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Figurines: Mesoamerica
Rhonda Taube
Riverside City College, Riverside, CA, United States

One of the most prevalent forms of Mesoamerican

art is the ceramic figurine, molded or hand modeled in clay, including images of humans, supernaturals, and animals. These form a central
corpus of ancient Mesoamerican archaeological
materials and are, in many cases, the most numerous of all human-shaped objects known from the
region. Found in burials, domestic contexts, and
even used as fill in construction projects, they
appear in virtually every culture and time period
of Mesoamerican history. Because they were so
ever-present and found primarily in household
environments, they inform us about a wide array
of quotidian human activities and everyday
beliefs. Especially important is their capacity to
inform us about ancient notions of sexuality, not
only because of their widespread distribution but
also due to the variety of images they represent,
particularly the recurring and distinct emphasis
on female figurines and their secondary sexual
characteristics.
Figurines represent local belief systems
regarding sexuality and stand for a gendered
social order, as they are found in society and,
therefore, society is indicated through them.
Although abundant at archaeological sites, we do
not know exactly what straightforward or utilitarian purpose they held for people in ancient

and colonial societies. Nonetheless, we may infer

a number of latent meanings by exploring their
manufacture, context, distribution, and unique
attributes. The rich variety of types and figures,
through hairstyles, headdresses, costumes,
objects wielded, and posture, express the esthetic
values of a given culture, and archaeologists
often employ figurines to understand not only
elite culture but also domestic or household and
commoner concerns. Millian (1981) provides a
convincing argument that connects many postclassical Aztec figurines to a general earth fertility complex that was present in all sectors of
Aztec society. Although this may not seem
related to human sexuality, a nuanced reading
of this concern with the earth and fertility
or reproductionprovides insight into ancient
Mesoamerican sexual beliefs and practices.

Defining Mesoamerican sexuality

For ancient Mesoamerican people, the EuroAmerican concept of sexual normativity did not
exist. Pete Sigal (2011: 1112) argues that preHispanic Aztec sexuality and sexual behavior
functioned within a larger set of productive rituals that relate to a broad concept of fertility. For

The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality, First Edition. Edited by Patricia Whelehan and Anne Bolin.
2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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figurines: mesoamerica

the Aztecs, the genesis of all living things,

especially human beings and agricultural crops,
required complementary male and female contributions to be successful. In this way, sexual
activity was not a singular event, but a process
demonstrating a connection to a variety of fecund
deities, certain fruitful aspects of nature, and
directly to the lush earth. Behaviors that we
categorize as sexual did not conform to those
definitions in the Mesoamerican past. Louise
Burkhardt (1989) has demonstrated that during
the early colonial era in Central Mexico, Nahua
people did not equate any form of sexual activity
with sin; that was a concept the Spanish introduced. This suggests that all human sexual pleasure fell under the rubric of fertility and was an
important aspect of sexuality and framed sexual
relations and gender roles.
For the ancient Maya, Houston, Stuart, and
Taube (2006) note the wide variety of terms that
apply to females and female sexuality, some of
which appear to overlap with a womans role as a
wife. Moreover, linguistic distinctions existed
between fruitful and infertile women suggesting
that, on some level, female sexuality clearly links
to gender-specific biological functions and, by
extension, social responsibility. Categories of
maleness are less varied and derive from such
features as an individuals age and secondary
sexual characteristics, as well as referring to an
elegant or polished male (Houston et al. 2006: 39).
Differences existed between the genders regarding
an individuals sociocultural role and figurines
often capture these concerns.

Representative examples from

Mesoamerican cultures
Olmec figurines
The vast majority of clay figurines made before
200 B.C.E. portray women (Joyce 1993). Most are
quite small (averaging less than 15cm in height),
easily portable, made of solid clay, and typically
are nude, with small torsos and large breasts, hips,
and legs (Follensbee 2009). Voluptuous female
figurines from Tlatilco, in the Valley of Mexico
and Las Bocas, Puebla, date to the Middle
Formative period. Numerous examples from Las
Bocas feature a number of motifs that pierce the

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surface of the clay. These designs are also present

on monumental forms of art and refer to rain,
again connecting female sexuality to issues of
fertility. These sensual figurines feature rounded
abdomens, full hips, plump thighs, and are either
standing or reclining languorously. The provocative and overtly inviting poses portray women as
objects of nature and fertility, and relate to the
basic shift from hunter-gatherer societies to those
of agricultural production.

The figurines of formative Oaxaca

At the site of San Jose Mogote in the Valley of
Oaxaca, a burial, dating to the Early Formative
period, contained three figurines: one male and
two female. Located in the abdomen of one of the
females is a small clay fetus sculpture (Marcus
1998). This suggests that whoever made the figurines was concerned with female pro-generative
roles, possibly as it relates to a larger complex of
regional myth and ritual (Gustafson 2002: 67). As
Gustafson (2002: 6768) notes, the exaggerated
secondary sexual characteristics emphasize the
centrality of the female role in human creation,
again connecting figurines to a larger complex of
fertility. Robert Drennan (1976) suggests that
during the Middle Formative period, nearly every
village household in Oaxaca contained figurines.
As Marcus (1998) argues, manufacturing and
arranging small figurines in tableaux may have
formed the primary domestic ritual activity of
women and functioned as a means of spiritual
communication and contact, and also delineated
gender roles.

Classic Maya figurines

Ancient Maya figurines are unique in that they
fill the gaps left by the political and religious concerns of the ruling families, which appear in
monumental art. They are a form of mass media
and provide an aspect of life for us otherwise not
seen, often focusing on prosaic genre scenes and
humorous subjects (Halperin 2009; Taube and
Taube 2009). One particular sexualized example
involves a young and desirable woman dancing
with or embracing an older, jaded-looking man
who is often groping or fondling his younger
partner. Her youthful vigor and beauty sharply
contrast with his brutish and aged countenance,

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exaggerating the sexual characteristics of both.

Many scholars employ a theory of gender complementarity, which defines female and male as
distinct but equivalent and interdependent parts
of a larger dynamic whole when considering
ancient Maya womens gender roles (Gustafson
2002). However, numerous figurines that feature
these ill-matched couples suggest an attempt to
control female sexuality, as popular cultural practices and symbols shape and continuously duplicate gender roles. Womens behavior outside of
accepted cultural norms may have supplied the
fodder for these mismatched couples.
Jennifer Dornan (2004) argues that the ancient
Maya strictly controlled gender roles by symbolically connecting particular activities with each
gender. Dornan cogently argues that the rising
ancient Maya elite legitimized social difference
through the management of female emblems of
power, particularly those related to pregnancy,
menstruation, and childbirth, which in turn sanitized female sexuality. Monumental art, and its
duplicates in small-scale figurines, served as
conventional representations of normative gender roles, which in turn created a standardized
gender ideology. As Rosemary Joyce (1993) notes,
anthropomorphic figurines, such as those known
from the island of Jaina, off the western coast of
the Yucatan Peninsula, perpetuated gender stereotypes. Unlike earlier Olmec examples, Maya
figurines did not feature themes related to female
sexuality through motifs of rain and fertility.
Rather, each figurine is an exquisite miniature
sculpture highlighting noble women, sometimes
engaged in domestic activities such as weaving, or
simply elegantly seated. Gone are the nudes and
ample hips, thighs, and breasts of their earlier
counterparts.
In general, female reproductive organs are
absent from Mesoamerican art, but mens genitals may appear in monumental sculpture
(Houston et al. 2006). It seems clear that it was
important for ancient Maya men to marginalize
and manage womens sexuality and fertility.
Although archaeologists believe that privileged
Maya women controlled the food used in religious ceremonies, studies of the diet from a
selection of different sites indicate that Maya
women ate fewer ideologically valued foods than
men (White 2005). For the ancient Maya, the
association of females with fecundity, rain, and

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the earth appears to be less clear than in their

Olmec and Aztec counterparts.
Maya mens gender roles emphasize numerous
aspects of masculinity, including the ballgame,
warfare, and ceremonial dance. Rosemary Joyce
(1996) argues that the ancient Maya imagery of
adult male gender existed as a form of sexual
appeal for both men and women-through the
display of the male physique. Costume, and in
particular loincloths, draw attention to their
pubic area. Monumental forms of art glorify
idealized male physiques as physically and morally perfect individuals engaged in a variety of
activities that emphasize and draw attention to
these traits. Figurines, on the other hand, which
in many cases may conform to these established
criteria of male sexuality, also provide a plethora
of examples of the male form that were not
viewed as perfect. However, classic Maya art
seldom portrays human nudity and examples of
Maya sexual activity in art are even rarer. Imagery
of humiliated and sexually exposed captives and
explicit graffiti scenes found in caves however
supply atypical examples (Houston et al. 2006).
Excavations at the Temple of the Seven Dolls at
the site of Dzibilchaltun, Yucatan, Mexico uncovered a late post-classical group of figurines, one of
which has an erect phallus. Although not a common artistic tradition during the classical period,
masculine sexuality appears more frequently in
the northern Maya lowlands. Ardren and Hixson
(2006) argue that the popularity of the male phallus in monumental Maya art depicts the ability of
royal men to perform a necessary public ritual,
that of penis perforation, or letting blood from
their penis. This was clearly an act connected to
and claiming the fertile power of a womens
menstrual cycle, and probably a concept related
to the figurines with erect phalli.

Central Mexico: Teotihuacan and Aztec

figurines
Modeled and mold-made, Teotihuacan figurines
number in the millions and are associated with all
phases of the site and with all structures. Although
we do not know why the ancient inhabitants of the
city manufactured so many or what function they
served, they were clearly an important to the city.
Warren Barbour (1997) suggests that ancient
Teotihuacanoes had very specific notions of gender

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and sexuality and represented these concepts in

their figurines. When Teotihuacan figurines appear
elsewhere in Mesoamerica, they are always male
and always wear the distinct c ostume elements of
warriors. This suggests that women played an
important domestic role, symbolizing familial ties
and the internal concerns of the state.
In Aztec society, women were subject to the
principles of institutionalized gender hierarchy
that glorified male warriors and portrayed their
masculinity in opposition to women, who were
instruments of celestial disorder and adversaries
destined for subjugation. Yet women were necessary for the successful propagation of the state and
numerous female goddesses functioned as role
models for ideal behavior. Xochiquetzal, the goddess of sensuality, sexual pleasure, and the patron
goddess of weavers, prostitutes, and pregnant
women, often appears in ceramic figurine form.
Numerous examples discovered in domestic
settings suggest that these figurines were used in
household rites involving some aspect of human
sexuality and fertility. Many figurines are in the
form of rattles, and music and song offer potential
insights into sexuality, as the lyrics are often quite
suggestive and full of sexual yarns (Sigal 2011).
Every major Aztec site has figurines, suggesting
that the practice of rituals involving figurines was
prevalent at both the household and state level.
Remarkably, at the Aztec site of Yuatepec, Morelos,
female figurines typically comprise approximately
70 percent of the total number found (Smith
2005). This suggests that state-enforced female
roles validated the importance of female behavioral norms as they related to familial ties, domesticity, and localized notions of sexuality.

SEE ALSO: Agriculture, Beginnings of;

Contraception/Conception, Archaeology of;
Dress (Clothing and Adornment); Feminist
Archaeology; Figurines: Europe; Hunting;
Masculinity, Archaeology of; Sexuality, Ancient
South America; Social Complexity, Gender and
References
Ardren, Traci, and David R. Hixson. 2006. The Unusual
Sculptures of Telantunich, Yucatn: Phalli and the
Concept of Masculinity among the Ancient Maya.
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 16(1): 725.

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Barbour, Warren. 1997. More Human and Divine:

Understanding the Changing Roles of Figurines
in Teotihuacan Society. Paper presented at the
Teotihuacan Archaeology and Iconography workshop. 21st Maya Meetings, University of Texas,
Austin. TX.
Burkhardt, Louise M. 1989. The Slippery Earth: Nahua
Christian Moral Dialogue in Sixteenth-Century
Mexico. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
Dornan, Jennifer. 2004. Blood from the Moon:
Gender Ideology and the Rise of Ancient Maya
Social Complexity. Gender and History, 16(2):
459475.
Drennan, Robert D. 1976. Fbrica San Jos and Middle
Formative Society in the Valley of Oaxaca. Memoir 8,
Museum of Anthropology. Ann Arbor, MI:
University of Michigan.
Follensbee, Billie J. A. 2009. Formative Period Gulf
Coast Figurines: The Key to Identifying Sex, Gender,
and Age Groups in Gulf Coast Olmec Imagery. In
C. T. Halperin, K. A. Faust, R. Taube, and A. Giguet,
eds., Mesoamerican Figurines: Small-Scale Indices of
Large-Scale Social Phenomena. Gainesville, FL:
University Press of Florida.
Gustafson, Lowell S. 2002. Shared Gender Relations:
Early Mesoamerica and the Maya. In Lowell S.
Gustafson and Amelia M. Trevelyan, eds., Ancient
Maya Gender Identity and Relations. London: Bergin
and Garvey.
Halperin, Christina. 2009. Figurines as Bearers of and
Burdens in Late Classic Maya State Politics. In C. T.
Halperin, K. A. Faust, R. Taube, and A. Giguet, eds.,
Mesoamerican Figurines: Small-Scale Indices of
Large-Scale Social Phenomena. Gainesville, FL:
University Press of Florida.
Houston, Stephen, David Stuart, and Karl Taube. 2006.
The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience
among the Classic Maya. Austin, TX: University of
Texas Press.
Joyce, Rosemary. 1993. Womens Work: Images of
Production and Reproduction in Pre-Hispanic
Southern Central America. Current Anthropology,
34(3): 255274.
Joyce, Rosemary. 1996. Negotiating Sex and Gender in
Classic Maya Society. In C. Klein, ed., Recovering
Gender in Precolumbian America. Washington, DC:
Dumbarton Oaks.
Joyce, Rosemary. 2000. A Precolumbian Gaze: Male
Sexuality among the Ancient Maya. In Robert A.
Schmidt and Barbara L. Voss, eds., Archaeologies of
Sexuality. London: Routledge.
Marcus, Joyce. 1998. Womens Ritual in Formative
Oaxaca: Figurine Making, Divination, Death, and the
Ancestors. Ann Arbor, MI: Memoirs of the Museum
of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

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Millian, Alva Clark. 1981. The Iconography of Aztec

Ceramic Figurines. MA thesis, Department of Art
History, Columbia University.
Sigal, Pete. 2011. The Flower and the Scorpion: Sexuality
and Ritual in Early Nahua Culture. Durham, NC:
Duke University Press.
Smith, Michael E. 2005. Aztec-Style Ceramic Figurines
from Yautepec, Morelos. Mexico, 27(2/3): 4555.
Taube, Rhonda, and Karl Taube. 2009. The Beautiful,
the Bad, and the Ugly: Aesthetics and Morality in
Maya Figurines. In C. T. Halperin, K. A. Faust,
R. Taube, and A. Giguet, eds., Mesoamerican Figurines:
Small-Scale Indices of Large-Scale Social Phenomena.
Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
White, Christine D. 2005. Gendered Food Behaviour
among the Maya: Time, Place, Status and Ritual.
Journal of Social Archaeology, 5, October: 356382.

Further readings
Dornan, Jennifer. 2004. Blood from the Moon:
Gender Ideology and the Rise of Ancient Maya
Social Complexity. Gender and History, 16(2):
459475.
Halperin, Christina, K. A. Faust, R. Taube, and A.
Giguet, eds. 2009. Mesoamerican Figurines: SmallScale Indices of Large-Scale Social Phenomena.
Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
Houston, Stephen, David Stuart, and Karl Taube. 2006.
The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience
among the Classic Maya. Austin, TX: University of
Texas Press.
Sigal, Pete. 2011b. The Flower and the Scorpion:
Sexuality and Ritual in Early Nahua Culture.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Abstract
Ceramic figurines form a central corpus of ancient Mesoamerican art, appearing with virtually every
culture and time period of Mesoamerican history. Because they were ever-present and found primarily
in domestic contexts, they inform us about a wide array of daily human activities and everyday beliefs,
in contrast to most scenes in elite murals and monumental sculpture. In particular, they inform us about
ancient notions of sexuality, not only because of their widespread distribution but also due to the variety
of human images they represent. From the first appearance of figurines in the Early Formative period to
the time of Spanish contact in the sixteenth century, many figurines emphasize female secondary sexual
characteristics and local ideas regarding gender-based roles and responsibilities, including a plethora of
nubile and comely females with enlarged breasts, voluptuous hips, and appealing or suggestive poses.
Keywords: agriculture; archaeology; Aztec; belief systems; ceramics; fertility; gender roles; huntergatherer; Maya; Mesoamerican art; Nahua; Olmec; Oaxaca ritual

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