Interpreting Ancient Figurines: Context, Comparison, and Prehistoric Art by Richard G. Lesure

Author:Richard G. Lesure
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Criticism, Art History, Arts & Photography, History & Criticism, Humanities, Archaeology, Politics & Social Sciences, Social Sciences, History
ISBN: 9780521197458
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2011-02-20T18:30:00+00:00

Cambridge Books Online

http://ebooks.cambridge.org/

Interpreting Ancient Figurines

Context, Comparison, and Prehistoric Art

Richard G. Lesure

Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511973376

Online ISBN: 9780511973376

Hardback ISBN: 9780521197458

Chapter

Five - Mesoamerican Figurines and the Contextualist Appeal to Universa

l Truths pp. 112-155

Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511973376.006

Cambridge University Press

Chapter 5

Mesoamerican Figurines and the

Contextualist Appeal to Universal Truths

An important theme in the effort to grapple with comparison is the interpenetration of contextualism and universalism. In Chapter 2, I suggested that the interaction went both ways, and I have just concluded an effort to use contextualist strategies in addressing some of the chronic problems of universalist (social) explanations inspired by observations of (material) similarities between figurines. I turn now to the other side of the coin – to reliance on universalist claims as crucial links in context-specific arguments. The strategy is a common and probably necessary tool of interpretation, but it raises concerns. Specifically, such localized uses of universalist logic have unexamined expansive implications. The same logic might apply to what are usually numerous related cases

of figurine making surrounding the context being studied. My goal here is to develop analytical strategies that allow us to address this characteristic concern.

My case study is the small, solid, fired-clay figurines of Formative Mesoamerica, and I conclude the chapter by considering what kinds of statements might usefully be made about “Formative

figurines” as a general phenomenon.

The Problem

Of course, contextualist interpretation may draw on general concepts without using universalist logic.1 We might ask how “domestic space” was constituted in a particular community or how

“female” and “male” were given meaningful content in a specific setting. The general concepts

are tools for understanding specificity, but the generalities are subordinated to local specifics. They bring the specifics more clearly into focus. Also, both the general and the specific in such cases are social in content.

My topic in this chapter is a different and characteristically archaeological relationship between general and specific. Often, in context-specific studies of figurines, a generality that is social in content is accorded the status of established fact relative to archaeological specifics that resist interpretation. The universalist phrasing of the information from the social realm justifies its 112

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Mesoamerican Figurines and the Contextualist Appeal to Universal Truths

SOUTHERN

GUANAJUATO

Chupícuaro

BASIN OF MEXICO

Teotihuacan CENTRAL

Zacatenco

TLAXCALA

Tlatilco Tlapacoya Amomoloc

MORELOS

SOUTHERN GULF COAST

TEHUACAN

Chalcatzingo

VALLEY

La Venta

VALLEY OF

San Lorenzo

OAXACA

CHIAPAS

San José

INTERIOR

Mogote

N

ULUA VALLEY

0 100 km

Playa de los

Cantón Corralito

Muertos

Paso de la Amada

SOCONUSCO

Figure 46. Mesoamerica, showing regions and sites considered in this chapter.

application to the archaeological case. For instance, because the poorly understood archaeological case is a member of a class of societies that, as an aggregate, is better understood than the case under investigation, knowledge of that class allows us to posit the existence of unobservable social features in the archaeological case. Because the universalism is social in content, it contributes to the key rhetorical move of reformulating material patterns in social terms.

I introduced this topic in Chapter 2 with a reflection on my own interpretation of Formative

figurines from Paso de la Amada. By identifying the archaeological case as an “equal

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