Molding Matter: Technologies of Reproduction in the Precolumbian Americas

DOCUMENT Citation Only Julia Guernsey. Michael Love.

This paper concentrates on the vast corpus of hand modeled ceramic figurines from Preclassic Pacific slope of Mesoamerica, in particular those from Middle Preclassic La Blanca, Guatemala. We argue that, within this collection of figurines and related ones from elsewhere in Middle Preclassic Mesoamerica, one can find evidence for the concept of replication – or an emphasis on a recurring "type" or "character" – that pre-dates the invention of the mold. Although Preclassic figurine assemblages are...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Clayton.

A hallmark of the material culture of Teotihuacan, the largest city of its time in Mesoamerica (ca. 1-600 CE), is the wide circulation of a variety of mass-produced goods, including objects used in household ritual. Items made from molds included masks, figurines, ceramic vessels, and decorative attachments to large incense burners, which are often found in domestic refuse and in ritual contexts such as burials. Although such artifacts appear alike, they were not uniformly distributed across the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeffrey Blomster.

The Early Formative period exhibits dramatic transformations in imagery and identity throughout Mesoamerica. Focusing on a time period before techniques for mold made and mass produced objects had been achieved, this paper explores replications that involved copies, iterations, and emulations of designs and imagery. At select sites in Mesoamerica, objects have been documented with Olmec-style imagery, some of which have been linked to the Gulf Coast Olmec society; in most cases, the Olmec...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Cherra Wyllie.

The relief-carved fine paste wares, figurines, and ceramic sculptures of south-central Veracruz exhibit stylistic similarities often attributed to mass production. Yet, there are few molds in the archaeological record, suggesting that replication hinges on the artist’s understanding of materials, techniques and canons of representation. Looking beyond the southern Gulf lowlands we see certain affinities between Classic Veracruz ceramic art and that of its Mesoamerican neighbors. Barbara Stark...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Houston.

Since the time of Walter Benjamin, scholarship has posed important questions about replication and meaning: what is an "original," what does this imply for "aura"--the particular resonance of unique productions--and are such concepts and concerns solely applicable to industrial production in capitalist society? This session converses with Benjamin, long after his death, by addressing the meaning of replication in pre-capitalist societies, indeed, outside a Marxian framework altogether. The...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mallory E. Matsumoto.

This paper examines the implications of mold-made ceramic texts for understanding Maya scribal practice and script ideology. Most studies of hieroglyphs on ancient Maya ceramics have focused on painted and incised vessels whose glyphic and iconographic contents were made by hand on an individual basis and often with a particular consumer in mind. In contrast, the molded texts addressed here consist of pre-formed hieroglyphs that were integrated into the vessel body itself, either by shaping all...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Abigail Levine.

The use of molds for pottery manufacture is an integral part of the ceramic tradition of the North Coast of Peru, dating to at least as early as AD 100. Analysis of mold-made Chimu-Inka monkey effigy vessels excavated from mortuary contexts at the sites of Farfan and Tucume suggest that Late Horizon fineware production occurred in local workshops rather than in a centralized facility—a pattern consistent with other studies of Inka pottery production from around the Central Andes. The use and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christina Halperin.

In many ways, simple molded Maya figurines during the Late Classic period become ordinary objects, aided in part by the technological capability of reproduction through molds. Nonetheless, molds do not automatically create ordinary, accessible, everyday objects, and, in turn, ordinary objects are not without their ability to delight and affect the senses. This paper draws on newly collected ceramic production evidence from the site of Ucanal, Guatemala, as well as a compilation of research on...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tom Cummins.

Based on an examination of ceramic Chorrera, Jama Coaque and La Tolita figurines from the coast of Ecuador, this talk discusses the central role of the mold as both a forming technique and as a means to create a stable visual tradition from generation to generation. It will also suggest the impact on later traditions on the coast, such as the Moche tradition.

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary Miller.

Among the class of Late Classic Maya figurines generally considered to be from the Island of Jaina, molds were used to form entire objects as well as individual body parts. Molds may also have been taken of one finished figurine in order to generate a new object that would be slightly larger than the original, sometimes resulting in cascading generations of related works. Production techniques of the ceramic mold may also have been deployed for individual body parts, particularly the human...