In the Tlatilco site more than 340 burials have been excavated, from which hundreds of figurines have been recovered. The majority represent distinguished feminine forms with very stylized faces; within these a subgroup which has been called “pretty women” has been classified. The figurine analyzed here belongs to this category, which would be part of this group of modeled women whose feminine forms have been synthesized and expressed in the minimalism of their breasts, their waist and their small, short and conical arms, like stumps, where fingers are not even suggested, while the hips are widened and thick thighs highlight the power of fertility. If this is so, fertility modeled as a female body reached its archetypal model in the Preclassic.
This figure exhibits a young, slender and sensual but covered body, a rare occurrence since these women are generally completely nude, only covered by body paint, as seen in the eyes, lips and other sections of the body.
Some researchers consider that Tlatilco women did not cover their body with clothing, only with some decorative elements and body designs, although occasionally, as in this example, they covered their waist with a short skirt and leggings formed by small spheres applied with the technique of pastillage; a design that is repeated in other figurines from this culture, such as those found in the National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico City. These ornaments, together with the short skirt, have led some authors to consider them as dancers.
As for the head, of extreme beauty, it follows the artistic canons of the Tlatilco style, being disproportionate with respect to the rest of the body, with erect tabular circular modeling, as in the Preclassic. It is the main element that gives personality, distinguishes and individualizes the figurines from one-another; it is the substantial part of the body where spiritual entities capable of externalizing and entering the fontanelle inhabit, which is related to the idea of souls that leave and enter, being one of the most accepted explanations for this practice of modifying the skull.
The face is schematic, with geometric features. The angle of the face, as well as its raised nose, which is ed with the superciliary arches of the eyebrows, the almond-shaped and oblique eyes with the pierced irises, are characteristic features of these beautiful figurines and the art of the Preclassic in general.
Its beauty stands out from the other feminine representations of Tlatilco because of the pretense of its hairstyle, one of the peculiarities of these “pretty women”. A long braid runs along its back, between tufts of hair that fall on both sides and another that seems to be collected at the front and top of the head adorning its headdress.
They were designed to be handled, rotated and intended to be seen both from different angles. In this artistic tradition the physiognomy of the body is exaggerated in the hips and the thinness of the waist, while the breasts, arms and legs lose their balance due to being proportionately smaller.
This visual expressiveness of the body shown in its exaggerated hips, could be due to an important cult of fertility in the first Preclassic agricultural societies, as happened in other moments of ancient and recent Prehistory in the Old World, where the same visual resources of exaggeration of the female body were employed.
Bibliography:
Covarrubias, Miguel. Arte indígena de México y Centroamérica. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1961.
García Moll Roberto, et al. Catálogo de entierros de San Luis Tlatilco, México. Temporada IV, Serie Antropología Física-Arqueología. México: INAH, 1994.
Guzmán Ramírez, Gezabel. “Tlatilco: retorno al elogio del cuerpo femenino”. Presented at 9° Congreso Centroamericano de Historia, edited by Ronny Viales, Juan Jose Marín, Allan Fonseca, Andrés Cruz and Gabriela Soto, 2943-2961. Costa Rica: Universidad de Costa Rica, 2008.
Nebot García, Edgar. Tlatilco, los herederos de la cultura Tenocelome. BAR Internacional, Serie 1280. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2004.
Sabau García, María Luisa and María Olga Sáenz González. México en el mundo de las colecciones de arte: Mesoamérica, edited by Sabau García, María Luisa and María Olga Sáenz González. México: UCOL, 1994.
Salas Cuesta, María Elena and Patricia Olga Hernández Espinoza. Revista Anales de Antropología, 31 (1994): 63-87.
Tiesler, Vera and Arturo Romano Pacheco. "El modelado del cráneo en Mesaoamérica. Emblemática costumbre milenaria". Arqueología Mexicana nº 94 (2008): 18-25.
Vaillant, George C. “A Pre-Columbian Jade. Artistic Comparasion which suggests the identification of a New Mexican Civilization”. In México en el mundo de las colecciones de arte: Mesoamérica. México: UCOL, 1994.
