148 CASO, ALFONSO

position and Cultural Characteristics." In Heritage of Conquest, ed- One of the major debates of the time concerned the na- ited by Sol Tax, pp. 17-20. Glencoe, Ill., 1952. ture and causes of evolution in indigenous American, and BEATRIZ BRANIFF CORNEJO especially Mexican, cultures. On one side was the conser- vative view that significant changes in the Americas only took place through cultural diffusion from the older, CASO, ALFONSO (1896-1970), celebrated for his ex- more advanced civilizations of Egypt, China, India, or traordinary intellectual drive and powerful leadership other Old World peoples. The other side, backing inde- abilities in helping to found modern archaeological sci- pendent invention, argued that New World peoples were ence, as well as 'smost significant anthropological not only separated in space and time from Old World cul- institutions. The work of Alfonso Caso y Andrade intro- tural evolution but had also developed their own styles duced new methods in the study of pre-Hispanic Meso- of complex cultures without significant outside stimulus. american history, iconography, and ; it also Caso argued intensely for independent invention and, considered the nature and struggles of contemporary in- throughout his career, focused on understanding cultural digenous peoples. During his lifetime, Caso received evolutionary stages, developments, and influences. He of- many awards, honorary degrees, and expressions of ap- ten reiterated his position that Mesoamerican peoples de- preciation for his innovative methods and ideas.. veloped their own institutions, cultures, and civilizations. Caso was born into a family where ideas and critical With this evolutionary problem and others in mind, he thinking were encouraged. His father was an engineer founded in 1927 the journal Revista mexicana de estudios and his older brother Antonio was a distinguished philos- antropologicos, which became a creative outlet for many opher, whose ideas in post-Revolutionary Mexico had a researchers who began to devise studies and report on powerful impact on the national debates about the nature results about as a whole, as well as specifie and future of Mexican society. Alfonso married María .sites, problems, and meanings. Lombardo Toledano, with whom he had three children, Influenced by the work of his teachers Seler and Beatriz, Andres, and Eugenia. By the age of twenty-four, Gamio, and deeply concerned about understanding the Alfonso had received his law degree from the National symbols of pre-Hispanic Mexico, Caso set out to revise School of Jurisprudence of the Universidad Nacional de the understanding of indigenous iconography. He wrote México with highest honors, and he began to publish es- on Mexica sculpture ("El Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada," says and teach courses on epistemology, philosophy of 1927); on Zapotec stelae (Las estelas zapotecas, 1928); and law, and the arts. This systematic legal training would embarked on a thorough interpretation of the codices mark his aggressive archaeological and administrative ("Mapa de Teozacualco," 1949; "Mapa de Xochitepec," work throughout his life. 1958; "Vindobonensis," 1953, and others). Concerned, as While a young lawyer, Caso's interests met a tummg was Paul Kirchhoff, with developing a more inclusive point during a visit to the then-remote hilltop ceremonial overview of Mesoamerica, Caso carne to appreciate and center of in Mexico's state of Morelos. The insist on the importance of the region-as a ma- art and architecture of Xochicalco fascinated him and jor cultural area, beside the Maya and the Mexica-in the turned his mind to the archaeological study of pre-His- evolution of pre-Hispanic cultures. His work on Zapotee panic Mexico. While he continued to work in legal proj- stelae convinced him that Zapotec culture had undergone ects associated with Mexican banking and commercial in- powerful transformations, from both internal and exter- stitutions, he began a program of study at Mexico's nalsocial developments. His vision of Oaxaca as a major Museo Nacional. There, he took classes in pre-Hispanic cultural area was completely vindicated by subsequent history, ethnology, and archaeology with such influential studies. teachers as , Hermann Beyer, and Manuel Caso's reputation as a leading archaeologist expanded Gamio, with whom he often debated, posing alternative in 1931, with his excavation at Monte Albán in Oaxaca, interpretations. At the age of twenty-nine, he obtained a which led to the discovery of Tomb 7; there, an elite master's degree in philosophy (with a specialty in archae- burial yielded extremely fine ritual objects. For the next ology) from the Escuela de Altos Estudios, again with six years, Caso as chief archaeologist and his close col- highest honors; from that point, he dedicated himself to league Ignacio Bernal explored the monumental strue- the knowledge of pre-Hispanic cultures and contempo- tures in the Great Plaza of Monte Albán-the tombs, pal- rary indigenous peoples. His rigorous methods of inter- aces, and monuments with inscriptions and iconography. pretation were evident in his first essay on patolli and The archaeological team explored 180 tombs; careful other pre-Hispanic games, and it was clear to his col- analysis of tombs 7, 104, and 105, as well as the larger leagues and teachers that a powerful new professional ceremonial center of Monte Albán, led to worldwide voice had arrived. fame. There was a new appreciation of both Caso and CASTAS PAINTINGS 149 the royallineages of the wider Oaxaca cultures, including Caso believed that the Indian peoples of Mexico had un- those of the Zapotec and peoples. Caso soon be- dergone intense discrimination in the post-Colonial pe- carne the director of the Museo Nacional, and· he was riod and had been painfully marginalized from the bene- awarded his first honorary doctorate, honoris causa, from fits of modernizing Mexico. He was a member of the the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Comision Nacional de Libros de Texto Gratuito, and he In 1936, Caso published his La religión de los aztecas, worked to bring educational opportunities to indigenous which initiated a series of books and articles in which communities, including the printing and free distribution he attempted a new understanding of the philosophical of books and other educational material. foundations and patterns of Aztecthought. This book was His long-awaited "El tesoro de Monte Alban" was pub- followed,for the next thirty years, by important essays on lished in 1969, and it described with clarity and emotion numerous topics, including the correlation of the Chris- each one of the precious ritual objects and funerary ar- tian and Aztec calendars, the Toltec site of Tula, the Ta- chitecture that had caused a worldwide sensation thirty rascan calendar, the Olmec cultural complex, various years before. In 1970, just two weeks before his death, his Mesoamerican codices and other calendars, human sacri- magnum opus was published, entitled Reyes y reinos de la fice,paradise in the murals of Teotihuacan, Indian iden- Mixteca. These two volumes represent more than forty tity, and a widely popular book in Spanish and English, years of research into the Mixtec writing found in codi- People of the Sun. One of his most important contribu- ces, lienzos, and archives. In sum, Caso was a public in- tions was his series of articles and debates with others tellectual who dominated, sometimes unfairly, the Mexi- about the history and nature of the Mesoamerican tonal- can anthropological community between 1930 and 1960. pohualli, or "calendar"; he showed that its time depth Today's scholars consider his greatest contributions to reached at least as far back as Teotihuacan and, more have been his study of Zapotec tombs and writing; the significantly, that despite the variety of Mesoamerican interpretation of codices; the reconstruction of Mixtec dy- calendars, they all shared the same basic religious, math- nastic history; his understanding of Mexica religion and ematical, and aesthetic principles. iconography; and his work on the pre-Hispanic calendar. When Lazaro Cardénas became president of Mexico in Caso is periodically eulogized as the founder of Mexico's 1936, he recruited Caso to lead in the national efforts most significant archaeological institutions and its an- to stimulate economic growth and pride in the Mexican thropological sciences. As a symbol of his significance, peasantry, an appreciation for indigenous cultures and his remains were reburied, in 1974, in the Rotunda of Il- arts, and a florescence of Mexican nationalism. Caso be- lustrious Men in Mexico City. carne instrumental in the reorganization of institutions DAVÍDCARRASCO dedicated to the invigoration of the anthropological and LEÓNARDOLÓPEZLUJÁN sciences in Mexico and the creation of the Instituto Naci- onal de Antropología e Historia. Both the Instituto Nacio- nal and the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia CASTAS PAINTINGS. The pictorial genre known as were founded under Caso's directorship in 1939-1940. castas ("castes") is one of the most compelling artistic Casoserved as director until 1944. This experience stimu- manifestations from the Colonial periodo Most were cre- lated him to study and protect the living Indian arts and ated in eighteenth-century Mexico, although a few exam- communities of Mexico. Demands for his leadership, ples also survive from the Viceroyalty of Peru. These stimulated by his achievements and fame, resulted in his works depict the complex process of race mixing (mes- directorship of Ensenanza Superior e Investiagacion tizaje) among the three major groups in New Spain- Cientifica de la Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP) Indian, Spanish, and African. Most castas paintings com- in 1944. Almost immediately, he became the provisional prise sixteen scenes on separate canvases or copper of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México plates, although occasionally the scenes are on a single, for six months, stepping down in March of 1945; he then compartmentalized surface. Each scene portrays aman became secretary of Bienes Nacionales e Inspeccion Ad- and a woman, with one or two of their progeny, accom- ministrativa that December. During the next four years, panied by an inscription that identifies the race or racial he received one award after another, including recogni- mix depicted. tion in France, Great Britain, Ireland, and Mexico. In Castas paintings were created for the Spanish and the 1949, he founded the Instituto Nacional Indigenista, criollos (Spaniards born in the Americas). Early examples which he directed until his death, although he dedicated, were commissioned as gifts to the king of Spain, and in the words of Ignacio Bernal, "at least one day a week," other sets were sent by viceroys to the Real Gabinete de to archaeology. The study and support of indigenous life Historia Natural (Royal Natural History Collection), and cultures absorbed the last two decades of his life. founded in Madrid in 1771. The Spanish archbishop THE OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA

OF MESOAMERICAN CULTURES

THE CIVILlZATIONS OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA

DAVÍ D CARRASCa Editor in Chief

VOLUME 1

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2001