentric lozenge design in middle. Four human figures, with one
missing.
Key to Diagram
Inside:
1. Male figurine, with arm touching
Figure 2
2. Female figurine w*h skirt fragment
3. Male figurine, appendages broken
4. Figure gone, attactYnert area only
453
Record Number 7
CHICAGO ART INSTITUTE #1991.479
Compound Model
350 x 250 mm
von Winning and Hammer I972:Fig.34; Butterwick 1998a
Stepped platform with one main and two lateral rooms. Red and black repainted designs on cream.
Three saddled roofs with short ends. One staircase with 8 steps. Ten human figunnes.
Key to Diagram
Inside main upper room;
1. Male figurine
2. Female figurine, mavbe pregu nt
3. Female figmne
4. Male figurine
12. Jar
inside lateral upper room:
3. Male figurine
6. Fanaie figurine
Inside lateral t^po- room:
7. Male figurine
Outside an lateral porch:
8. Female figirine, stands with hands
on shoulders of Fig. 9
9. Malefigjrinc
Outside on gound floor patio:
10. Male figurine, head broken o
sits next to empty chamba11. Male figtoaie; sits inside chamber
C
;
\
!
:
J
3
'TxwSi
3
6 )
i s
^
S*
V.
11
*------- *'I
to
1*.
V
' -.trv ?.
r
t
I
>;
*!
*
4m
k
1
Record Number 8
REGIONAL MUSEUM OF NAYARIT, TEPIC #10-97289 Basic Model
No References
45 4
320 x 253 mm
Large heavy structures, with four short walls. Broken and reconstructed. Black on cream.
Roof is pyramidal shape and painted with thick black stripes. Reportedly found by Eduardo
Noguero in Tequilrta, Nayarit One of five human figures is totally gone except for attachment
areas to slab.
Key to Diagram
bade:
1. Fragnatoffematefigirinewtth
pasted skirt
2. Mate figttrnewth reconstructed anus
3. Figrre missmg-Kadiment area only;
possiblefend atinfanait area infrat

4. Fragpaatoffernatefigireiewih
patted skirt, possible food

atadtm ot area n fiont
5. Matefignine
6. Platterwth globularfood
7. Platter vvitti cylindrical food
455
Record Number 9
REGIONAL MUSEUM OF NAYARIT, TEPIC #HI8/75,37-1 Porch Model 250 x 176 mm
No references
Rough, unpainted, single open structure with two walls. Porch has central staircase with three steps.
Buff surface. Roof is broad and short saddled shape, and tilted. Nine human figures. Several figures
are broken. Two bird and two dog figurines.
;;t
Key to Diagram
On porch:
1. Mate figurine, holds empty jar with
both hands, head broken off
2. Male figurine, holds sealed jar or
drum in lap, head broken off
3. Male figurine
4. Malefigume, holds cup or gourd
in right hand; torso broken off
Inside:
& Male figurine, holds baM in hand
6. Mate figurine
7. Female figurine
8 . Probably Mate figurine, holds bowl
in lap, head broken off
9. Mate figurine, holds cup in right hand
10. Ja r
Outside on ledges:
a. Dog
&
-\r
1
*.V
*v.
2f.
10
la
<
V*
:v?
; /
V**
b. Bird
c. Probablybird, broken
d. Probabtydog____________________
456
Record Number 14
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART #M.86.296.30 Porch Model 305 x 254mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig. 13; Kan et al. 1989Tig.29; Butterwidc 1998a
Three rooms, with one main and two little ones attached. Enclosed rear. lower patio. One front niche
tomb, and one tomb behind lower patio. White and yellow on red slip. One step. Seventeen human
figurines, nine birds, and one dog. Two sets of embracing couples. Proctor Stafford Collection.
Key to Diagram
Inside main upper room:
1. Female figurine
2. Male figurine, slumped ovw
3. Female figurine, w<h cup in
right hand
4. Female figurine, holds Figure 5
5. Cloak figurine, slumped over
6. Male figurine, prone, faces inside
17. Jar
18,19. Platters with dscoidal food
On porch, around perimeter of structure:
7. Male figurine, prone, feces inward
8. Male figurine
10,11. Tvw figures, probably male and female
pair, embrace, wrapped in blanket
12. Male figurine, stands and holds Figure 13
13. Female figurine, leans on ledge
14. Female figurine
20. Food, broken
21, 22. Ja rs
23. Platter of 5 cySncfrical foods
Front tomb chambe r
17. Male figurine, slumped over
Lower rear patio:
15. Female figurine, sits in front of empty chamber
1 5 Male figurine
24. Platter with 3 cySndrical foods
d. Standng dog
On lateral ledges:
a ..b ,c : Birds (5 more birds on roof tops)_______
SZEE3.
4
4
4
i
457
Record Number 16
MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM #53411

Tomb Model
276 x 151 mm
No references
One room structure on tail platform. Black and red on cream slip, rough finish. Saddled roof with
diagonal crossing patter, and wavy lines. Two staircases with 6 steps each. One tomb is double
chambered. Six human figures. Three dogs, two at base of stairs, and one inside Front porch has
food.
Key to Diagram
Outside of upper porch:
1. FernaJe figurine, standing, wears
painted start
2. Male figurine
8. Ptatter with food
3. Male figurine
4. Female figurine, kneels; broken
right arm
5. Female figurine, legs broken off
6. Male figurine, arm s interlocked
with arm s of Figure 5
7. Platter of food
a. Dog
Outside on lower ledge:
b. Dog, with head broken
c. Probably dog
Tomb cham ber
9. Female figurine leans aver empty platter;
another figure missing
i ,
* r*.
&
Ii
j
j
j
458
Record Number 17____________________________________________________

MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM #52724
Tomb Model
175 x 200 mm
von Winning 1971Jig. 8; Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.I8; P. Furst 1975: Fig. 13
One room structure, on squat broad platform. Black on cream, with repainted designs. Roof is saddle
shape, and squat or flat, poorly made. Two staircases with 7 steps each. Tomb has two prone dogs
laying together. Five male figurines, each with own empty bowl. Bowl on porch belongs inside, in front
of Figure 2 that lacks bcwl. Figurine hands may be restored.
4
.
Key to Diagram
Inside m ail i^jpCT-roocr
1. Makfigirine, wihengxybcwl
2. Male fi&viDe. with bowl missing
3. Male fipirije; large, with aijx y
bowl
4. Male
with empty (xml
3. Male figprioe; w ih enptybowl
6. Four an*ybcMrk; bowl an porch
probably crigiiaDypIaced in frooL
* 0
m
7
h
0
o
i
^
0
1
, 1
M
^
afFimc2.
Tomb dumber
7. Twoprcnedogi_____________
. . . . . .
459
Record Number 18
Miami University Ait Museum #78.S.2.69
McVicker 1992:80; cat 14 fig.66
295 x 173 mm
Tomb Model
One room structure on raised platform. Four columns for vertical supports instead of walls. Two
staircases with five steps each. Gold, red and black on cream, with large diamond pattern. Short
saddled roof. Seven human figures, two figures may be missing; figures wrap arms around columns.
One standing dog in tomb.
Key to Diagram
1. Male figurine, ami around column
Male figurine, arm around column
4. Male figurine, left ami broken, right
arm around column
Mate figurine, missing kxw r right
leg and right ami
7. Male figurine, arm around column
8. Mound of cylndrical food
9. M ould of cylindrical (bod
10. Area of attachment figure or food
missing
Top of stair landing
11. Area of a ttachment figure or food missing
Tomb chamber.
12. O ne stancfing dog
W
v / 'lo *
\
tr'
Record Number 19
460
DAYTON ART INSTITUTE

#1973.2
Compound Model
230 x 180 mm
von Winning and Stendahl 1968:Fig. 149
Massive, heavy model. Structure is closed on three sides with thick walls. Vertical stripes painted in
gold, black and red on cream. The roof comprised of two saddled shapes. Roof is poorly made and
droopy. Roof has gold and red vertical stripes. One staircase with six stairs. One tomb with most of
figures. One figure in main room. Petroglyph-like design painted three times on outer surface. Poorly
crafted, or recently remodeled areas.
- *K
*:i*; *'.i\v>#
TOMB
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Figure
2. Area of figurine attachment
Tomb cham ber
a Five figurines, and one platter of
lump (bod
. '2 :
I 11 III
461
Record Number 20
SNITE MUSEUM, Uni. of Notre Dame #92.36.20
No references
Compound Model
253 x 270 mm
Large model with three rooms, two patios, three windows. Black, red and white, with painted
concentric lozenge design. Three saddled rocfe are connected, with ends red. Two staircases with six
steps each. Five air holes in base platform. Eight human figures, and one dog with details.
Key to Diagram
Inside upper main room:
1. Mate figurine wfih braided turban
and armbands
2 Probably female figurine wth
ptain Urban
2 R g u e holds bowl w lh 6 lumps in lap
4. Mate figurine w th armbands
9. Mound o f3 cylindrical foods
10. Large jar or bowrf
a.
Dog, siting vteh tongue hanging out
Inside upper rear room:
5. Male figurine w th armbands
6. Female figurine w th tu b an
1 2 Jar
Inside upper rear room:
7. Mate figurtiewih braided turban
and armbands
8. Figure
11. Mound of 3 cyinttfcal foods________
O'2
6d
II
9
10 ^ 3
O ( J
.
M
!
462
Record Number 22
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY #30.3/2458 Tomb Model 395 x 278 mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig. 16
Tall platform with front porch landing. Brown on buff. Saddled roof has ends broken off, painted with
diamonds and wavy lines. Red clay is modem reconstruction material. Two stairs with 10, 11 steps
each. One tomb in front Six human figures, Six animal figures. Large bird on porch is reconstructed.
Key to Diagram
On upper porch:
1. Female figurine
2. Female figurine, with legs
straight out
e. Bird
Inside upper main room:
3. Male figurine
4. Male figurine
5. Female figurine
6. Female figurine
f. Dog
Perched on upper ledges:
a -d . Birds
Tomb chamber
7. Two female figurines_____
lid
463
Record Number 23
YALE ART GALLERY
#1959.55.27
Basic Model
Kubler 1986:Fig. 241, Catalog #410; Bettleheim 1975:Fig. 1
190x138 ram
Open structure with two walls, on lew stepped platform. Orange clay with cream slip. Roof is immense
and saddled shape Nine figures, including two small youth figures.
8
*
Key to Diagram
1. Male figurine, holding object
2. Figure
3. Small figure, attached to Figure 4
4. Figure
5. Female figurine holding empty bcwl
6. Figure
7. Figure. w9h hands on befly

8. Small figure
9. Figure_____________________
464
Record Number 24
YALE ART GALLERY #1973.88.27 Basic Model
209 x 148 mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig. 14; Kubler 1986: Fig. 242, catalog # 410; Bettleheim
1975: Figs. 3,4
A small, two room structure. Two small patios. Black and gold on white slip. Roofs are saddled with
vertical stripes, and band of gold triangles. One staircase with two stairs. Six human figures, one prone
and one covered with blanket Four birds - two huge, two small.
V -a- "
tr
*4 $
Key to Diagram
Inside main room:
2. Male figurine, covered
with blanket
3. Female figurine, layhg down
and facing outward
4. Female figunne, both arms
OTOMen
7. Platter of food
On porch:
1. Female figurine
5. Maiefigurine
8. Platter of food
9. Platter of food
Inside smaH room:
& Female figurine
Perched on ledges:
a - d . Birds
46 5
Record Number 25
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 1979.206.359
Tomb Model
297 x185 mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.28; Ithaca College 1970Jrig. 21; Cornell University 1966:
Fig. 20.
One structure on raised platform, had one wall and two partial walls. Red and black on cream, wavy
vertical lines. Saddled roof has concentric lozenge design. One staircase with three stairs. One front
tomb. Ten human figures, some figures added and/or reconstructed. Similar style to Record Number
57. Two animals.
Key to Diagram
'
1 2a
$
12J
'*
^
16
Inside main room:

1. Female fig u re , maybe pregnant
2. Cloak figue
3. Female figurine w th neddace
4. Male figurine wth conical hat
and loin doth
5. Male figurine
1 2 Platter with 7 globular food
12 Platter wShdfccoidal food
c <
14. Platter with 5 cyfndrical foods
15. Platter with 2 cyfndrical foods
16. Platter wifh 6 cyfeidrical foods
On upper porch:
7. Smal female figurine
8. Femaie figurine, large, standing
9. Male figurine, s i s on sta rs
On l o w comer patio or chamb e r
6. Slumped figure
On l o w front patio n front of tomb:
10. Small figure
a. Dog
Perched on upper ledges:
b, c. Binds
Tomb chamber
11. Inside are 3 figues, including 1 female
with metate, 1 sitting female, and food.
May be a reconstructed scene.
ti
466
Record Number 26
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN #21/122 Porch Model 318 x 225mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.8
Stepped platform supports open one room structure. Reconstructed and repainted, painting
sloppy. Roof is saddled, with concentric lozenge pattern repainted. Seven human figures.
Key to Diagram
Inside upper room:
4. Female figurine
5. Female figurine with armbands
& Female figuinewSti armbands
8. Platter with 6 cylindrical foods
9. Ptatter wtti 3 cyfindrical foods
On raised porch:
1. Mate figurine, wih arms joined
with Figure2
2. Female figurine
3 . Male figurine, with possible cup
in hand
7. Ferratefigurinewitharmbands
l
46 7
Record Number 28
DENVER ART MUSEUM 1965.198
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig. 29b
Tomb Model
264 x 200 mm
Large structure with three w alls-back enclosed. Two ledges wrap around. Narrow staircase with four
steps. Restores and reconstructed. Black and white on red. Roof is saddled, with wavy horizontal
lines. Fifteen human figures, and three birds on roof.
Key to Diagram
On upper porch:
1. Femaie figurine, with object in hand
Inside upper room:
6. Male figurine
7. Femaie figurine, with cup
8. Maie figurine
9. Male figurine, small
10. Two jars
On Icwer patio or ledge:
2. Male figume standing by stairs,
reconstructed
3. Male figurine, sis, reconstructed
11. Male figurine, standing,
reconstructed
12. Male figurine, legs reconstructed
13. Male figurine
14. Male figiaine. with scarred face
15. Female figurine
16. Male figurine, feet reconstructed
Tomb cham ber
17. Four additional figures
Roof:
______
3 small birds perched on roof
r 7o
o ' 0, \2
4
*
aI6
13
14
15
468
Record Number 29
DENVER ART MUSEUM
1965.197
Tomb Model
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.29c; Stroessner 1990: Fig. 42
290x 178 mm
Raised platform supports room with two walls. Black and orange on cream. Roof is saddled with large
ends, painted in stnpes. One staircase to side with four steps. Front tomb. Ten human figures, and
four birds.
Key to Diagram
On porch:
1. Male figurine with conical hat,
holds object
2. Male figurine with conical hat
3. Female figurine wth cup in right
hand
4. Male figurine, both hands to mouth
3. Jar
Inside main room:
5. Female figurine
6. Small figure
8 . Femaie figurine
9. Male figurine, harxfles lumps
10. Male figurine, handles lumps
11. Four groups of limps, arranged in 3 s
1Z Jar
Tomb cham ber
14.
Prone figure, probably female
Perched on ledges:
a - d . Birds
^ I O
A ^9 ?
" * Wi
s
V
4
M
I4
469
Record Number 31
ANAHUACALU - DIEGO RIVERA MUSEUM, Mexico City Porch Model 310 x 170 mm
Toscano ec al. 1946: PI.36; Leymann l964:Fig.5; Cervantes 1978:Fig. 48; Heyden and
Gendrop 1973:361; HJohnson I992:Fig. 75B
Low platform with central staircase with four steps. Structure is open with two walls. Red and black on
cream. Roof is saddled, painted with vertical lines on top and concentric lozenge designs. Eight human
figures. Six males hold object(rattle, food, staff ?) in hand. One dog and three birds occupy comers.
X
Key to Diagram
On front porch:
1. Male figurine
2. Female figurine
3. Mate figurine
4. Male figurine
Inside main room:
5. Male figurine, with conical hat,
holds object in right hand
6. Male figurine, with conical hat,
holds abject in right hand
7. Male figurine, with conical hat.
holds object in right hand
8. Femaie figurine
rn 8
7 rrn
9. Jar
Perched on ledges:
a. Dog
b, c, d. Birds
470
Record Number 32
ANAHIIAC.A IJ.1 - DIEGO RIVERA MUSEUM, Mexico City Tomb Model 300 x 167 mm
Mendioni and Pinto I941:PI.35, 36; Toscano etal. 1946: PL 38. Casa Nayarita
Tall raised platform, with one open room with two walls. Buff surface. Two staircases with 6
steps each. Frontal tomb, has a stela or marker inside that may be reconstructed or added.
Roof is pyramidal shape. Four human figures, and one bird on comer ledge.
Key to Diagram
Inside main room:
1. Femaie figurine
2. Probably femaie figurine
On upper porch:
3. Male figurine, with braided turban
and armbands
4. Male figurine
Tomb cham ber
5. Stela-type marker, maybe reconstructed
5'
+71
Record Number 33
Collection of Jose Lavin
Toscano etal. 1946: PL 37
Porch Model
250mm
Two stepped platform, with figures (playing music?). Roof is saddled shape with concentric lozenge
pattern. Two staircase with two steps each. Five human figurines.
& j
Key to Diagram
Inside main room:
1. Male figurine
2. Femaie figurine, with armbands
O n porch:
3 . Female figurine
4. Probably female figurine, with rasp,
right arm broken
5 . Male figurine, with flute or food
_________ to mouth, left arm broken
472
Record Number 34
BOWERS MUSEUM
#BMCA 74.6.1
Tomb Model
235 x135mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972:Fig. 17,draw Fig.6; von Winning and Stendahl 1968:Fig. 148
Tall raised platform with open two-walled structure. Black and yellow on cream. Roof is saddled a bit
lop sided, with cross hatch design. Two staircases, with four steps each. One front tomb. Four human
figures, one dog at bottom of stairs. Figure of trumpet play had been added and is now removed.
Key to Diagram
On upper porch:
1. Male figurine, restored
2. Female figurine
Behind stairs, at base:
a. Dog
Inside main room:
3. Femaie figurine, prone
4. Male figurine
^ - - - - -f - _ ----S. rBDer
of cytnanca Tooas
Tomb chamber.
& 1 prone figure, and 1 female figurine sating
u
w
473
Record Number 35
MINNEAPOLIS ART INSTITUTE #47.2.37
Tomb Model
470 x 240mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Figs. 19,20; P. Furst 1975:Fig. 8
Tall model is made extra high with two walls. Platform is footed. Two staircases with five steps each.
Red, yellow, and black painted concentric lozenges, vertical stripes and small diamonds. Eight human
figures. Parts are restored.
,
Key to Diagram
Inside main ream:
1. Figure
2. Male figurine with armbands
3. Female figurine with armbands,
loote out
4. Male figurine
5 . Male figurine with conical hat
and armbands
6. Large tripod vessel; may be empty
originally, with food later added
O n upper porch:
7. Female figurine, small
8 . Female figurine, scarred cheete,
arm around Figure 7
9. Female figurine
Tomb cham ber
10. Three figures, one with conical hat
and armbands, one with armbands;
_________ platter of cylindrical food._________
474
Record Number 36
LOS ANGELES COUNTY ART MUSEUM #M.86.296.38 Compound Model 292 x 203mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.32, PI.2; Kan et al. 1989:Rg. 37
Raised low platform with patios that flank stairs. Lateral niche tomb, and main tomb. Red and black on
cream. Two roofs have diamond pattern, one pyramidal and one saddled. Eleven human figures, and
possible animal.
V.
Key to Diagram
Inside room with pyramidal roof;
1. Figure
2. Figure
3. Figure
1 2 Food
Inside room with saddled roof;
4. Femaie figurine
5. Fem ale figurine
On porch:
6. Male figurine
7. Male figurine with braided turban
8. Male figurine w9h braided turban
9 . Male figurine, in niche, holds cup
13. Possible bird or dog
Lateral niche:
10. Male figurine
11. Small figure
R ear Tomb C ham ber
14. Figure inside______________
; v , t v ..
i Hr
v V**;
:.>,w i i t. c
. -i
475
Record Number 37
Unknown location
Porch Model
207 mm
Law platform support open structure with two walls. Black and red on cream. Design of open diamond is
repainted. Roof is saddled. One staircase with two steps. Five human figurines, and one dog.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Figure
2. Mate fig u re
3. Femaie figurine
On porch:
4. Male figurine
5. Female fig u re
a. Dog
476
Record Number 38
Unknown location
Compound Model
180 x 145mm
von Winning and Stendahl 1968: Fig. 150
Small, three room structure. Walls painted in angular design. Black on cream. Three roofs are
saddled. Twelve figures are all cloaked.
Key to Diagram
AH figures are d o a te d and w ear turbans.
There are 6 inside, and 6 outside.
The placement of 4 s uncertain.
1. At least one figure inside lateral room
2. Four figures on front patio
3. At least one figure inside lateral room
4. Main room, with 2-4 figures
5. Two more figures outside___________
<0.0>
477
Record Number 39
Unknown location
Compound Model
320 x 180 mm
von Winning and Hammer 1968: Fig. 158; Bell 1971: Fig. I7d
Huge, raised platform supports two room structure. One set later staircase with two landings, and 10
steps. Reddish brown on cream. Two roofs are saddled and connected, with concentric lozenge
design. Fifteen human figures, many restored, one dog in rear tomb.
Key to Diagram
Inside main room:
1. Male figurinew th arm bands and
braided turban
2 . Femaie figurine
3 . Male figurine, w*h cup h right
hand
19.
Empty bcmf or jar
O utside on back pabo:
4. Cloak figure
5 . Large figure
6. Figure
7. Femaie figurine
Inside upper lateral noom:
8 . Cloak figure
9 . Cloak figure
10. Cloak figure
O utside in staircase area:
11. C loakfigue
12. Cloak figure
13. Cloak figure
14. Reconstructed, standing figure
15. Male figurine with arm bands and
braided turban
Tom b cham bers:
16. O ne figure on burial platform,
1 dog
17. Male figurine and fem aie
figurine
18. Male figurine with coil necklace and
arm bands; fem aie figurine with
__________ right arm broken; jar__________
' ..O I 9
18
i
i
J
!
I
1
!
478
Record Number 40
Seattle Ait Museum #50.30
219 x 117 mm
Tomb Model
Small room on raised platform. Structure has three walls, dosed in back. Black on cream, with
manganese stains. Roof is saddled, with large lozenge design. Twro staircases with five stairs each.
One empty tomb in front Four human figurines.
Key to Diagram
Inside:
1. Male figurine with neddace
2 . Female figurine
On porch:
3 . Male figurine
4 . Female figurine with armban ds
5 . Ja r
& Platter with lump food
Tomb Chamber.
7. Empty____________________
479
Record Number 41
Unknown location
Basic Model
153 mm
A small structure with two columns and one wall. Black on cream, with horizontal stripes.
Roof is pyramidal shape. Four human figurines.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Male figurine
2. Femaie figurine
3. Cloak figure
4. Female figurine
& Three p ie s of globular food
480
Record Number 42
Unknown location
No references
Tomb Model
292 x 190 mm
One room on raised platform. Tomb opens to front One staircase. Eight human figures, and one
parrot
Information from von Winning notes and files only.
No photograph o r drawing available.
Record Number 43
ROYAL MUSEUM OF ART AND HISTORY, Brussels
AAM 66-15
Basic Model
von Winning 197l:Fig. 10; von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.7
481
210 x 155mm
Footed platform support small structure with two walls. White on red is painted with X motif. Roof is
saddled, and curvy. Jalisco style.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Figure with earrings, holds Figure 2
2. Prone figure, with painted tu rtan
3. Figure
4. Three platters of food
5. Indeterminate object jar or bird
i
482
Record Number 44
U nknow n location
Basic Model
140mm
A two walled open structure with slab base. Black and white on buff. Saddled roof with lozenges and
horizontal line designs. Four human figures.
j d r
*
X
, *
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
2 . Prone figure
3 . Female figurine, w th arm around
Figure 4
4 . Male figurine_________________
483
Record Number 45
Unknown location
Basic Model
125 x 120 nun
Two joined structures on flat slab. White on red slip. One is small with pyramidal roof, and reclining
figure. Larger structure has saddled roof, and pair of figures making love. Four human figures.
V
Key to Diagram
Inside main room:
1.
& 2. Pair of embracing male and
female figurines
a Male figurine, right hand rests on
Figure 2
Inside small room:
4. Pronefjgure _______________
484
Record Number 46
Unknown Location
Basic Model
140 x 85 mm
No references
Small structure, with two walls, open front and back. Buff colored with black manganese stains. Roof
is saddled. Four human figures.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Male figurine
2. Female figurine
3. Prone figure
A Figure, holds F g ^ e 3
485
Record Number 47
Unknown location
Basic Model
160 x 120 mm
No references
Two walled structure with slab base. Surface is painted with brown on cream. Roof is
saddled, and painted in designs of triangles and large diamonds. Four human figures.
Key to Diagram
Inside:
1. Male figurine, with turban
2. Female figurine
3. Male figurine
4. Figure
486
Record Number 48
BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART
#1960.30.19
Tomb Model
345 mm
Baltimore Museum o f Art 1958:Fig. 18
Raised platform with tomb in front. Main room is open with two walls. The two staircases are
steep with six steps each. Three steps in tomb seem reconstructed or modem. Roof has
saddle shape, with ends turning to center (new roof?). Six human figures, and two dogs stand
in chamber.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Female figurine
2. Female figurine
3. Figure
4. Figure
On porch
Tomb chamber
7. Two dogs
I
487
Record Number 49
f-anrk Beyond Gallery
Tomb Model
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.29a
267 x 152 mm
Raised platform supports one room with two walls. Two staircases with four steps each.
White on red crosshatch designs. Roof is saddled. Ten human figures and three birds. Some
elem ents are reconstructed.
Key to Diagram
Inside Room:
1. Fem ale figurine, hoids food to mouth
2. Fem ale figurine
3.
Figure
4.
Figure
O n porch:
5.
Male figurine with conical hat
6 . Male figurine
In stairw ay area:
7 . Male figurine
8 . Male figurine, standing
On upper ledge:
a. Bird
b.
Bird
Tom b cham ber.
9.
O ne figure. 1 prone figure, and 1 bird
488
Record Number 50
Unknown location
Basic Model
152 mm
Flat platform, supports rectangular structure with two walls, open front and back. Long roof with
exaggerated ends. White on red. Ten human figures, and five animals.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
I.
Female figurine with arm bands
Figure with armbands
Female figurine
Figure
Dog
I I . Possible food
O utside on ledge:
5 -1 0 . Rgures
12. Possible food or jar
b - e . Birds
489
Record Number 51
Unknown location
Tomb Model
190 x 140 mm
Raised platform with large open tomb in front Three sided upper room, closed in back. There are no
stairs. Red on white with vertical stripes. Poorly made droopy roof and walls. Roof is saddled, with
indentations at sides under peaks. Roof crest is notched, and has horizontal stripes. Thirteen human
figures, four may represent youth.
&
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Female figurine with nose ring
2 . Male figurine
3 . Maiefigurine
14. Jar
15. Mound of globular food
Upper porch:
4. Figure (female?)
5 . Figure (male?)
Lower Patio:
6 . Female figurine
7 . Figure with turban (female?)
8 . Maiefigurine, holds Figure 4
9 . Female figurine
10. Maiefigurine
11. Small figure
12. Female figurine
16. Mound of cylindrical food
17. Platter of globular food
Tomb chamber.
18. Female in tomb_____________
I5&
490
Record Number 52
Unknown Location
Tomb Model
190mm
Raised platform with no stairs. Main room has three walls and is dosed in back. Top and lower levels
have similar curvy shape, and wide openings. Black and white on red. Roof is saddled but poorly
formed, with ends that are small and slant inward. The droopy shape and painted designs suggest
reconstruction. Seven human figures, and lower feasting scene.
'Sri
a M fi
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1.
Figure
2.
Figure
3.
Figure
S. Platter of giobdar food
On porch:
4.
Figure
5.
Figure
Lower Patio:
6.
Figure
7.
Figure
Tomb cham ber.
9 . Four figures and piatter with
globular food
I
491
Record Number 53
Unknown location
Tomb Model
305mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.23, drawing Fig. 10; Mangino Tazzer 1990:Fig.4.6
Raised platform with pyramid shaped stair structure. Structure is open front and back, with two walls.
White on red. Roof is saddled with sharp angle inward at waist Two tombs, front and rear. Ten
human figurines on main levels, and eight more in tombs. One dog in tomb.
.t." yA ,* " * * 1 - t . H l
/ , .
~
- '*
<
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Male Figurine
2.
Figure
3.
. I3 w
Figure
4.
Figure
5.
Figure
6. Female figurine
11. Emptybcwi
On upper porch:
7.
Female figurine
8 . Male figurine with armbands and
braided turban
On back lower patio:
9.
Female figurine
10. Maiefigurine
Tomb Chamber
12. Large chamber with 6 figures, 1 dog,
and 1 jar
13. Small niche chamber in rear,

_________ with 2 figures______________
>
\
I
>
>
| 4 " 0
4
r.
>
12
492
Record Number 54
Unknown location
Porch Model
160 x 150 mm
von Winning 1971:Fig.2; von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.2
Thick slab platform with rounded comers supports small open structure with two walls. Roof is saddled
and stnped. White and black on red. One stair on platform. Seven human figurines, one pair embracing.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Female figurine with arm bands,
necklace and nose ring
2. Male figurine with conical hat,
necklace and nose ring
8. Globular food
9. Cylindrical food
10. Jar
On porch perim eter
a Female figurine with necklace
and nose ring
4. Female figurine with necklace
and nose ring
5. Female figurine embracing Figure 6
6. Male figurine embracing Figure 5
7. Male figurine with nose ring
and striped turban
1 2 Mound of cylindrical food
493
Record Number 55
Unknown Location
Tomb Model
330 x 210 mm
von Winning l971:Fig.9; von Winning and Hammer I972:Fig.29
Large model is enclosed on all sides, with front entrances to main level and to tomb. A double staircase
leads to porch landing. Staircases have 7 steps each. Cream surface is burnished. A short roof is
saddle shape but lacks the peaked ends. Five human figurines, including two bloodletting female
figunnes.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1.
2.
3.
Figure
Male figurine (with scarred cheeks?)

Female figurine, with rod through
cheek
4.
Female figurine
7. Platter with disccidal food
8. Platter wflh cylindrical food
Lower patio:
5 . Female figurine, with rod through
cheek
Tomb chamber
6. Female figurine
___
.4
I
494
Record Number 56
Unknown location
Porch Model
280 x 220 nun
Thomson 1971:Fig.49; von Winning 1971:Fig.4, Fig. 9b; vcn Winning and Hammer 1972:
drawing Fig.9; Sothebys Lot 6500 #105.
Model with large front porch. Raised platform support open structure with two walls and two central
columns. Red on cream, with designs painted in stripes and diamonds. Roctf repair is evident One
central staircase with four stairs. Eighteen human figures, males wear conical hats. Five animal figures,
including two dogs with food.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Female figurine
2.
Figure
3.
Female figurine
Female figurine
Figure
4.
5.
6.
7.
b*
r.
Figire
Maiefigurine
a.
Bird
b. Bird
On lateral porch:
8.
Female figurine
9.

andarmbands
10. Female figurine
11. Female figurine
20. Ptatteroffood
C. Dog
d. Dog
On lateral porch:
12. Female figurine
13. Female figurine
14. Maiefigurine
15. Female figurine
16. Maiefigurine
17. Maiefigurine
e. Dog
On stairs:
holds jar
19. Jar held by Figure 18_________
ip
o -
<9*e
^ '3
f e .e
14
495
Record Number 57
Porch Model
Unknown Location
335 mm
Raised platform supports structure with one wall and two side columns. Black and red on buff. Lateral
staircase has 6 steps and landing. Roof is curvy with exaggerated peaked ends. Eght human figures
and two animal figurines. Model is similar to Record Numbers 25 and 69, and may be heavily
reconstructed.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1 .-& Figures
a. B id
On stairs:
7.
Figure, starving
IS.
Figure, recMng, Wth cup
Lower patio:
b. Dog
Tomb chamber
9.
Two figures_________
I
4%
Record Number 58
Albers Collection
Taube 1988:Fig.JI-8
Tomb Model
200 mm
Tall platform with tom b on th e sid e. Broad sla b patio. R ed on w hite, with horizontal zig za g d esign .
Structure is clo sed with th ree w ails, and h a s tw o w indow s. R oof is shallow sa d d le sh a p e. O ne sta irca se
w ith 7 ste p s. Two hum an figures, and five bird figu res.
Key to Diagram
Inside roam:
1. Figure, probably male, wears turban
2 . Figure, probably female, holds bwvl
3.
Empty txwt
Upper ledge:
a
Bird
Patio:
b. Bird
C.
Bird
Rooftop:
d.
Bird
e. Bird
Tomb chamber
4. Empty
497
Record Number 59
Unknown Location
No references
__________
Porch Model
360 mm
Raised platform supports structure with three walls, open only to front Platform has two lateral porches,
with a central 4-step staircase in between. Finish is cream on buff. Roof is saddled with ends that flare
outward. Ten human figurines.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1.
Figure wtth armbands
2 . Figure
3.
Rgure with armbands
4.
Female figurine
On porch:
5 . Figure with turban, and object in hand
6 . R gure with turban, and object in hand
7 . Mate figurine w*h conical hat
S. Mate figurine with conical hat
9.& 10. Couple embracing, male figurine
with conical hat
>
IO
Record Number 61
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON
Compound Model
(no measurements)
von Winning and Hammer 1972: drawing Fig. 11
A large two level model with unusual depiction of architecture. Main floor has two supports that appear
as wide columns or storage huts. Two staircases with six steps each. Cream on red slip. Pyramidal roof
decorated with cream stripes and dots. Tomb has two chambers. Fourteen human figures and three
animal figures.
Key to Diagram
Inside main room:
1. figure-youth or anenal
2.
figure
3.
Figure
4.
Male figurine, only legs remain
5 . M aiefigurine
15. Ja r
On upper porch:
6 . Fem ale figurine
7 . Fem ale figurine
8 . M aiefigurine
a.
Dog
O n lower patio:
9.
Female figurine, head broken
10. figure in prone position
11. Female figurine
12. figure
13. Maiefigurine
14. Female figurine
16. Platter of cylindrical food
18. Food
Tomb chamber
19. Female figurine
Upper back ledge:
b.
Bird
Lower back ledge:
C.
Bird
h Li-"--' ---1-- .'- !'
+ g | '
tJ
"
...........
,te
A 3
2
15
A 5
no.
I^V l4
16
I7M8
499
Record Number 62
On loan to Princeton Ait Museum L#1966.188
Porch Model
(no measurements)
No references
Raised low platform with two interconnecting structures. Red on cream finish. Front porch has one step.
Three niche tombs are small and empty. One roof is saddled with concentric lozenges, and the othe r s
pyramidal shape. Five human figures, and no animals. Based on painting of model by Dr. Gillett Griffith.
iw irr
Itwktrr HoflSt Virw s fnses.
Key to Diagram
Inside main room:
1. Female figurine
2.
Cloak figure
Inside small room:
3.
Female figurine
On porch:
4 . Mate figurine
5.
Female figurine
500
Record Number 63_____________________________________________________

Italy National Museum o f Prehistory and Ethnography, Rome
Tomb Model
2 16 mm
Raised platform supports enclosed structure with three walls and column in front midline. White on red.
Staircase to side with six steps. Roof is saddled shape. Three human figures, and two dog figures.
Exhibited at Munich Art Museum in 1958.
* * -V. v * ; /
A.
*.
f f -.t *.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Maiefigurine
2.
Female figurine
4. Bowl
a. Dog or other smafl figure
On porch:
5 . One discoidal food
Lower patio:
3.
Figure
b. Dog
Tomb chamber
6. Figure, possibly prone
II
501
Record Number 64
394 mm
Jules Berman Collection
Compound Model
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.31; Stem 1973:Fig.37
Elaborate model with three structures on stepped platform. Upper enclosed porch in back. Four tombs
with one figurine in each. Black on red. Three roofs, all saddle shaped. The main roof is enormous. Two
staircases with five steps each. Fifteen human figures, and two birds .
Key to Diagram
Inside main room:
1.
2.
Figure
3.
16. Platter of food
Inside lateral rooms:
4 . Cloak figure
5 . Cloak figure
6 . Cloak figure
8. Figure
Upper back porch:
9.
10. Figure
11. Female figurine
12. Jar or empty bowl
Upper ledge and stairs:
7. Figure
a. Bird
b . Bird
Front taw r patio:
12. Cloak figure
13. Cloak figure
14. Cloak figure
15. Figure-only legs remain
18. Platter of cylindrical foods
Tomb chambers:
1 9 ,2 0 ,2 1 ,2 2 . Four chambers each
______ has one figure; and #19 has food
12 , 13 18 ; 14
!9
15
502
Record Number 65
200 mm
Porch Model
Unknown Location
No references
Single structure with two walls on low platform. White on red slip. Designs in wavy horizontal lines. One
step on front porch. Roof is saddle shape. Six human figures have curvy arms that look reconstructed.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Female figurine
2. Maiefigurine
3. Maiefigurine
4 . Female figurine
On porch;
5. Male figurine, standing
6 . Female figurine
503
Record Number 66
Unknown location
Basic Model
150 x 90 mm
Small model with slab base. Structure has two walls and is open front and back. White on red. Roof is
saddled, but one end is broken. Four human figures.
A
Key to Diagram
1.
2.
3.
4.
Female figurine
Male figurine
Female figurine
Male figurine
504
Record Number 67
Worcester Art Museum #1947.21
Tomb Model
274 mm
No references
Raised platform supports main structure with three walls. Black on cream with traces of red. Roof is
saddled with mottled black and cream color. Two staircases are uneven, with two and 6 steps each.
Four human figures, and possible dog.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Mate figurine
5. Platter of discoidai food
& Figure or food or animal
On porch:
2 . Male figurine
3.
Female figurine
4. Figure
Tomb chamber
7.
Female figurine and prone figure
505
Record Number 69
Stanford University Museum o f Art #81.113
Tomb Model
187 x134 mm
No references
Raised platform supports single structure. Structure has two walls, with a window or door serving as side
opening to stairs. One staircase with four steps. Black on red slip. Roof is pyramid shaped. Seven
human figures. Model resembles Record Numbers 25 and 57. May have reconstructed elements.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Female figurine holding cup
2 . Maiefigurine
8. Platter of cySndrical foods
9 . Platter of globular foods
On stair tandng:
3.
Female figurine
On tower ledge and pet:
4.
Female figurine, with conical hat
may be restored
5.
6.
Maiefigurine
7.
Female figurine
Tomb chamber
10. Empty chamber______________
i 10
506
Record Number 70
S t Louis Art Museum #233:1957
Tomb Model
360 x 200 mm
L. Parsons I980:Fig. 76
A two level model, with a front staircase unit resembling a stepped pyramid. The main structure is a twowalled open structure. Double staircase has six steps each. Red and black on cream, with designs
pained in diamonds. Tomb has a double chamber with dog and figures. Four human figurines.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Female figurine
2.
Female figurine
Prone male figurine, with armbands
3.
4.
Female figurine
Jar
Food
7.
Upper porch:
5 . Attachment area of missing figure
Tomb chamber
8. Tomb with 2 figures, dog, and food
0
Q L
507
Record Number 71
Basic Model
120 x 122 mm
Duke University Museum o f Art #1985.2.4
No references
A small model with footed platform, has rounded comers. Structure has two walls, and is open front and
back. Black and white paint on red. Roof is saddled, short, and droopy. Four human figures.
Key to Diagram
1 - 4 . Figures
5. Discoidal food
508
Record Number 74
Seattle Art Museum #81.17.1375
von Winning and Hammer 1972:Fig.30
374 x 324 mm
Compound Model
Elaborate stepped platform supports three-roomed structure. Each room is dosed with three walls. Black
and cream on red. Designs are a horizontal zigzag, and concentric lozenge pattern. Two staircases have
five steps each. One tomb in front Three roofs are saddle shape. Nine human figures, and one dog.
jffSfJ
Key to Diagram
Inside main room:
1.
igure
2.
Figure
3.
Female figurine
a.
Dog
Lateral room:
4.
Female figurine
5.
Figure
Lateral room:
6.
Female figurine, holds object
7.
Figure
Back area:
8 .9 . Possible location of additional figures
Tomb chambe r
11. Two 2 figures, one holds object
ai 8
n!
lr!
N
9
v --
MB b
509
Record Number 75
Loan to Reed College from Gray Collection
Porch Model
von Winning 1994:Catalog Number 20, and cover photograph
385mm
Raised platform supports open, two-wailed structure. Cream and black on red. Roof is saddled, and
flares out at bottom, painted with zigzag design. Porch has two areas, divided by staircase with 3 steps.
Seven human figures, and two dog figures.
iVT:'>Vcv
' . .!*?Tt;
-.* - f
.r .
' r
"
' ** 3
^ V 'V--" '
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Male figurine wdh braided turban
and armbands, holds object
3. Male figurine with armbands
4.
Female figurine
a. Dog
On porch:
5. Cloak figure
6.
Female figurine with armbands
andneddace
7.
Female figurine wflh armbands
andneddace
Tomb chamber
8. A dog and 2 standing figures
ffi
510
Record Number 76
PORTLAND ART MUSEUM #50.16
Tomb Model
267 x 181mm
von Winning 1994:Catalog No. 11; from the Ladd Collection
A raised platform supports open structure with two walls. Cream on red, with design of concentric
lozenge pattern. Roof is steep, saddle shape, and crooked horizontally. Double staircase in front with six
steps each. Six human figures, and two dog figures.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Male figurinewith braidedturban
and armbands
2. Female figurinewdharmbands
andneddace
3. Probably male figurine
4. Probablyfemale figurine
a. Dog
On porch:
5.
Female figurinewitharmbands
andneddace
6. Male figurinew9h braidedturban
7. Platterwithglobularfood
8. Platterwithglobularfood
Tombchamber
9.
9'
Dog________________________
511
Record Number 77
Basic Model
190 x 130 mm
CLEVELAND ART MUSEUM #90.258
Cleveland Ait Museum Bulletin Sept. 1992:Fig.26
Small model with flat slab base. Structure has two walls and is open font and back. From the Gruener
collection. Red and black on cream, design in vertical stripes, and zigzag design on base of roof. Roof is
saddle shape. Four human figures.
5*5
*.;
\*
A
l:i
Key to Diagram
w .:xc
1.
2.
3.
4.
. t / .
Female figurine
Male figurine
Male figurine
Female figurine, leans out to hold Figure 3
^
+
4
m
ay
&
512
Record Number 78
Unknown Location
Porch Model
228 x 260 mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.3, drawing Fig. 8
Narrow structure with two walls on extended platform with 20 nubbin feet Cream on red. Roof is saddled
with broad bottom edge, decorated with stripes and concentric lozenges. Fourteen human figures.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
8. Male figurine with feather headdress
12. Female figunne
13. Small figure
On porch:
1. Female figunne with stnped skirts
andneddace
2. Female figunne with striped skirts
andneddace
andneddace
Female figurine with stnped skirts
andneddace
5. Female figurine with striped skirts
andneddace
6. Male figurine with turban
9. Male with feather headdress, with
straw or flute-like object in mouth
11 . Male, sits on stool, with object in hand
14. Male figurine with feather headdress,
plays drum
15. Jar
A' A'
A6A7
11
3
A 8
tk
A4 A
A9A+'c
1-E O A
^ l Lr 15
12
!
513
Record Number 78
Unknown Location
Porch Model
228 x 260 mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.3, drawing Fig. 8
Narrow structure with two walls on extended platform with 20 nubbin feet Cream on red. Roof is saddled
with broad bottom edge, decorated with stripes and concentric lozenges. Fourteen human figures.
&
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
12. Female figurine
13. Small figure

On porch:
andneddace
andneddace
3. Female figurine wdh striped skirts
andneddace
andneddace
andneddace
& Male figurine with turban
9. Male wflh feather headdress, with
straw or flute-fike objed in mouth
11. Male, sits on stod. with objed in hand
14. Male figurine with feather headdress.
plays drum
15. Jar
A1A 2 A 3 A4 A
A6A7 A8 A9A | ' C
II
13 OAm
lY
12
ii
ii
j
i
i
514
Record Number 79
_______________________________________________
Unknown Location
Basic Model
152 mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig.5, ( H arry Franklin Gallery)
Small, rounded flat slab base, with two walled structure. Black and white on red, with manganese spots.
Saddled roof with rough diamond pattern. Three human figurines.
V:
Key to Diagram
1. Male figunne
2. Female figunne
3. Figure
4. Jar
5. Mound of globular food
V-.
4
4
C& 5
515
Record Number 80____________________________________________________

Unknown location
Tomb Model
343 mm
Boxy raised platform has rear staircase with four stairs. Main level is two walled open structure. Red and
cream. Roof is saddle shaped and painted in vertical wavy lines. Four human figures.
' u
v '*
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1.
Figure
2.
Figure, prone
3.
Female figurine, holds Figure 2
O n porch:
Tomb chamber.
5. Possible figure and modeled steps
inside
t.
Jr
516
Record Number 81
Unknown location
Basic Model
117 mm
Unusual small model, with slab base supported by four nubbin feet Structure has two walls and is open
front to back. Roof is pyramid shape, and has modeled beams or rafters inside. White on red, with
dotted design. Jalisco style. Two human figures. Two dogs curled up on platform edge, and another
animal, dog or bat, modeled on roof peak.
Key to Diagram
1.
2.
3.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Female figurine with earrings

andneddace
Probabty male figurine
Platter of globular food
Dog
Dog, prone
Possible bird
Dog or bat on roof peak
I a
()%CSj
517
Record Number 82
Unknown location
Basic Model
114 mm
von Winmng and Hammer 1972: Fig.37
Round platform with five nubbin feet Structure is li-shaped, and dosed on three sides. Red, white and
black on buff, painted with dots. Pyramidal roof, shews rafters inside Jalisco style. Four human figures.
Key to Diagram
1.
2.
3.
4.
Female figunne wth conical hat

scarred cheete, and dotted sk it
Female figurine vath dotted skirt
Female figurine
Male figurine
518
Record Number 83_____________________________________________________

HUDSON MUSEUM #HM771
Basic Model
139 mm
William P. Palmer DI Collection, Hudson Museum, University of Maine
A round slab basal platform. Four columns support a pyramid roof. Red on cream, painted with
concentric lozenges. Four human figurines, including two youth figures.
Key to Diagram
1. Female flgurine
2. Figure
3.
Small cloak figure
4.
Small doak figure
519
Record Number 84
Unknown location
Compound Model
311 mm
Broad slab base supports boxy, raised platform. Structure has two rooms, enclosed by three walls, and
one short comer wall. Black and white on red. Two large tombs with quadrilateral openings. Two saddle
shaped roofs, one large and one for smaller room. One staircase with six steps. Twelve human figures,
and one dog. Arbitrary placement of some figurines, and heavy restoration.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1.
2.
Figure
Figure
3.
Figure
On stairs:
4.
Female figurine, holding object
On pabo in front of tomb:
5.
Male figurine
6.
Mate figurine with conical hat
On patio:
7. Mate figurine with conical hat
8.
9.
10.
Figure
Figure .
Figure
a. Dog
In front of tomb:
11. Female figurine
>:
v*
3
ST
;!*
BS
Si2
12. Figure
520
Record Number 86
Unknown location
Basic Model
228 x 151 nun
No references
Slab base supported by four nubbin feet Two wailed structure is open front to back. Red, yellow, and
cream on buff. Roof is pyramidal shape, and designed with dotted patterns filling large geometric spaces.
Dog or bat on roof peak is painted half white, and half red. Jalisco style.
Key to Diagram
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
a.
Female figurine with earrings

and feather headgear
Cloak figure
Posstote figure
Jar
Platter with discoidai food
Three platters with lump food
Dog or bat on roof peak
O i
v
61
I
521
Record Number 87
235 x 190 mm
Porch Model
Unknown location
No references
Large plain structure with three walls, dosed in back. Sits on single slab with porch extension. Black
diamond designs on buff may be repainted. Roof is saddled shape, with lew peaked ends. Six human
figures.
* V
^
*
L\*.-: , **'***V
. ,*
/,
V * .
'
1 *
{
i 1
Key to Diagram
On porch:
1. Cloak figure with turban
2.
3.
Figure
5.
Figure
6.
Female figurine
Jar
Female figurine
8. Mound of 6 lump foods
Inside room:
4. Small figure, probably female
7.
70
5%
522
Record Number 88
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY, Mexico City Basic Model 140 x LOOmm
von Winning 1971: Fig.lb (right); Heyden and Gendrop 1973:Fig. 360; Mangino Tazzer
1990:Fig.4.5b
A small model with flat slab platform. Structure has two walls and is open front to back. Brown on buff.
Saddle roof shape. Four human figurines. See also Record Number 94, 46
Key to Diagram
1. Female figuine, holds Figure 2
2. Malefigurine, prone
3. Female figurine
4. Male figurine
523
Record Number 89
SAN FRANCISCO FINE ARTS MUSEUM # LI994.3.18
Basic Model
184 x 165 mm
Nicholson and Cordy-CoIIins I979:Fig.l2
Small model on flat slap. T w o walled open structure. Red on cream. Saddle shape roof is nicely
symmetrical. Four figurines. From the Land Collection.
I-
tV
Key to Diagram
1. Male figurine
2. Female figurine
3. Male figurine
4. Female figurine
524
Record Number 90
Unknown Location
Compound Model
268 x 205mm
No references
A two-room structure on raised platform, and with extensive patio and porch. Main structure has saddled
noof, and small structure is like a storage hut, with pyramidal roof. Three large birds are in hut Red on
buff. One staircase with three steps. Twelve human figures, and besides birds, one dog by lower tomb..
Heavy restoration.
Key to Diagram
On lowerpado:
1. Figure
2. Figure
3.
4.
Female figurine
Female figmne
5.
b.
Figure
Dog
On upper porch:
6. Male figurine
7. Male figurine
8. Male figurine
Inside main room:
Possibly4 more figures
Inside lateral room:
a 3 large birds
525
Record Number 91
Unknown Location
No references
280 x 225mm
Porch Model
Two level structure with a raised platform supporting a structure, and lower porch level. The structure is
comprised of four outward leaning columns and a saddled roof. Roof is rounded at base with narrow end
peaks. Buff finish. Porch is broad and has a staircase with three steps. Fifteen human figures, and one
dog. May be reconstructed.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Figure
Figure
Figure
Rgure, sits in front of food

On upper porch:
5.
Rgure, oncomer
7-15
as)
3
5
6.
Male figurine with conical hat, reconstructed
On lower patio:
7 - 1 5 . At least 10 figures; 3 vrear conical hats; and one
embracing couple
526
Record Number 92
Location Unknown
Tomb Model
480mm
No references
Tali polychrome model. Main structure has a back wall and two front columns. The columns are painted
in horizontal stripes. Raised platform has double staircase like Maya pyramid in front Platform is footed.
Two staircases have six steps each. Roof is saddled with exaggerated pointy end peaks, cinched waist,
height and designs. Red and gold on cream. Jalisco style of finish. Six human figures, one bird, and one
dog in tomb.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Figure
2. Figure
3. Figure
4. Figure
a. Bird
On porch:
5. Figure
6. Figure, holds object
7. Emptybowl
Tombchamber
8. Dog__________
.Vv'.'.l.'r
I
527
Record Number 94
Hudson Museum #4013
Basic Model
125mm x 65mm
William P. Palmer m Collection, Hudson Museum, University o f Maine
von Winning 1971: Fig. 1a (left)
Small model with slab, flat base. Structure has two walls and is open back to front. One wall
has noticeable convex curve. Cream slip. Saddle shape roof is nicely shaped. Four human
figures wear cloaks.
Key to Diagram
1.
2.
3.
4.
Cloak figure
Cloak figure
Cloak figure
Cloak figure
. 521S
Record Number 95
Unknown location
Porch Model
178mm
von Winning and Hammer 1972: Fig. 10, P1.3; von Winning and Stendahl 1968:Fig. 15
Broad stepped platform supports small structure. Structure has two walls, and is open. Platform has two
raised areas with niche type tomb within. White, black, and orange on red. Roof shape is saddled, with
vertical polychrome stripes. Twelve human figures, including two prone figures.
Key to Diagram
Inside room:
1. Cloak figure, prone, with conical
hat and earrings
2.
Figure
3.
Figure
Lateral porch:
4.
Figure
5.
Figure
6 . Female figurine with nose ring
7.
Lateral porch:
1 1 . Male figurine
12. Female figurine with nose ring
and earrings
Front patio:
8 . Female figurine, prone, with
legs up
9 . Male figurine with conical hat
1 0 . Male figurine
13. Platter with mound of cylindrical foods
Tomb chamber.
14. Contents of niche are indeterminate
CHS
i
i
ii
ii
tii
52.'
Record Number 96_____________________________________________________

Unknown location
Porch Model
145 x 155 mm
No references
Oval shaped slab platform has four nubbin feet Supports two structures that face each other across a
patio. Structures have three walls, rounded corers, and are open to the front Plain red clay, and
undecorated. Roofs are each saddled. One human figure and three dogs.
Key to Diagram
1.
2.
a.
b.
C.
Female figunne with nose ring

and armbands
Mound of cylindrical food
Dog
Dog
Dog
IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET ( Q A - 3 )
1.0
23
1 23
1.30
22
12.0
l.l
1.8
1.25
1.4
1.6
15 0 m m
IM /4 G E . I n c
1653 East Main Street
Rochester, NY 14609 USA
Phone: 716/462-0300
Fax: 716/288-5989
0 1993. Applied Image. Inc.. All Rights Reserved

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DAYS OF THE DEAD:

A dissertation submitted to the

UMI Number: 9916776

UMI Microform 9916776

300 North Zeeb Road

DAYS OF THE DEAD:

The dissertation o f Kristi Butterwick is approved

I am particularly indebted to Barbara Voorhies for her

I also thank Alejandro Martinez M. of INAH for

encouraging my field studies in Mexico.

Hasso von Winning, Peter Furst, Phil C.

Weigand, and Otto Schondube generously provided me with unpublished information

Chapter L General Introduction..................................................

Chapter n. The Physical and Social Settings of West Mexico...

The Underground Built Environment

Chapter m . West Mexican Ceramic Architectural Models. ................. 117

Chapter IV. The West Mexican Art of Consumption.................................... 191

Models with Food Depictions

V. The Community o f Huitzilapa.................................................................. 239

VIL Summary And Conclusions..............................................

Appendix A. West Mexican Study Sample

Contents depicted in the lower chambers of ceramic models.

Broad categories of figurines.

Restricted imagery of jewelry as depicted on male and female figurines. 163

Figurines wearing same social labels.

Distribution o f cloaked figurines.

Frequency distribution o f figurines in ceramic model groups.

Figurines in lower chambers.

Animal figurines in ceramic models.

Frequency of servings o f each food type in the ceramic models.

Frequency of container types in ceramic models.

Frequency of empty vessels in ceramic models.

Characteristics o f individual architectural features.

Variation in rectangular patio groups.

Variation in circular patio groups.

Characteristics of patio groups, listed in order of largest patio.

Archaeological features by cluster, with population estimates.

Raw frequencies of ceramic sherd groups.

Ratios for Ceramic Analysis.

West Mexican ceramic figure holding empty bowl

Map o f Prehispanic West Mexico

West Mexican architectural model showing ritual feasting

Portion o f the Bebedores or Pulque Drinkers Mural from Cholula

Aztec illustration o f Huey M iccaylhuitl

Diagram o f shaft tomb construction

Middle Preclassic Period bule jars and stirrup spout jars

Map o f Tequila Volcano Region

Photograph o f Tequila Volcano

Site Map o f San Felipe

Schematic diagram o f guachimonton built environment

Site Map o f El Arenal

Site Map ofL aN oria

Site Map o f Ahualulco

Site Map o f Teuchitlan-Guachimonton

West Mexican sculpture depicting funerary procession

Modem and ancient maguey scrapers used for pulque