caa a22 4500 388057963 CHVBK 20180307125112.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130s1998 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0956536100002017 doi S0956536100002017 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0956536100002017 Blomster Jeffrey P. Department of Anthropology, Yale University, P.O. Box 208277, New Haven, CT 06520-8277, USA Context, Cult, and Early Formative Period Public Ritual in the Mixteca Alta [Elektronische Daten] Analysis of a hollow-baby figurine from Etlatongo, Oaxaca [Jeffrey P. Blomster] From the Early and Middle Formative periods, hollow ceramic-baby figurines in the Olmec style—representing a suite of shared symbols and iconography—appear at sites throughout Mesoamerica. Hollow babies are usually reported without provenience, which has prevented a context-based analysis. The recent discovery of a hollow-baby figurine in a bell-shaped pit in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca provides the opportunity to examine the role and purported distribution of these objects across Mesoamenca. Based on consideration of the Etlatongo hollow-baby image, a semiotic analysis of contemporaneous solid figurines from Oaxaca, and the volume and nature of its bell-shaped-pit context, hollow babies are interpreted as ritual paraphernalia used in display and public ceremonies that reflect the emerging social ranking of this period. Moving beyond a socioeconomic interpretation, the interregional relationships expressed through hollow-baby figurines are suggested to evince participation in a regional cult. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998 Ancient Mesoamerica Cambridge University Press 9/2(1998), 309-326 0956-5361 9:2<309 1998 9 ATM https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536100002017 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536100002017 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Blomster Jeffrey P. Department of Anthropology, Yale University, P.O. Box 208277, New Haven, CT 06520-8277, USA NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Ancient Mesoamerica Cambridge University Press 9/2(1998), 309-326 0956-5361 9:2<309 1998 9 ATM CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge