The human sculptural images typical of the development of the western region of Mesoamerica named Chupicuaro are enigmatic. A great number were modeled in small format solid ceramic volumes and to a lesser extent hollow ones. Male representations are scarce, so it is noted that at first female concepts were particularly found.
In the solid ones, two stylistic modalities are distinguished that have in common showing the surface with some details in color, such as facial features, facial and body painting, and decorative objects; the emphasis is placed on large and long heads, with elaborate hairstyles and headdresses which is where the individual stamp of each piece primarily resides. The faces with fine features are generic and the bodies naked. They show some ornaments and sometimes a bulging abdomen. They show worshiping poses, the great majority with short arms and apparently standing. It appears that they were made to be reclined or leaned as they do not stand on their own. Since the back part is smooth, all attention is focused on the front.
The one we see, with the appearance of a young woman, was made in the "slanted eyes" style, from the peak of the Chupicuaro culture, during the first four centuries of our era. Its frontal body volume is a cleverly accomplished artifice, which contrasts with the narrowness of the representation when viewed in profile. In its artistic appearance, iconography, and functions, this type of work is similar to those that were made in the contemporary Cuicuilco culture and in those that preceded it in the same Central Valley of Mexico during the Middle Preclassic period, in places such as Tlatilco, El Arbolillo, and Tlapacoya.
Even though the modeling induces the uniqueness of each sculpture, they do not seem to be intended to portray specific people. I feel that they express certain concepts associated with the feminine, which go beyond biological fertility and motherhood; both meanings are related and have traditionally been accepted with respect to this construct and similar ones from ancient Mexican cultures.
As an alternative way of interpreting these works, it is suggested that one should carefully assess, based on the analysis of a wide body of writings, criteria such as beauty, status, and corporeality that the Chupicuaro society captured in them. Likewise, their sites of origin must be addressed in order to approximate the intriguing ritual functions they performed. In this regard, scientific information, although limited, provides suggestive clues. Some of them are explored below.
Starting with excavations in the 1940s around the old town of Chupicuaro, in the Acambaro Valley, Muriel Noe Porter's records allow us to detect that human ceramic images were often found fragmented in excavations at the surface level as well as in three other types of contexts: as part of the burial offerings of men, women, and small children. They were offerings, along with other materials, to human skulls removed from small children and adults, with decapitation marks or separated from a skeleton, buried in groups or alone, and in ensembles of objects of various objects and different materials intentionally buried without association with human remains. With regard to burials of humans and human skulls, there is a tendency to group ceramic images together, perhaps to integrate scenes or enhance their powers. In of this idea there is concrete data: Porter notes that 61 sculptures of the “slanted eyes” variant were found in seventeen of these burial sites and three groups of objects intentionally buried.
This trend is reiterated in an archaeological find generated in a project that began in the late 1990s in the Acambaro area: Brigitte Faugere reports the burial of a newborn whose offering contained eight female images of the "slanted eyes" style, arranged around a tiny bowl with a human face revealed on the outer surface. In addition to this effigy vessel there was another vessel.
From information such as the above, it can be inferred that the burial accompaniment was only one of the ritual functions of the ceramic sculptures and the idea is reaffirmed that they were not portraits, at least not of the deceased, but concepts linked elementally with the feminine through its naked and ornate corporeality.
