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Mesoamerican Figurines: Small-Scale Indices of Large-Scale Social Phenomena

Book
Edited by Christina T. Halperin, Katherine A. Faust, Rhonda Taube, Aurore Giguet
2009
Published by: University Press of Florida
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Although figurines are among the most abundant class of artifacts known in the vast Mesoamerican culture, this is the premier single volume to examine these figurines from the Olmec to the Aztec civilizations.

These small, often ceramic objects are commonly found at many archaeological sites. They appear in the shape of humans, supernatural beings, animals, and buildings. Mesoamerican Figurines brings together many seasoned and respected scholars of art history, archaeology, ethnohistory, anthropology, and social theory to analyze these objects by their stylistic attributes, archaeological content, function, and meaning.

Because of their variety and number, figurines represent a rich dataset from which ancient Mesoamerican identity and practices can be ascertained, including human body symbolism, materiality, memory and human agency, trade and interaction, and religion.

Table of Contents

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Cover

Title Page, Copyright

Contents

pp. v-vi

List of Figures

pp. vii-xi

List of Tables

pp. xii

Preface

pp. xiii-xiv

1. Approaching Mesoamerican Figurines

pp. 1-22

Part I. Context and Practice

pp. 23-24

2. Rethinking Figurines

pp. 25-50

3. Honduran Figurines and Whistles in Social Context: Production, Use, and Meaning in the Ulúa Valley

pp. 51-74

Part II. Social Identities

pp. 75-76

4. Formative Period Gulf Coast Ceramic Figurines: The Key to Identifying Sex, Gender, and Age Groups in Gulf Coast Olmec Imagery

pp. 77-118

5. Identity, Gender, and Power: Representational Juxtapositions in Early Formative Figurines from Oaxaca, Mexico

pp. 119-148

6. Early Olmec Figurines from Two Regions: Style as Cultural Imperative

pp. 149-180

Part III. Cultural Aesthetics

pp. 181-182

7. Crafting the Body Beautiful: Performing Social Identity at Santa Isabel, Nicaragua

pp. 183-204

8. New Fire Figurines and the Iconography of Penitence in Huastec Art

pp. 205-235

9. The Beautiful, the Bad, and the Ugly: Aesthetics and Morality in Maya Figurines

pp. 236-258

Part IV. Embodiment

pp. 259-260

10. The Weeping Baby and the Nahua Corn Spirit: The Human Body as Key Symbol in the Huasteca Veracruzana, Mexico

pp. 261-296

11. Alien Bodies, Everyday People, and Hollow Spaces: Embodiment, Figurines, and Social Discourse in Postclassic Mexico

pp. 297-324

Part V. State and Household Relations

pp. 325-326

12. Sex in the City: A Comparison of Aztec Ceramic Figurines to Copal Figurines from the Templo Mayor

pp. 327-377

13. Figurines as Bearers of and Burdens in Late Classic Maya State Politics

pp. 378-404

Part VI. Discussion

pp. 405-406

14. Making a World of Their Own: Mesoamerican Figurines and Mesoamerican Figurine Analysis

pp. 407-426

Contributors

pp. 427-428

Index

pp. 429-440
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