UC San Diego

Teotihuacan was a sprawling urban center that came to rule an eponymous expansive polity in the central Mexican highlands from approximately 200 to 600 CE. The conditions that facilitated its initial expansion, however, are not fully understood. This dissertation examines ceramic figurines from Teotihuacan and the three rural sites of Axotlan, Cerro Portezuelo, and Huixtoco in the Basin of Mexico to investigate ancient social relationships, cultural changes, and political transformations during the emergence of the first state-level society in the region.

Ritual activity structures social and religious life, and can be a conduit for expressing ideological views and creating individual and community identity, and maintaining social boundaries. The form, style, and subject matter of figurines were observed to vary both other time and across the Basin of Mexico, indicating transformations in domestic ritual practice and cultural identity in the rural hinterland of the emerging state.

In addition to the widespread adoption of Teotihuacan-style figurines in the three rural sites, one of the most noticeable changes was in the subject matter of the figurines themselves. Emphasis was placed on the physical features of bodies—particularly sexual characteristics—in Formative period figurines, whereas increasing emphasis was placed on clothing, elaborate costumes, and personal ornamentation during the Classic period. Furthermore, feminine bodies were common in the Formative period, but became a small minority in Classic period assemblages, which were dominated by diverse functional types, many of which appear to depict masculine figures.

The appearance of Teotihuacan-style figurines in the three rural assemblages predates the arrival of other forms of Teotihuacan material culture and architecture, indicating that a push of Teotihuacan ideology into the rural hinterland may have been an intentional strategy in the initial phase of hegemonic expansion, which became less important over time as Teotihuacan switched to more coercive forms of expansion. Exploring the ideological system of the Basin of Mexico contributes to a better understanding of how communities related to each other throughout the region, and the ways in which social and political bonds were formed, strengthened, maintained, and ultimately abandoned.