Lot 50
  • 50

A Jalisco Ritual Platform Group, Protoclassic, ca. 100 B.C.-A.D. 250

Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 USD
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Description

the central male figure blowing into a spouted jar, surrounded and embraced by five female figures, one holding a small bowl and one behind holding his waist, each with raised tattoos on the shoulders and tall turbans, all with small black polka-dot body designs.

Provenance

Acquired in the 1960s

Exhibited

Los Angeles, UCLA Fowler Museum, Companions of the Dead, Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, October 11-November 27, 1983, fig. 124
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, Anecdotal Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico, 1972, colorplate 6, fig. 59

Literature

Jacki Gallagher, Companions of the Dead, Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, 1983, fig. 124
Hasso von Winning and Olga Hammer, Anecdotal Sculpture of Ancient West Mexico, 1972, colorplate 6, fig. 59

Catalogue Note

Feasting ceremonies were important activities in annual agricultural and sociopolitical events, and ritual consumption was a vehicle used to maintain social standing and authority. This group scene may represent part of the pulque ceremony, where long tubes are used to suck and extract the aquamiel, the sap of the maguey agave cactus, see Butterwick (1998: 89-90, and fig. 4), for a similar platform group.