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Women, Rituals, and Social Dynamics at Ancient Chalcatzingo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ann Cyphers Guillén
Ann Cyphers Guillén*
Affiliation:
Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior, Delegación Coyoacan, Móxico, D.F. 04510
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Abstract

Female figurines from the Cantera phase at Chalcatzingo, Morelos, depict stages of the life cycle: puberty, pregnancy, and child rearing. Contextual data indicate that the figurines were used in female-focused life-crisis ceremonies that created a web of social rights and obligations validated by reciprocal exchanges. These rights and obligations were the means by which power and influence were created, directed, and controlled by particular households. Thus, these figurines and their contexts permit a better understanding of the role of women in the dynamics of social-hierarchy formation at Chalcatzingo, and how the formation of social bonds and patterns of exchange were important in the accumulation of power.

Las figurillas femeninas de la fase Cantera de Chalcatzingo, Morelos, representan las etapas del ciclo de la vida: la pubertad, el embarazo y la crianza de niños. Los datos de los contextos indican que las figurillas fueron usadas en ceremonias relativas al ciclo de vida que crearon una red de derechos y obligaciones sociales apoyadas por el intercambio recíproco. Estos derechos y obligaciones constituyeron la manera en que algunos grupos domésticos crearon, enfocaron y controlaron el poder y la influencia. Estas figurillas y sus contextos permiten un mejor entendimiento de la dinámica de formación de jerarquías sociales en Chalcatzingo, y cómo la formación de nexos sociales y patrones de intercambio fueron importantes en la acumulación de poder.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , September 1993 , pp. 209 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1993

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