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The Stone Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico: Description and Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Eduardo Williams
Eduardo Williams
Affiliation:
Centro de Estudios Antropológicos, El Colegio de Michoacán, Martinez de Navarrete 505, 59690 Zamora, Michoacán, México
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Abstract

Iconographic analysis of the Prehispanic stone sculpture of West Mexico (Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit, and Michoacan) has revealed several iconographic themes, which are interpreted using ethnographic analogy with the Huichol Indians and other groups, as well as ethnohistorical information from West Mexico, central Mexico, and other areas. A total of seven iconographic themes have been identified: (1) human heads, (2) human skulls, (3) double figures, (4) anthropozoomorphic figures, (5) anthropomorphic braziers, (6) horned figures, and (7) hunchbacked figures. One shared meaning that appears in one form or another in most themes is fertility. It is proposed that these sculptures were sacred objects whose possible function was to symbolize the deified ancestors or deities that were ultimately responsible for rain and agricultural fertility.

Type
Articles
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , Fall 1991 , pp. 181 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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