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Li Yu Professor Foias ANTH 281: Seeds of Divinity January 15th, 2018

Communicating with the Deceased: The Meaning and Function of the Standing Dog figure, Standing Male Figure Holding Ball, and Model of House Scene

Introduction

The Standing Dog, Standing Male Figure Holding Ball, and Model of House Scene are three among many objects featured in The Seeds of Divinity, an exhibit opening at the Williams

College Museum of Art on January 1, 2018. While the exhibition covers five Mesoamerican civilizations – Maya, Teotihuacán, West Mexico, Zapotec, and Aztec – these three mortuary objects all come from West Mexico.

In this essay, I want to explore the way that these specific objects embodied the common ideologies shared among the five Mesoamerican civilizations mentioned above, as well as those specific to West Mexico cultures. First, I will give a general overview of the sociopolitical situation, geographic location, and religion (which is informed by ethnographic research of the

Huichol Indians) of the ancient West Mexico civilizations, such as the shaft tomb culture (from which our three objects came). Then I will discuss the physical description and style of the three objects. Finally, I will examine the context, meaning and function of the objects.

Overview of Ancient West Mexico Civilizations

The ancient West Mexico civilizations, also commonly known as the “shaft tomb cultures” span the modern states Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacán. It is the term that refers to the prehispanic cultures that lived in these areas. They reached their apogee from 300

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BC through 400 AD. West Mexico is a rich area containing a variety of ecological zones, with multiple lakes, fertile soil, and rainfall supporting agriculture. These civilizations practiced agriculture, growing crops in zones called chinampas – small artificially elevated farm plots – and terraces. The area is also abundant in natural resources such as obsidian, jade, some metals and shell along the coasts. The acquisition and trade of obsidian and the production of shell and salt formed the economic basis of the core zone’s political structure (Weigand & Beekman 1998,

45). Temples, pyramids, ballcourts, and houses were arranged in circular complexes, with a circular pyramid at the center and with shaft tombs – where elites buried their dead – underneath temple or house complexes, so that the dead were housed in close proximity with the living.

Burials were also found in cemeteries outside sites (ibid).

The Teuchitlan tradition (the archaeological designation of one culture within the shaft tomb cultures) develops in the Arenal Period, or Late Formative from 300 BC– 200 AD (ibid,

46). The transition from Late Formative period to the first section of the Classic Period, the

Ahualulco phase (200–400 AD), was a “time of intensification in development and an apparent demographic implosion” that concentrated populations in temple sites. From the end of the

Ahualulco phase into the Tenochtitlan I phase, monumental surface architecture became the main architectural medium to represent prestige and sociopolitical power, instead of shaft tombs, indicating the receding emphasis on ancestor worship and rise of stratified official positions.

During the second half of the Classic Period, the Teuchitlan I phase (400–700 AD), shaft tombs were still built but without the same embellishment as previous constructions. The figures found within shaft tombs also became less portrait-esque, and instead emphasized the status, or position, of the figure through various accoutrements (ibid, 45). By Teuchitlan II (700–900 AD), however, the civilization began disintegrating, with populations moving out to return only in the

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Late Postclassic and Colonial periods (ibid, 49). The Standing Male Figure Holding Ball,

Standing Dog, and Model of House Scene, all date from 300 BC to 400 AD and thus span the

Arenal and Ahualulco periods.

There are conflicting theories whether West Mexico civilizations reached the organizational level of the state. Townsend writes: “Without colossal pyramids or monumental stone stelae proclaiming the deeds of powerful rulers, without sculptures and artifacts displaying the intricate symbols and paraphernalia of gods and reflecting the spectacular pageantry of public rituals, the artists of western Mexico instead portrayed their world by means of earthenware figures that were made to accompany the dead” (Townsend 1998, 8). He suggests that the objects produced by this culture are different from those produced by civilizations with greater political and social stratification. His perspective is challenged by others like Weigand and Beekman, who claim that Teuchitlan and similar sites were “truly large complexes” (1998, 35) and that there is “sufficient evidence for proposing a state level of political and social organization in the core zone[:]…a segmentary state [that] may be defined as a system that has a fairly compact core and an extensive hinterland wherein the presence of the core is marked by ceremonialism and ritual hegemony rather than by political force” (ibid, 47–48).

Like other Mesoamerican cultures, ancient West Mexicans believed there was a world center, the axis mundi, that connected the earth to the heavens and underworld. This is reflected in the circular compounds found in West Mexico, at the center of which a temple presided. Shaft tombs could be found under these compounds. Weigand and Beekman suggest that the circular compounds may have been “focal points for the cult of a [specific] deity” (ibid, 45). West

Mexico civilizations also practiced ancestor worship, as indicated by the proximity of shaft

Yu 4 of 28 tombs to the habitations of the living, the investment in the construction of shaft tombs and all the goods buried within them.

Shaft tombs

In West Mexico, tombs often appear in circular clusters underneath habitation sites, with entrances to the shaft tombs found on the surface of the building (Pickering & Cabrero 1998, 77).

In the construction of a shaft tomb, a circular or square shaft was dug into the ground anywhere between ten to sixty feet deep, into the hardpan layer. One to four chambers at the bottom of the shaft were hollowed out to house bodies and mortuary items (Pickering & Smallwood-Roberts

2016, 18).

According to Lopez and Ramos, shaft tombs were the “archetype of the underworld, where people were placed in order to be later transformed.” They connect tombs with caves, which were considered throughout Mesoamerica to be entrances into the sacred Underworld dimension that allowed for communication with the supernatural (1998, 65).

All three objects, Standing Male Figure Holding Ball, Standing Dog, and Model of House

Scene, would have been extracted from shaft tombs, because tombs or burials are the only contexts which would have preserved objects whole or unbroken. Thus, the three pieces have a mortuary context. Figures similar to the ball player were found in the shaft tomb at Huitzilapa, placed around a deceased body of the same gender (ibid, 67). It is important to note, again, that only elites were able to bury their dead within monumental and sub-monumental shaft tombs, so the figures and scenes found are not representative of the experiences of all members of society.

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Religion

Since so little is known about the religious practices of the ancient West Mexico civilizations, it might be handy to turn towards the modern Huichol, who inhabit the modern

Mexican states of Durango, Jalisco, Nayarit, and Zacatecas. According to Myerhoff, the Huichol use kinship terms to refer to groups of deities within the Huichol pantheon (1974, 66). In addition, De Orellana writes that “the religious life of the Huicholes is based on ancestor worship. These original human beings are identified with natural forces and elements, because they created them through their own sacrifices and vision quests” (2005, 13).

Description of Objects Standing Dog

Figure 1 Standing Dog, from the State of Colima, Mexico, Late Preclassic and Early Classic, 300 BC–400 AD. Red terracotta, 12 x 11 x 9 ½ in. Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, Gift of Mrs. Charles Prendergast, 90.11.3.

Head

Most of the Standing Dog figure’s detail seems to be concentrated on the animal’s torso and head. The ears – as well as the tail, and limbs of the animal – are distinct and protrude from the body of the figure. The ears protrude from the back of the head, pointing upwards and

Yu 6 of 28 curving inwards to represent the hollowness of the ear. The head of the dog is seamlessly connected to the animal’s torso by a thick, tubular neck.

Smaller features on the dog’s head, such as the eyes, are flat and indicated by incised lines. The irises of the eyes, however, are not carved. The nose and snout of the dog stick out of its head. The mouth of the dog is open, displaying the fangs of the animal. The dog’s teeth are three dimensional and block-shaped. They are independent at the bottom but come together at the top to form a row of teeth. With the exception of the fangs, connecting the lower and upper jaw, all of the teeth are square and dull. The nostrils of the dog are depicted with two depressions on the nose, which protrude from the front of the snout.

Figure 2 Dog effigy, from Colima, West Mexico, ca. 300 AD. Slip-decorated earthenware, 31.8 cm long. Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit, Wisconsin, 6618. This dog effigy has a spout where its tail should be, making it a vessel capable of holding food or drink. Overall, it is very similar to the WCMA dog effigy.

Surface

The Standing Dog is made from very smooth and hollow terracotta. Colima dog figures are sometimes depicted with spouts that indicate their function as a vessel, as in Figure 2, but there is no spout on the Dog effigy to indicate it might have been a vessel. The body of the dog is extremely smooth and has a matte shine on the surface due to polishing. Neither the dog’s fur nor the folds of its skin are depicted in the figure. Its head and feet are a burnt sienna color, of which the color is very even, while the body is covered in black mottled spots, the unintentional result

Yu 7 of 28 of being buried in the shaft tomb: “centuries-long ‘bleeding’ of manganese dioxide (found in the soil there) onto the ceramic body” produce a change in color on the surface of the terracotta

(Evans 1995, 30). We can assume that the original figure was all one color, in the Colima style that Evans describes as having a “reddish-orange surface color, its use of only one slip color, and its highly polished, hard surface” (ibid, 30).

Body

The depiction of the Standing Dog’s integrated muscle and bone structure is selectively concentrated in the torso. We see the different muscle groups highlighted in the round stomach, which is distinct from the flat back; the shoulder, which connects to the front legs; and similarly, the hindquarters, which are connected to the back leg. The dog’s spine is indicated by a slight, linear dip at the center of its back, which is then integrated into the protruding tail. The genitalia of the dog are indicated by a smooth bump underneath its tail. It is important to note that the torso of the dog depicted is also quite fat, especially in the stomach, which is the figure’s widest point. I will elaborate on this point further when I describe the object’s function and meaning.

The dog stands on its four sturdy legs, which independently protrude from the bottom of the torso. Unlike the torso, each limb is tubular and smooth, leaving the muscle and bone structure of the leg undefined. The front feet of the dog protrude a little from the bottom of the legs, while the hind feet are integrated into the legs. The toes are shallowly incised on the surface of the terracotta; the feet are otherwise round and completely smooth. The bottoms of all feet are flat and without detail, indicating that the object was meant to stand on all four feet. The musculature, upright tail and ears, and the open mouth charge the figure with energy as if the dog stands ready to jump up and bark after its owner.

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Standing Male Figure Holding Ball

Figure 3 Standing Male Figure Holding Ball, from the State of Nayarit, Mexico, dated listed as 200 BC–300 AD but most likely 300 BC– 400 AD. Ceramic, 20 1/2 x 10 1/4 x 5 in. Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, On temporary loan from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eliot Robinson, TL.98.13.1. The Standing male figure holding ball is a ceramic figure from Nayarit that depicts a ballplayer. It belongs to the Ixtlan del Rio style of figures.

Head

The head and face of the figure contain the greatest degree of detail. They are also the largest and most three-dimensional body parts on the figure, relative to the flattened torso. The figure’s jaw is round and emphasized. The figure’s eyes, including the pupils, have been incised onto the surface of its face. The figure’s nose is pointy and high, protruding from the face. His mouth is small, indicated by a depression directly underneath the nose. The edges around the depression stick out to represent lips, but no teeth are depicted. The figure has large c-shaped

Yu 9 of 28 ears that stick out from the middle of each side of his head. The tubular appearance of the top of the head suggests that this figure has undergone cranial deformation, which was practiced by

West Mexico civilizations to indicate elite status (Pickering & Cabrero 1998, 74).

The cranial and facial jewelry of the figure contains several indicators of status. On top of his head, the figure is adorned with a headband with a circular ornament in the middle of it.

Above this headband, the figure wears a conical animal cap complete with two animal feet that fall to the side of the headband. A stripe around his neck that is more orange in color than the surrounding surface of the figure suggests that the figure may have once been accoutered with a painted necklace. The ears are ornamented with five rings around a circular gauge. His nostrils point out away from his face, and we can see that he has one large septum ring.

Surface

The figure is ceramic, and its surface is bumpy and porous. The figure is a light orange and brown color. There are a few black speckles on the surface that may be caused by the reaction of manganese dioxide in the soil (Evans 1995, 30). Both the orange stripe on its neck and comparison with similar male effigies suggest that the figure may have had clothing and jewelry painted onto its body.

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Body

Figure 4 Figure Holding Ball, from Nayarit, West Mexico, 200 BC–400 AD. Ceramic, pigment, 13 x 8 ¾ in.. The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota, The John R. Van Derlip Fund, 47.2.34. Although seated, this effigy of a ball player is similar to the one in WCMA.

The Standing Male Figure Holding Ball has a body that is, in proportion to its head, relatively undersized. His torso is boxy and flattened from profile view. His legs are very wide and stocky. He has a completely flat buttocks, very broad shoulders, a rather thick neck, and an oversized head. The figure’s feet are depicted with four toes and are disproportionately oversized. They are curved at the bottom and extend in the back of the foot as well as front of the foot, suggesting that the figure may have been placed on top of a rounded surface. The figure is frontally oriented, containing much more detail and three dimensionality on its front than on the back. This suggests that the figure may have been placed with its back against something that obscured it from view, or was accoutered in something that covered its back. Moreover, the

Yu 11 of 28 components of his body have a planar relation to each other – his arms are directly to the side of his torso, so that with the exception of his protruding face, the figure’s body is quite flat. The figure’s limbs are tubular and soft. The figure’s legs and arms are represented as one cohesive unit, without joints where the elbow or shoulder should be. The legs are entirely in one piece, and his left arm is curled around the ball. The figure’s arm holding the ball is curled around the ball rather than bent at joints. The arms are, therefore, unrealistically short, while the legs are disproportionately stocky.

Some components of the figure are unrealistic. For example, on his right hand there are three fingers, but on his left hand holding the ball, there are four. Considering the detail with which his jewelry has been rendered, it seems unlikely that the creator of this figure forgot about a finger. The figure has angular shoulders that suggest he might have had a garment painted on his torso.

The ball player is also adorned with several articles that indicate his high status. The figure appears naked, but it is not so. What first looks like a strange flatness of the rear reveals itself to be a garment, and the strange triangular shape that appears to be a penis is actually a knotted loincloth typically worn by ball players. At one point, paint might have better articulated his garments to us. By his clothing, we can assume he is a ball player of some sort, and possibly a funerary object as well, as the ballgame had ritual associations with human sacrifice and thus death.

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Model of House Scene

Figure 5 Model of House Scene, from the State of Nayarit, Mexico, listed as 1000–1500, but most likely 300 BC–400 AD. Terracotta, 10 1/16 x 6 11/16 x 6 5/16 in Worcester Museum of Art, Worcester, Massachusetts, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Aldus C. Higgins, 1947.21. The Nayarit Model of house scene is an interesting departure from the previous two items, as it depicts a scene of interaction with multiple people.

House

Model of House Scene depicts a Nayarit house with a thatch roof covered with adobe and paint. There are faint markings on the roof that von Winning and Hammer (1972) call “god’s eye” motif. The model falls within Von Winning and Hammer’s Type IV, having two stories, stairs on either side that lead to a main room with three walls and a roof (ibid, 17). The main floor is elevated on a platform, with stairs that lead from the bottom to the level of the house.

The bottom level is made visible through an opening in the staircase.

Figures

This work is an interesting departure from the previous two items, as it depicts a scene of interaction with multiple people. The upper floor of the house is populated with four figures. One figure sits underneath the roof, while the other three sit outside on what seems to be a porch. The figures are relatively undetailed in comparison to the much larger Standing Dog and Standing

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Male Figure Holding Ball. Only the nose and ears of the figures are depicted, while the figures’ eyes, hands, and feet are not. The surface of the figures is weathered so that it is not possible to make out the specific items of clothing worn by each figure, but the figures are clothed. The middle exterior figure facing inside has a horizontal line incised on his back that suggests he is wearing pants. The gender of the other individual figures is indeterminable due to their current condition. Von Winning and Hammer (1972) write that small groups with a few individuals typically depicted families, so likely there are both male and female figures. This is confirmed by

Butterwick, who observed in house models where the figures were in better condition that male and female genders are unambiguously depicted. Males are indicated by a belted loincloth, or short pants with flaps. Females are identified by breasts or knee length skirts. They are equally prominent in ritual scenes and scenes of feasting (Butterwick 1998, 93).

Even with the loss of visual information, the figures’ posture and the two plates of food indicate that we are looking at an eating or feasting scene. The exterior figure in the middle holds its hands to its face, as if holding food. The rightmost figure faces towards the figure within the house, who returns his gaze, suggesting a conversation. There is a plate with cylindrical objects sitting on top of it, which Von Winning and Hammer suggest may be “corn cakes or cobs, and perhaps fruit” (1972). Next to it is another bowl, as well. The upper floor may, therefore, depict a domestic, every day scene between members of a family. Alternatively, it may depict a special meal held in celebration of the dead (Butterwick 1998). The presence of a deceased ancestor on the lower floor supports the latter hypothesis.

It is not as explicit what is occurring on the lower floor. The lower floor also contains two figures – one is lying down, and the other sits and cradles its head. This area inside the first floor chamber is very dark, and the figures are only partially illuminated. Although we know that the

Yu 14 of 28 figure lying down represents a deceased ancestor, there are no attributes on the figure that allow us to discern the dead figure from the living. The seated figure has its arms around the head of the deceased figure and holds an object that may be a vessel in its hand. Unlike the upper floor, which is accessible by stairs, the house model does not depict how the figures may have accessed the lower floor. In addition, archaeological houses from West Mexico never have two floors.

Thus, the lower flower depicted in this object may represent the tombs underneath the residential houses.

Style of the Three Objects

The earthenware objects extracted from shaft tombs fall into a number of styles named after the site or geographical area where they abound. Some of the prominent styles from West

Mexico include the Zacatecas style from Jalisco, characterized by the two horns found on male figures; the Ameca style from Jalisco; and the Ixtlan del Rio style of Nayarit figures (Pickering

& Smallwood-Roberts 2016, 11–15).

Standing Dog

The Standing Dog possesses a “reddish-orange surface color” and “highly polished, hard surface,” which place it within the Colima style, named after the state of Colima (Evans 1995,

30).

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Model of House Scene

Figure 8 House Model with Ritual Feast, from Ixtlán del Rio, Nayarit, West Mexico, 100 BC/300 AD. Ceramic and pigment, 12 x 10 x 8 in.. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Gift of Ethel and Julian R. Goldsmith, 1991.479. On House Model with Ritual Feast, we can see the god’s eye pattern painted on the roof. Unlike the Model of House Scene, House Model with Ritual Feast has a double roof and no lower chamber for the dead. According to Pickering and Cabrero, the armbands on the figures suggest that the depicted figures all belong to a certain group. Through the figures’ posture, Pickering and Cabrero determine they are partaking in a cheek-piercing rite (Pickering & Cabrero 1998, 95).

Styles of model houses are not as extensively studied as the figures. Most come from

Ixtlan del Rio, so naturally ours falls into the Ixtlan del Rio style. House Model with Ritual Feast depicted in Figure 8 is recorded as being from Ixtlan del Rio, Nayarit, West Mexico, Mexico.

According to Townsend, the house models were all found within proximity to Ixtlan del Rio

(Townsend 1998, 8).

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Figure 6 (left) Standing Male Figure, from Ixtlán del Rio, Nayarit, West Mexico, 200 BC–500 AD. Slip-painted ceramic with postfire applied paint, 24 1/2 × 11 7/16 × 7 7/8 in. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, The Proctor Stafford Collection, purchased with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Allan C. Balch, M.86.296.16. Like Nayarit Standing Male Figure Holding Ball, he maintains a similar pose with his right hand up holding up what looks to be a musical instrument.

Figure 7 (right) Standing Female Figure, from Ixtlán del Rio, Nayarit, West Mexico, Late Formative, 100 BC–300 AD. Earthenware, pigment, 21.1 × 14.0 × 9.1 cm. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, Presented anonymously, 1980, PC107-1980.

Standing Male Figure Holding Ball

Within Nayarit styles, there exist the previously mentioned Ixtlan del Rio, the Chinesco style, and San Sebastian Red style. In the Ixtlan del Rio style, male figures are often depicted as wearing a scoop loincloth, like the Standing Male Figure Holding Ball and Figure 6 and female figures depicted as wearing a loincloth that resembles a sarong like in Figure 7 (Pack 2006, 18).

Multiple adornments, such as the ear and nose rings on Standing Male Figure Holding Ball and

Figure 6, are also characteristic of the Ixtlan del Rio style (ibid, 21). This style also clearly differs from the Chinesco and San Sebastian Red styles, both of which possess a highly polished surface, particularly the latter. Other figures that have been attributed to the Ixtlan del Rio style, such as Figure 6, are visually similar to the Standing Male Figure holding ball; it is safe to say that the WCMA figure belongs to the Ixtlan del Rio style, as well.

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Within the Ixtlan del Rio style, Pack notes that there are both “naturalistic” and “abstract” figures (ibid, 17). Both Standing Male Figure Holding Ball and Figure 7 possess pointed heads, cylindrical legs, and a flatness that would place them both in the latter category, although they are naturalistic enough to be identifiable as human males.

Context, Function, and Meaning of Objects

Figure 9 House Group, from Nayarit, Mexio, 200 BC–500 AD. Slip-painted ceramic, 12 x 10 x 8 in. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, The Proctor Stafford Collection, purchased with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Allan C. Balch, M.86.296.30. Birds on top of the building represented the spirits of the recently passed. Their presence indicates that that this is a mortuary scene.

Model of House Scene Feasting is an important ritual and practice found in West Mexican cultures that provides a useful context for understanding the purpose of WAM’s Model of House Scene. According to

Butterwick (1998), feasts served the purpose of maintaining political alliances between West

Mexican leaders and building personal loyalties. Pottery that commemorated a specific feast was given as gifts to allies, and such public displays of wealth conferred status to the owner

(Butterwick 1998, 110). Therefore, it is likely that the figures represented in the house models represent real people, rather than more general situations.

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There are different types of feasts, one of which is the mortuary feast. Butterwick describes a Huichol mortuary rite, the events of which resemble the scene depicted in the Model of House Scene: “In the grave, the recently dead receive ‘a gift of water in a hollow reed and five tortillas.’ After five days, the family holds a feast presenting all the favorite foods of the deceased. The spirit eats, and then turns into a small bird and flies away. The purpose of the

Huichol funerary rituals is to help the soul of the dead find its place with the ancestors.” She also describes a Tarahumaran feast that involved offering trevino, an intoxicating beverage, to the dead (ibid, 102).

The Model of House Scene depicts this ritual by visually representing deceased ancestors in the shaft tomb in the lower floor of the model, and the domestic dwelling of the living descendants in the upper floor. Pickering and Cabrero note that “many of these models have stairs leading down from the house to a cavelike chamber below––an arrangement that may represent the house above and the house below, and thus reflect the bond between the living family and their entombed ancestors” (1998, 77). Like Pickering and Cabrero, Butterwick believes that the basement or lower chamber depicted in Nayarit house models represents the shaft tomb or sacred underground cave housing the bodies of ancestors (1998, 93).

The presence of birds and dogs in other Nayarit house models depicting similar scenarios also indicate that the gathering shown is a mortuary feast. According to Butterwick, dogs and birds are the only two animals that are represented in the Nayarit house models. Dogs were thought to lead the spirits of the deceased into the underworld. Butterwick suggests that the birds, like the one depicted in Figure 9, may represent spirits of the newly dead who have not yet descended to the underworld (see also Furst 1995 who also discusses how the yolia souls of the

Yu 19 of 28 recently dead were seen as birds by Precolumbian people, Fig. 10). Therefore, it is quite likely that the house scenes that include these two animals typically depict mortuary feasts (ibid, 98).

Figure 10 The yolia as bird. A drawing of a tree with birds, representing the axis mundi and the unborn souls of progeny while the ancestors or living villagers sit underneath. Nayarit, 100 BC– 200 AD (Furst 1995, 28).

Birds appear in Huichol myth, as well as in the ideologies of other Precolumbian

Mesoamerican civilizations. According to Myerhoff, in the Drum and Calabash ceremony, the mara-akame transforms his children into a flock of birds and leads them to the land of peyote

(1974, 115). Birds are also discussed in The Natural History of the Soul in Ancient Mexico, in which Furst notes that birds are common symbols for death. She describes the prehispanic clay trees, like the one illustrated in Figure 10, from Nayarit that have been identified as the axis mundi. These trees are depicted with small birds on the branches that represent the souls of children waiting to enter the family (Furst 1995, 28). The concept of the yolia, or heart-soul, which was conceived as a bird that flies off at death, is also relevant.

Butterwick’s survey of forty-five architectural models reveal that half have lower chambers which were empty or had only dogs, which were thought to lead the spirit into the

Yu 20 of 28 underworld. Birds that perch at the top of these models like the one in Figure 9 represent the

“newly dead, who have not yet ascended to the underworld” (Butterwick 1998, 98). Ancient

West Mexicans may have depicted the dog and birds to ensure the safety and rebirth of family members (Evans 1995, 31). This idea is reiterated by the painted “god’s eye” pattern on the roofs of the house models, which, according to the Cora who formerly lived where the house models were found, “prevents the return of the souls of the dead on paths that are undesirable” and thus might have “served as a magical symbol to protect the dwelling and their occupants from harm”

(Von Winning & Hammer 1972, 17). Other models depict humans in the lower chamber. As

Butterwick describes, “some of the human figurines who also occupy the lower chambers of these models are slumped over, seemingly dead…Their “companions” attend to them, with dishes of food nearby…they send a message that the dead needs food and drink in the afterlife”

(1998, 98). While the WAM Model of House Scene does not depict any dogs or birds, we do find in the lower floor one figure lying down and the other holding his or her head in their lap.

Meanwhile, a mortuary feast for the living takes places in the upper floor, so that the dead are visually represented as feasting with the living. This concept of the living and dead ancestors feasting together recurs in other house models as well, such as in Figure 11 below.

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Figure 11 Large two-tiered house model with fifteen inhabitants, from Nayarit, West Mexico, 200 BC–300 AD. Painted red ceramic. Library of Congress, Washington D.C., Jay I. Kislak Collection Rare Book and Special Collections Division, 22. This house model depicts the upper floor inhabitants participating in a feast with musicians. The lower floor depicts a male figure lying down in the lap of a female figure. Three birds perch on the ledges of the second tier.

Although the house models, which are sometimes called architectural models, give anthropologists insight into the rituals and life of the ancient West Mexico civilizations, they were not made with the intention of doing so. As a mortuary object, then, the Model of House

Scene served to confer status and lineage onto both the living relatives and dead ancestor depicted in the model.

Standing Male Figure Holding Ball

Figure 12 A Pair of Nayarit Standing Figures. Fernandez Leventhal Gallery, New York, NY. This pair of Nayarit figures assumes the same pose as Standing male figure holding ball and Figure 6.

Some of the Nayarit ceramic figures came in sets of two. According to Pack (2006), figures with similar poses to the Nayarit Standing Male Figure Holding Ball were often one half of a pair of male and female figures (Figure 12). Together, the two represented the act of marriage; moreover, the male figure in these pairs will often hold a ball, referring to the ballgame, which has ritual aspects (ibid, 24). However, none of these male figures were ever

Yu 22 of 28 shown as a ball player. Figure 14 is a photograph of a ball player that was found in the north chamber of the shaft tomb at Huitzilapa (Lopez & Ramos 1998, 68). The figure was found beside the skeleton of a chieftain (ibid). Additionally, similar figures have been found placed next to bodies of the same gender (Pickering & Cabrero 1998, 86).

The ball game was played throughout Mesoamerica for a variety of reasons. Miller

(1989) writes that ball courts were often juxtaposed with other ceremonial architecture at the centers of towns or cities. The ball court was also a common fixture within ancient west Mexican circular complexes (Pickering 1998, 24). Shaft tombs from 300 BC and onwards contained offerings of clay scenes of ball games, such as the one depicted in Figure 13, as well as individual figures of ball players, just like the WAM Standing Male Figure Holding Ball (Miller

1989, 25). The ball was understood to represent the movements of the sun, moon, or Venus (ibid,

25). The Mayan story of creation in the Popol Vuh also links the ballgame with death, the afterlife and resurrection: the Hero Twins win in a ballgame against the Gods of the Underworld and sacrifice them; they then resurrect their father Hun Hunahpu and ascend to become Venus and the Sun (Bošković 1989, 205). Thus, Standing Male Figure Holding Ball, as well as pronouncing the status of the person it represented, symbolizes the “regeneration” of the dead into the afterlife.

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Figure 13 Model of ballgame with spectators, from Nayarit, West Mexico, 100 BC–250 AD. Ceramic with pigment, 17 3/4 x 10 1/4 in. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. 1903, Fund, 1973.88.26.

According to Lopez and Ramos, the ballgame was “a competitive means of resolving conflicts within or between groups; as a place where creation myths were enacted and the idea of regeneration was expressed; and as entertainment and an activity involved with gambling”

(1998, 67).

Figure 14 Photograph of the north chamber of the shaft tomb at Huitzilapa. (Lopez & Ramos 1998, 68).

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Figures like the Standing Male Figure Holding Ball were sometimes part of a set of figurines that accompanied one individual. Each figure in the set represented an important event from the depicted person’s life. The similarity in form between the figures in one set suggests that they were made close to the time of death (Pickering & Cabrero 1998, 86). These figures often represented important events such as rites of passage and initiations, including the ball game, and, therefore, were testimonials to the life of the interred (Townsend 1990). They would communicate to ancestral spirits the various rites of passage and rituals performed by those who would soon join them (Townsend 1998, 135). Their function as mortuary objects was to carry the living status of the deceased with them into the afterlife.

Colima Dog Figure

Figure 15: Dog. Accession no. 66.122. Museum of Art and Archaeology at University of Missouri.

The dog figure, according to Von Winning and Hammer has been found in at least 75% and perhaps as many as 90% of shaft tombs. The animal is depicted in numerous variations: spout tailed, holding an ear of corn, curled up, seated, standing, wearing a human face, and so on, indicating that some of the effigies had a functional role (Pack 2006, 71). The dog in Western

Mexico was considered both a delicacy, which accounts for the fatness of the dog, and believed to lead the spirit to the underworld.

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There are multiple interpretations of the dog figures, as well. Pack (2006) writes, one possibility is that the dogs were a food source for the dead as they ventured into the underworld.

This explanation seems to agree with the figures that have been depicted with spouts; perhaps they were used to hold food and drink meant for the dead on their trip. The ones that wear a human face may be connected to the god of death, Xolotl, among the Aztecs (ibid, 84).

According to Miller (1986), the dogs wearing human masks were used as headrests, literally carrying their masters to the afterlife. Thus, their function was connected to their meaning (ibid,

66). In this way, the ceramic figure becomes the embodiment of the deity, who leads the spirit of the deceased.

The Colima Standing Dog featured in the WCMA exhibition very closely resembles the dog figure in Figure 15. It does not have a spouted tail, has nothing in its mouth, does not wear a mask, and stands on all four legs. The existence of multiple variations of the dog might suggest

“the particular posture of the animal is not significant to its interpretation” (Pack 2006, 71). It is likely, based on its depiction in house models, that Standing Dog was a mortuary object that was thought to help guide the dead to the underworld.

Conclusion

The Model of House Scene, Standing Male Figure Holding Ball, and Standing Dog were all mortuary objects that played a role in mediating the passage or reception of the deceased into the underworld.

The Model of House Scene communicates the importance of ancestor worship as well as the proximity (physical and spiritual) between living and dead to the ancient West Mexican

Yu 26 of 28 civilization, by depicting a mortuary feast in which the living family is shown in the house on the upper floor and the deceased is being attended to in the shaft tomb on the bottom floor—an intimate scene between living and dead. The living family members feast on corn, while the deceased feast alongside them on the lower floor, given food and drink by a nearby attendant.

Buried with the deceased, the Model of House Scene functioned as a testimony to the lineage of the family depicted, the connection between the living and dead as represented by the scene on the lower floor, and the safe travel into the underworld of the recently deceased, as suggested by the dogs and birds depicted in similar effigies.

Standing Male Figure Holding Ball was likely one in a set of figures corresponding to a single deceased individual, depicting various stages of his life. With a ball in hand and wearing the appropriate attire, the ceramic figure represented a player in the Mesoamerican ballgame—a ritual which was associated with death and regeneration. Made around the time of death of the man it was buried with, the figure represents his status achieved in his life by depicting an important ritual event from his life, and through the jewelry adorning the figure.

Standing Dog is a hollow ceramic figure of a dog and is similar to many other dog figures from West Mexico, which come in various forms, some dogs sitting, others with spouts on their bodies that indicate their function as vessels for food or drink. The dog was an animal with multiple significances: it was consumed as a delicacy, often sacrificed in ritual, was a form taken by some deities, and was a guide for the deceased on the journey to the underworld. The

Standing Dog figure was buried with the dead and embodies the dead’s guide in the journey to the underworld.

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