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EFFIGY VESSELS, RELIGIOUS INTEGRATION, AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CENTRAL MEXICAN PANTHEON

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2007

David M. Carballo
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Abstract

Investigations into the evolution of early religious institutions should emphasize how the ritual manipulation of symbolically charged objects generated shared understandings regarding divine entities among religious communities of practice. This study demonstrates that the origins of two distinctively central Mexican deities—the Old God of Fire and the Storm God—can best be understood through contextual analysis of effigy vessels depicting them during later Formative periods (ca. 600 b.c.–a.d. 100). By presenting new examples of such effigy vessels and assembling contemporary counterparts from other central Mexican sites, we can better appreciate the Formative religious integration of the region and its legacy for the religious systems of later societies. Specifically, the primacy of the Old God of Fire and the Storm God to Aztec dedicatory offerings, and the private/domestic associations of the former and public/monumental associations of the latter at Teotihuacan were elaborations on patterns apparent in Formative ritual practices.

Resumen

Los orígenes del Dios Viejo y del Dios de la Tormenta del centro de México (el Huehuetéotl y el Tláloc de los aztecas) tienen sus raíces en prácticas rituales de los periodos formativo medio a formativo terminal (ca. 600 a.C–100 d.C.). Este artículo reporta el descubrimiento de dos clases de vasijas efigie en contextos domésticos de La Laguna, Tlaxcala, centro ceremonial de tamaño medio, cuya ocupación data precisamente de estos periodos. Se consignan varios ejemplos de vasijas-efigie contemporáneas para demostrar que las prácticas rituales relacionadas con estos dioses jugaron un papel integrador en las comunidades del Altiplano Central siglos antes de la integración política teotihuacana. Ambos dioses fueron venerados en comunidades de diversa jerarquía por familias de distintas condiciones socioeconómicas.

Mientras que el papel del Dios Viejo estaba limitado a la esfera doméstica, las imágenes del Dios de la Tormenta fueron manipuladas en contextos públicos y privados. Esta diferencia importante continúa en Teotihuacan, donde el Dios de la Tormenta fue prominente en los rituales políticos realizados por los líderes del estado, mientras que los braseros del Dios Viejo continuaron su asociación con el hogar y la vivienda. Aunque es probable que algunos conceptos panmesoamericanos acerca de dioses del fuego y de la tormenta precedieron estas vasijas-efigie del formativo, este estudio propone que se puede entender mejor los orígenes de tradiciones religiosas particulares considerando los sistemas religiosos como comunidades de práctica, con particulares rituales asociados que crean significados compartidos entre sus creyentes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , Spring 2007 , pp. 53 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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