Ritual Fires and Sacred Hearths: the management of wood resources in Postclassic Tarascan Society of the Zacapu Basin, Michoacán

Summary

According to ethnohistoric sources, fire played a central role in the ritual practices of Postclassic Tarascan society. To venerate Curicaueri, the fire god and the most senior-ranking deity in the Tarascan pantheon, sacred hearths were kept perpetually burning outside temples, and the cazonci (king) was personally responsible for obtaining the impressive quantities of wood necessary for this feat. Fuel acquisition for these fires was often embedded in other ceremonial activities, such as hunts carried out by the Tarascan nobility. Nevertheless, the sacred aspects of fire were not restricted to elite and public contexts. Commoners supplied the majority of the fuel for the temple hearths. Furthermore, domestic hearth rituals were a significant part of the day-to-day affairs of households of all social ranks. However, despite the central role of fire and fuelwood among the Tarascans, little archaeological study of these practices and their associated material culture has been undertaken. This paper presents new work focused on charcoal remains and combustion structures in a variety of contexts at the site of Malpais Prieto, in the Zacapu Basin of northern Michoacán, to elucidate how fire-related practices varied among social strata, in public vs. private contexts, and how wood resources were obtained and managed.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Advances in the archaeology of West Mexico and the surrounding areas

Keywords

Spatial Coverage