This volume presents a long-overdue synthesis and update on West Mexican archaeology. Ancient West Mexico has often been portrayed as a ‘marginal’ or ‘underdeveloped’ area of Mesoamerica. This book shows that the opposite is true and that it played a critical role in the cultural and historical development of the Mesoamerican ecumene.

The ancient societies of western Mexico have long been understudied and misunderstood. Focusing on recent archaeological data, Ancient West Mexicos highlights the diversity and complexity of the region’s pre-Columbian cultures and argues that western Mexico was more similar to the rest of the Mesoamerican world than many researchers have believed. Chapters that treat investigations in Durango, Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, and Michoacán draw on new evidence dating from across millennia, spanning different periods in Mesoamerican history. Contributors analyze materials including ceramics, architectural remains, textiles, and weaving tools to discern the settlement patterns, political structures, and cosmologies of the people who lived at these sites. Featuring intriguing case studies that point to unexpected pathways to sociopolitical complexity in ancient societies, these essays illustrate that the region’s archaeological record can contribute meaningfully to a more nuanced picture of Mesoamerica as a whole. Contributors: Laura Almendros López | Christopher S. Beekman | Mijaely Castañón | Fabio Germán Cupul-Magaña | Manuel Dueñas García | Joshua D. Englehardt | Rafael García de Quevedo-Machain | Verenice Y. Heredia Espinoza | Erika Ibarra | Stephen A. Kowalewski | Martha Lorenza López Mestas Camberos | Michael Mathiowetz | Joseph B. Mountjoy | David Muñiz García | M. Nicolás Caretta | José Luis Punzo Díaz | Diego Rangel | Kimberly Sumano Ortega | Jesús Zarco

Presents over 200 of the finest known examples of ancient West Mexican sculptural art. This is the first publication to fully analyze this tradition, which has never before been as thoroughly documented as that of other early Mesoamerican civilizations. The examples represent a wide range of subjects in a variety of styles from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 800, & constitute the artistic canon of a region encompassing the modern states of Colima, Jalisco, & Nayarit.

"Diverse environments, from low-lying marshlands to naturally terraced hillsides to rugged mountains of pine and oak forest, afforded many opportunities for well-being to the inhabitants of what are now the modern Mexican states of Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit. In the seven-hundred-year period between 300 B.C. and A.D. 400, local hierarchies flourished, power was concentrated in increasingly fewer hands, and the wealthier members of the communities established family lineages that remained intact for many generations." "The compelling importance of place and family is reflected in the size, locations, and contents of the major tombs of that period; often situated near or under dwellings, these were deeply buried shaft-and-chamber tombs. One set of conjoined tombs, excavated in 1993 at the site of Huitzilapa in the Magdalena basin of northern Jalisco, held six personages, five of whom were close family relatives. Well over one hundred ceramic works accompanied the interred, together with conch-shell trumpets, tens of thousands of shell beads, and objects of jade, obsidian, and quartz, testifying to the family's wealth. Many of the ceramic objects were vessels and bowls for food and drink, but there were large, three-dimensional human figures as well, among them one depicting a ballplayer." "The focus of Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture from West Mexico. The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection consists of over forty of these artistically appealing figures, which represent all three of the major styles - and sub-styles - that make up the body of West Mexican ceramic sculpture, named for the states of Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit." "Included are an introductory illustrated essay, catalogue entries that discuss each of the works in detail - all of them shown in color and, often, in multiple views - and a selected bibliography."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"This volume documents the splendid accomplishments of Ancient West Mexico, and brings together some of its finest examples of sculptural art, including representations of people, animals and plants, as well as vessels and models of houses, ceremonial centres, ball games and ritual scenes. All the extraordinary earthenware figures illustrated here have been recovered from burial sites and shaft tombs. They represent a wide range of subjects, warriors, chieftains, ladies, acrobats, shamans, musicians, ball players, festival couples and bound prisoners, in a variety of styles from about 200 BC to AD 800, that compose the artistic canon of Ancient West Mexico, a region encompassing the modern states of Colima, Jalisco and Nayarit"--Publisher's description.

Documents more than 220 examples of ancient West Mexican sculpture