A Colima seated female figure, Coahuayana style, Protoclassic, ca. 100 B.C.-A.D. 250

the shallow offering dish seemingly suspended between her hands, with erect and flattened torso and shoulders decorated with tattoos, the head forming the spout with applied facial features and adorned with necklace and earrings.

Acquired in the 1960s

Los Angeles, UCLA Fowler Museum, Companions of the Dead, Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West  Mexico, October 11-November 27, 1983, fig. 45
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient West Mexico, Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, September 5 - November 22, 1988, continuing to
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 20,1998 - March 29, 1999, fig. 12

Jacki Gallagher, Companions of the Dead, Ceramic Tomb Sculpture from Ancient West Mexico, 1983, fig. 45
Richard Townsend, ed. Ancient West Mexico, Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, 1998, p. 97, fig. 12

The Coahuayana style, from the southwest coast near Michoacan, is notable for showing figures seated on stools - well known to be a position reserved for the persons of rank in ancient society. The style typically shows large ancestral couples of confident and reserved demeanor, and it is notable that the females, such as this figure, share equal status with their seated mates. The Coahuayana couples holding empty bowls may represent an ancient version of the Huichol tradition, in which families remember their ancestors each year on the Feast of San Andres by uniting at the hearth with empty bowls waiting for food (Butterwick 2004: 71). For a similar figure see Townsend, ed. (1998, p. 130, fig. 33).