Alien Bodies, Everyday People, and Hollow Spaces
Alien Bodies, Everyday People, and Hollow Spaces
Embodiment, Figurines, and Social Discourse in Postclassic Mexico
Several figurine forms—figurine heads, human “mud men,” flat-backed figurines, hand-molded figures attached to braziers, rattle-figurines, animal heads and feet attached to jars, and heads attached to flutes—have been found at Xaltocan, a Postclassic site found in the Basin of Mexico. Although these figurines may account for various genres because of their different functions and forms, they are taken together as a single homogeneous artifact category. While Xaltocan's figurines are not recognized in the context of practical use, and as the figurines are often broken, recent thinking regarding embodiment, especially thoughts about how bodily experiences and sensations constitute identity, may aid in our understanding of the artifacts. This chapter argues that Xaltocan people utilized different types of figurines to present the body in various contrasts, and the chapter further looks into how these contrasts represent different aspects of social identity.
Keywords: Xaltocan, figurine heads, mud men, flat-backed figurines, social identity, embodiment
Florida Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .