Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b95js Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T15:10:58.076Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE MANY FACES OF FIGURINES

Figurines as markers of ethnicity in Michoacan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2008

Erica Begun
Erica Begun*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa, 114 Macbride Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
*
E-mail correspondence to:[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Figurines offer archaeologists intriguing insights into many aspects of prehistoric culture. Beyond their utility as chronological markers, figurines offer information regarding the social and cultural structures of a society. This paper will demonstrate how the figurines of Michoacan can be used as markers of ethnic identity and ethnic continuity in the Lake Patzcauro Basin. The high degree of continuity in decorative and production styles throughout much of the sequence serves as evidence for ethnic continuity and the identity of the people who made the artifacts. A preliminary typology for the Michoacan figurines is presented to support the idea that a distinctly Michoacan style of figurine exists. The application of this figurine typology reveals a high degree of continuity in the figurine record. This supports the hypothesis that the ethnic origins of the Michoacan people may reach back as far as the Late Preclassic/Early Classic period.

Type
Special Section: Recent Research on the Emergence of the Tarascan State
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , Fall 2008 , pp. 311 - 318
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bailey, Douglass 2005 Prehistoric Figurines: Representations and Corporeality in the Neolithic. Routledge, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begun, Erica 2004 Comparative Analysis of Figurines from the Lake Patzcauro, Michoacan, Mexico, with an Emphasis on Temporal Variation in the Region. Paper presented at the Annual Midwest Mesoamericanist Meetings of Archaeology and Ethnohistory, Lexington.Google Scholar
Carot, Patricia 1993 Ceramica, otros objectos, complejo Loma Alta. In Arqueología de las Lomas en la cuence lacustre de Zacapu, Michoacán, México, edited by Arnauld, Charlotte, Carot, Patricia, and Fauvet-Berthelot, Marie-France, pp. 156–159. Centre d'Études Mexicaines et Centre-Américaines, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Carot, Patricia 2001 Le site de Loma Alta, Lac de Zacapu, Michoacán, Mexique. Paris Monographs in American Archaeology, BAR International Series 920. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, Chris, Pollard, Helen P., and Frederick, Charles 1999 Intensive Agriculture and Socio-Political Development in the Lake Patzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, Mexico. Antiquity 73:642–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flannery, Kent, and Marcus, Joyce 2005 Excavations at San Jose Mogote 1: The Household Archaeology. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology No. 40, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gimbutas, Marija 1989 The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult Images. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Gimbutas, Marija 1991 The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe. HarperCollins, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Gomez, Sergio 1998 Nuevos datos sobre la relación de Teotihuacán y el occidente de México. In Antropologia e historia del occidente de Mexico: XXIV Mesa Redonda de la Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologia, Vol. 3, edited by Brambila, R., pp. 1461–1494. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Gomez, Sergio 2002 Presencia del Occidente de México en Teotihuacán. Aproximaciones a la política exterior del estado Teotihuacano. In Ideología y política a través de materiales, imágenes y símbolos. Memoria de la Primera Mesa Redonda de Teotihuacán, edited by Gallut, Maria Elena Ruíz, pp. 563–625. Instituto de Investigaciones Antropologicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Gorenstein, Shirley, and Wilson, Lee Anne 1985 Figurines. In Acambaro: Frontier Settlement on the Tarascan–Aztec Border, edited by Gorenstein, Shirley, pp. 90–96. Publications in Anthropology No. 32. Vanderbilt University, Nashville.Google Scholar
Gorenstein, Shirley, David Chodoff, John Hyslop, Helen P. Pollard, Michael Snarskis, and Wilson, Lee Anne 1985 Acambaro: Frontier Settlement on the Tarascan–Aztec Border. Publications in Anthropology No. 32, Vanderbilt University, Nashville.Google Scholar
Grove, David 1987 Ancient Chalcatzingo. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Grove, David, and Gillespie, Susan 1991 Chalcatzingo's Portrait Figurines and the Cult of the Ruler. In The New World Figurine Project, Vol. 1, edited by Stocker, Terry, pp. 55–62. Research Press, Provo, UT.Google Scholar
Lesure, Richard 1999 Figurines as Representations and Products at Paso de la Amada, Mexico. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 9:209–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lubensky, Earl 1991 Valdiva Figurines. In The New World Figurine Project, Vol. 1, edited by Stocker, Terry, pp. 21–36. Research Press, Provo, UT.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1998 Women's Ritual in Formative Oaxaca: Figurine-making, Divination, Death and the Ancestors. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology No. 11, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meighan, Clement 1972 Archaeology of the Morett Site, Colima. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Meighan, Clement 1974 Prehistory of West Mexico. Science 184:1254–1261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mountjoy, Joseph 1991 The Analysis of Preclassic Figurines Excavated from the Site of La Pintada in the Central Coastal Plain of Jalisco, Mexico. In The New World Figurine Project, Vol. 1, edited by Stocker, Terry, pp. 85–98. Research Press, Provo, UT.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen 1993 Tariacuari's Legacy. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen 2000 Tarascans and Their Ancestors. In Greater Mesoamerica: The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mesoamerica, edited by Foster, Michael and Gorenstein, Shirley, pp. 59–70. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Pollard, Helen 2004 Michoacán en el mundo mesoamericano prehispánico: Erongaricuaro y los Estados teotihuacano y tarasco. In El antiguo occidente de México, edited by Williams, Eduardo, Weigand, Phil, Mestas, Lorenza López, and Grove, David, pp. 283–303. El Colegio de Michoacán, Michoacan.Google Scholar
Porter, Muriel Noe 1956 Excavations at Chupícuaro, Guanajuato, Mexico. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 46. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Porter, Muriel Noe 1969 A Reprisal of Chupicuaro. In The Natalie Wood Collection of Pre-Colombian Ceramics from Chupícuaro, Guanajuato, Mexico, edited by Frierman, Jay, pp. 81–92. University of California Press, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Relación de Michoacán 2000 [1541] Relación de Michoacán. Edited by Mendoza, Moises Franco. El Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora.Google Scholar
Stanislawski, Dan 1947 Tarascan Political Geography. American Anthropologist 49(1):46–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Talalay, Lauren 1993 Dieties, Dolls, and Devices: Neolithic Figurines from Franchtihi Cave, Greece. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Vaillant, George 1931 Excavations at Ticoman. Anthropological Papers Vol. 32, Pt. 2. American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Vaillant, George 1938 A Correlation of Archaeological and Historical Sequences in the Valley of Mexico. American Anthropologist 40:535–573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar