Forgotten Figures: The Ritual Culture and Modern Display of Mesoamerican Ceramic Figurines
Open Access
- Author:
- Toombs, Hannah Claire
- Area of Honors:
- Anthropology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dr. Claire M Milner, Thesis Supervisor
Amara Leah Solari, Thesis Supervisor
Timothy Michael Ryan, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Mesoamerica
figurines
archaeology
museums
ritual - Abstract:
- For the anthropological community, Mesoamerica represents an ideal research location. Numerous archaeological sites and a rich cultural history make this region a prime location to conduct excavations and ethnographic fieldwork. For the past century, the architecture and ritual culture of the Olmec, Maya, Mexica, and other inhabitants of the region have revealed the complex religious and sociopolitical organization of these Pre-Colombian civilizations. However, there are particular aspects of Mesoamerican archaeology that are poorly understood in the anthropological community today. Mesoamerican ceramic figurines, although discovered in abundance, represent a relatively unexplored and misunderstood area of the region’s complex cultural history. However, these artifacts held significant sociopolitical and ritual meaning in Mesoamerican society, a fact that is rarely communicated in modern museum exhibitions. This project synthesizes existing research and recent literature on Mesoamerican figurines, discussing their chronology from the Formative to Post Classic periods and contrasting the ritual function of these artifacts in domestic and elite contexts. Figurine exhibits in modern museums are also evaluated to reveal effective and ineffective methods of display. The final component of this project is the design of a figurine exhibit in Penn State’s Matson Museum of Anthropology that successfully communicates the ability of figurines to reflect the social, political, and spiritual culture of Mesoamerica.