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9: A Socioeconomic Interpretation of Figurine Assemblages from Late Postclassic Morelos, Mexico
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A Socioeconomic Interpretation of Figurine Assemblages 251 Introduction The tradition of producing, trading, and consuming ceramic figurines was of great significance in the religion of Central Mexican Postclassic cultures. Figurines with images depicting women, men, plants, animals, temples, and deities have been found in public arenas (e.g., temples) but more notably in domestic contexts (e.g., middens). Unfortunately, although early Spanish chroniclers described the public religion as including processions, offerings, and sacrifices, they neglected to mention domestic activities and rituals (cf. Durán 1971:272; Ruiz de Alarcón 1984:49–63). Thus, they left almost no ethnohistoric information on the use or significance of small ceramic figurines commonly found in the domestic contexts of commoners and elites. All segments of society, however, did not participate equally (qualitatively or quantitatively) in these domestic rituals (see Lohse, Chapter 1). Jan OlsOn C h a p t e r n i n e A Socioeconomic Interpretation of Figurine Assemblages from Late Postclassic Morelos, Mexico 251 Jan Olson 252 Richard Netting (1993) found in his cross-cultural study of agricultural households that diversity in domestic activities was not unusual—rather it was the norm. To assume that all commoners or households operated in a similar manner would be to ignore essential differences based on where people resided, what position in society they held, and under what economic and political conditions they lived. Therefore, it is important to investigate ritual behavior at many societal levels. In this chapter I analyze figurine assemblages from elite and nonelite households residing in three various-sized communities in Morelos, Mexico. Archaeological excavations of Aztec period houses at the sites of Yautepec, Cuexcomate, and Capilco in Morelos (see Figures 0.1 and 9.1) have provided a great quantity of ceramic figurines to demonstrate that household rituals and ideology varied depending on socioeconomic group and time. These sites were occupied from the Middle Postclassic to Colonial times (Figure 0.2). The Middle Postclassic period, ca. a.d. 1100–1300/1350, covers the Temazcalli phase in western Morelos and the Pochtla phase at Yautepec. Late Postclassic–A period, a.d. 1300/1350–1440, corresponds to the Early Cuauhnahuac and Atlan phases; Late Postclassic–B period, a.d. 1440–1540, to the Late Cuauhnahuac and Molotla phases; and the Colonial period, a.d. 1540–1650, to the Santiago phase at Yautepec (Hare and Smith 1996). Two rural sites, the village of Cuexcomate and the hamlet of Capilco, were first excavated in 1985 under the aegis of the Postclassic Morelos Archaeological Project (Smith et al. 1992). During the Middle Postclassic phase, Capilco was a small hamlet of approximately 6 houses and Cuexcomate had not yet been established. In the Late Postclassic–A phase, Capilco grew to approximately 14 houses, while some 43 houses were established at Cuexcomate, three kilometers to the east of Capilco. In the Late Postclassic–B, Capilco continued its steady growth until there were 21 occupied houses. Cuexcomate underwent a tripling of population to approximately 146 houses covering more than 14.2 hectares (Smith 1992). Because Yautepec’s Postclassic residential area is located underneath a modern town, it is not possible to know the entire number of Postclassic domestic structures. Nonetheless, an intensive survey determined that by a.d. 1519, central Yautepec covered an area of 209 hectares and had an estimated population of 15,000 people. In 1993, fourteen domestic middens were excavated under the Urban Yautepec Project, seven of which were associated with house structures (Smith 1994a; Smith and Heath- [18.232.169.110] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 09:14 GMT) A Socioeconomic Interpretation of Figurine Assemblages 253 Smith n.d.; Smith et al. 1994). From these excavations, more than a million artifacts, including ceramic sherds, figurines, burials, ground stones, metal, jade, and obsidian, were recovered that date from the Middle to Late Postclassic periods. This analysis relies on figurines from middens reflecting patterns of discard in residential contexts. The middens were arranged by time period , classified into rural and urban contexts, and categorized into elite and commoner classes (Olson 2001). Although much argument revolves around the identification of class in the archaeological context (see Chase and Chase 1992), for this project we relied on domestic architecture as the primary indicator of class. In his cross-cultural study of houses and their symbolic meanings, Richard Blanton (1994) points out that the domestic structure is the foremost resource of most family or household groups. Not only is the house a physical structure that shelters its occupants...