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Agricultural pole rituals and rulership in Late Formative Central Jalisco

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Ancient Mesoamerica, 14 (2003), 299–318
Copyright © 2003 Cambridge University Press. Printed in the U.S.A.
DOI: 10.1017/S0956536103141016

AGRICULTURAL POLE RITUALS AND RULERSHIP

IN LATE FORMATIVE CENTRAL JALISCO

Christopher S. Beekman
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Denver, Campus Box 103, P.O. Box 173364, Denver, CO 80217, USA

Abstract
Recent research into the Teuchitlan tradition continues to improve our understanding of western Mexico’s relationship to the rest
of Mesoamerica. The tradition is defined on the basis of its distinctive public architecture, yet little research has been done to
explore the significance of these temples for political organization. I propose that a more emic analysis of the political system can
clarify the relationship among architecture, ritual, and political elites in Late Formative (300 b.c.–a.d. 200) Jalisco. I make use of
indigenous ceramic dioramas; recent excavation data from Llano Grande, Jalisco; ethnohistoric accounts of the Xocotl Huetzi
festival of the Postclassic and Contact periods; and ethnographic accounts of similar celebrations to propose a maize-focused
interpretation of ritual and rulership in the Teuchitlan tradition.

At a time if someone is very estimable, wealthy—who always
watches his wealth, his riches, or his rulership here on earth, it
was said: “he hath reached his season of the green maize ear, of
his maize tassel; he is much esteemed, he is praised.” Of one
such as this it is said that he has achieved his merit [Sahagún
1950–1969 (1578–1580):Book 2:235].
The Teuchitlan tradition was a regional political system of central
importance in the Late Formative and Classic periods of western
Mexico. But recent discussions of the nature of its political system
have begun to flounder in a debate over whether the tradition was
a chiefdom (Mountjoy 1998) or a state (Weigand and Beekman
1998). This is not to say that more sophisticated approaches are
not being used. Phil C. Weigand has noted a fundamental change
in emphasis within central Jalisco, the core of the tradition, from
shaft-tomb burials to monumental surface architecture between
the Late Formative and Classic periods (Weigand 1985). I have
preferred to describe this as a shift from factional competition
through mortuary ritual toward a more corporate system in which
factions were actively suppressed by the emerging political appa-
ratus (Beekman 2000). I have also noted that the core area estab-
lished boundary centers with this transition, further underlining
this process of consolidation (Beekman 1996).
What is missing here is an understanding of what political
authority meant to the people who submitted to it—that is, a more
emic approach. Archaeological fieldwork in Mesoamerica from
the 1950s through the 1970s tended to focus on reconstructing
political complexity through the application of universalist social
typologies and methods that were believed to crosscut different
culture areas. But research over the past few decades, strongly
colored by the growing corpus of hieroglyphic and iconographic
material, has tended to emphasize specifically Mesoamerican con-
E-mail correspondence to: cbeekman@carbon.cudenver.edu
cepts of rulership (e.g., Houston and Stuart 1996; Schele and Fre-
idel 1990; Schele and Miller 1986; Townsend 1979). The recent
research on the Teuchitlan tradition has begun to fulfill the require-
ments of the earlier approach in that scholars have documented
differential access to wealth (Galván 1991; Ramos and López 1996),
multi-tiered settlement hierarchies (Ohnersorgen and Varien 1996;
Weigand 1985), and monumental architecture (Weigand 1996);
sketched a rise-and-fall trajectory (Weigand 1979, 1985); sug-
gested the use of specific political strategies (Beekman 1996,
2000);, and confirmed the existence of intensive agricultural sys-
tems (Stuart 2002; Weigand 1993). But our willingness or ability
to deal with a more emic approach has been unsatisfactory to date.
This is partly due to the minimal excavation that has taken place
in the west, but we have also failed to capitalize on the data that
are available to us. If any region in western Mexico exists that has
the necessary data to embark on an emic analysis of its political
system, it is the core of the Teuchitlan tradition, in central Jalisco.
THE TEUCHITLAN TRADITION
The label of the Teuchitlan tradition requires some explanation. It
refers to the use of a distinctive form of public architecture found
principally in the Tequila valleys of central Jalisco, with outliers
in the seven surrounding states. These complexes date to the Late
Formative through Classic periods (300 b.c.–a.d. 900) and are
composed of successive concentric circles—a circular altar, a wider
circular patio, and a ring of equally spaced structures facing the
patio (Figure 1). Although they may share structures with adjacent
complexes, each circle is a complete and independent unit, and
individual elements do not occur without the others. Early circles
have four structures around the central altar, but by the close of
the Late Formative period (around a.d. 200), the circles typically
have eight structures surrounding what is usually a much larger
round pyramid (Weigand 1985). Teuchitlan refers to a town at the

299
300
Figure 1. Examples of guachimontones of the Teuchitlan tradition, from Santa Maria de las Navajas, Jalisco. From the 2002 Tequila Valley
Regional Archaeological Project map.
geographic center of the tradition’s distribution, where the largest
collection of this architecture can be found at the site of Guachi-
monton. All of the individual circles are thus referred to as guachi-
montones in recognition of that site’s central importance.
The core of the Teuchitlan tradition was composed of several
closely linked valleys that ring the Volcán de Tequila (Figure 2).
In pre-Columbian times, the Laguna de Magdalena was a major
feature of the western part of the valleys, and some natural pre-
decessor of the modern La Vega reservoir was located in the south-
ern part (Weigand 1993). The Tequila valleys are in many respects
reminiscent of other large lake basins of the Mexican highlands
(Patzcuaro, Tetzcoco)—they possess ample farmland, mountain
resources, and lake fish and fowl that would have resulted in a
diverse subsistence base.
Just as in the rest of Mesoamerica, farmers in the Tequila val-
leys had to contend with a pronounced dry season-rainy season
distinction. Today, this means that approximately 900–1,000 mm
of annual rainfall falls primarily between late May and early Oc-
tober (Vose et al. 1992). This places seasonal limits on rainfall
agriculture, but the total rainfall and number of frost-free days are
greater than in, say, central Mexico. Weigand (1993) has argued
that irrigation, terracing, raised fields, and other forms of agricul-
tural intensification greatly extended potential food production,
Beekman
but more chronologically precise studies of these features are con-
tinuing (Stuart 2002).
Existing studies of the activities that took place in the public
buildings have taken advantage of a unique source of data—
ceramic dioramas of the architecture that depict dancing, drink-
ing, marriages, and other activities (Townsend 1998:Figures 2,
27; Von Winning 1971:348, Figures 10, 11, 1974:Figures 41– 45;
Von Winning and Hammer 1972:Figures 21–23) (Figure 3). Igna-
cio Bernal (1949), J. Charles Kelley (1974), and Weigand (1992a)
have pointed more specifically to the numerous scenes in which a
tall pole is set in the central altar (e.g., Kan et al. 1970:Figure 35;
Von Winning 1969:Figure 155) (Figures 4 and 5). While a group
of individuals stand in the patio below, someone usually climbs
the pole or balances on top. All of the authors previously cited
identify the scenes as depictions of the pan-Mesoamerican vola-
dor ceremony, which is still practiced in many areas (Table 1).
In the ethnohistorically documented form of the volador, four
young males climb a 11–25 m pole and leap off at a climactic
moment of the ceremony, allowing the ropes tying them to an
apparatus at the top to unwind as they spiral down. The four flyers
(frequently dressed as birds) hope to make 13 circuits around the
pole before touching down, totaling 52, the number of years in a
calendrical cycle. As many authors ancient and modern have noted,
Agricultural pole rituals and rulership in Late Formative Central Jalisco
Figure 2. Map of central Jalisco.
the ceremony makes symbolic reference to both the Mesoameri-
can temporal round and the spatial model based on four cardinal
directions (e.g., Kelley 1974; Torquemada 1943 [1612]:305–307).
Lorenzo Boturini de Benaducci (1999 [1746]:21) also related this
fourfold aspect of the voladores to the solstices and equinoxes,
and Christopher L. Witmore (1998) recently summarized some of
the suggestive evidence relating the circular imagery of the Me-
soamerican calendar to the form of the guachimontones.
In a recent paper, I argued that the volador ritual was only the
tip of the iceberg of guachimontón symbolism (Beekman 2003).
The layout of the architecture itself was a metaphor for the Meso-
american three-tiered model of the universe, with an upper world
represented by the volador pole and the central mound, a middle
world defined by the patio itself, and an underworld clearly refer-
enced by the tombs sometimes found underneath the surrounding
structures. This representation of sacred space has been identified
at many other Mesoamerican centers (e.g., Ashmore 1991; Joyce
2000) as part of a conscious program relating political leaders to
the sacred. The primary subsistence crop of Mesoamerica, maize,
is also commonly related to this worldview both conceptually and
iconographically (e.g., Bohrer 1994; Taube 2000). The most con-
troversial part of my earlier paper was the claim that the concen-
tric circular layout of the later guachimontones actually duplicated
a cross-section of one of the eight-rowed maize varieties known to
have evolved in western Mexico within the same general time
frame (Figure 6).
What I only alluded to previously was that the volador ritual
may not be the best explanation for the imagery present in the
301
ceramic dioramas of the Teuchitlan tradition circles. I aim to dem-
onstrate this by first referring to recent archaeological excavations
at Llano Grande that were partly guided by studies of the ceramic
models. This will be followed by a discussion of an alternative
source of inspiration for the dioramas and what this might mean
for both our understanding of activities in the circles and of the
role of political leaders in the Teuchitlan tradition.
EXCAVATIONS AT LLANO GRANDE
The 2000 Tequila Valley Regional Archaeological Project (TVRAP)
excavations at the guachimontón of Llano Grande, although re-
cent and unsynthesized, provide useful data that help explain the
role of these complexes. The settlement is located on a mesa
bounded to north and south by small seasonal streams. The mesa,
in turn, lies within the terminus of a pass through the mountains
that surround the Tequila valleys. The settlement is composed of a
concentric circular arrangement of eight structures of the Teuchit-
lan tradition, an adjacent compound of restricted access (elite res-
idences?), and another 50 structures grouped into 12 compounds
(Figure 7). A conservative estimate of site area is 20 ha, and the
inclusion of some compounds that are physically very close but
separated by moderately deep arroyos would increase that figure.
Ceramics pertain to the Early and Middle Tabachines phases (a.d.
1– 400), and initial radiocarbon results (to be discussed elsewhere)
support this assignment. Our excavations concentrated on three of
the outer structures of the Llano Grande circle and on the patio
(Figure 8), of which only the latter will be discussed here.
302
Figure 3. North America, Mexico, Nayarit, village festival scene, ceramic, c. A.D. 200. Height, 7 cm; diameter, 15 cm. (Gift of Mr.
and Mrs. Julian Goldsmith, 1989.639. Copyright 1999, Art Institute of Chicago. All rights reserved.)
There was an obvious rise in the center of the patio that I had
initially interpreted as the customary altar, obscured by debris
tossed aside by the looters who had clearly been digging there. As
excavation progressed, however, it became clear that no construc-
tion material was present. At a very shallow depth, in fact, we had
reached a slightly raised solid surface that turned out to be a wide
strip of consolidated ashflow that runs north-south across the cen-
ter of the patio and quite close to the surface. Although solid, the
surface of the ashflow was soft enough for the builders of the
circle to cut into it. Numerous crisscrossing cuts had been made to
produce a circular bowl-shaped depression of about 20 cm in depth
and about 25 cm in diameter (Figure 9). Measurements confirmed
that it lay at the direct center of the guachimontón patio, and no
other holes were found in the patio. It appears that instead of
constructing an altar, the builders of the Llano Grande circle had
used the slight elevation for the same purpose. Several similar
holes within central altars have since been found during excava-
tions at the site of Guachimonton (Phil Weigand, personal com-
munications 2000–2002).
Beekman
These holes in the patio centers clearly correspond to the loca-
tion where poles are depicted in the ceramic dioramas mentioned
earlier. Ethnographic descriptions of the volador ceremony usu-
ally refer to setting the pole upright in a deep pit (see especially
Bunzel 1952:424– 425), which was then supported by earth and
stones (nicely depicted iconographically in the Codex Borboni-
cus). The hole at Llano Grande is obviously not deep enough to
support a freestanding pole, which would have required guy lines
leading to the edges of the patio for support. Some images of pole
ceremonies other than the volador depict such a support system
(e.g., those in Durán 1971 [1579]:Plates 19 and 47). Fray Bernar-
dino de Sahagún’s (1950–1969 [1578–1580]:Book 2:18) descrip-
tion of another pole ceremony similarly states, “The tree was made
fast by many ropes from the top, as the rigging of a ship hangeth
from the topsail.” Support lines of this sort would have made a
volador ceremony impossible at Llano Grande: Flyers would have
collided with the guy lines as they circled the pole. This is only
one caution, but another is that a different ceremony may be more
plausible.
Agricultural pole rituals and rulership in Late Formative Central Jalisco
Figure 4. 1959.55.18. Pole scene, Nayarit. Two houses and a prone figure
on top of a pole (volador). Several of the figures are wrapped in blankets.
(Courtesy Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.)
POLE-CLIMBING CEREMONIES
There is a great deal more regarding pole ceremonies in Meso-
america that has not yet been explored in the literature in western
Mexico or elsewhere. We can start by noting that most of the
ceramic models of the pole ceremony described earlier do not
really look much like a volador ritual. Instead, figures are shown
climbing or balancing atop the pole. This could be due to the
difficulties inherent in representing swinging voladores in the ce-
ramic medium. But there are other pole-climbing ceremonies in
Mesoamerica that deserve more attention than they have received.
Many of the ceramic models may better correspond to the Xocotl
Huetzi, a ceremony recorded in central Mexico in the sixteenth
century but recorded ethnohistorically and ethnographically across
Mesoamerica (recently noted also by Butterwick 1998:102) (Fig-
ures 10 and 11). Indeed, Boturini (1999 [1746]:21) and Toribio de
Motolinía (1903 [1536–1541]:Capítulo 16:46) even confused or
conflated the volador ceremony with that of Xocotl Huetzi in their
descriptions, suggesting an intimate relationship and overlapping
symbolism.
The Xocotl Huetzi was the central ceremony from one of the
18 veintenas (20-day periods) of the central Mexican 365-day
303
Figure 5. Ceremonial scene, Nayarit, 600 B.C.–A.D. 1000. Painted terra
cotta. (Accession number 5444.7265; courtesy Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa,
OK.)
calendar. The veintena was alternately known as Hueymiccail-
huitl (Great Feast of the Dead in Nahuatl), but both terms are
used interchangeably and in combination with each other. As
suggested later, they may refer to two different events from the
same ceremony.
On another day named xocotlhuezi, in some areas, such as
Tacuba, Cuyovacan, Azcapuzalco, they used to raise a great
pole [from a] tree trunk of 10 brazas, and they made an idol of
seeds bundled up and decorated with paper, and they put it atop
that pole, and in the course of the celebration they raised this
idol onto the pole, and on the day all danced around it, and in
the morning of the day of the celebration they took some slaves
and other captives that they took in war, and they brought them
bound hand and foot, and tossed them in a great fire that they
had built for this cruelty; and before they had finished burning,
they took them from the fire not out of any pity they had, but to
cause them a second torment or death, that they shortly fol-
lowed, which was to sacrifice them, removing their hearts, and
in the afternoon they knocked the pole to the ground, and they
struggled to obtain part of that idol, of the seeds that were
304 Beekman

Table 1. Listing of known references to the volador ceremony

Date to which
Location and Group Source Source Refers Time of Year Ceremony Pole Height

Codex Porfirio Acuña 1991:45– 46, Historic event— Volador pole associated with
Díaz, Oaxaca Lámina 10 Late Postclassic arrow sacrifice
Codex Fernández Acuña 1991:46, Historic event— Volador with flier depicted
Leal, Oaxaca Lámina P* Late Postclassic in bird costumes
Relación de Miranda 1988 Historic event— Reference to tall tree in the
Michoacán [1540]:163 Late Postclassic patio of the temple to Quer-
(Purépecha) enda Angapeti, the Sun,
down which the sky gods
descend
Valley of Mexico Durán 1971 Contact period Volador dressed as birds or 55–73 m
(Mexica) [1579]:297, 313 monkeys
Central Mexico Boturini 1999 Contact period Various times Volador in honor of
[1746]:21 of year Xiuhtecuhtli
Nicaragua Oviedo y Valdés 1959 1528–1529 After harvest Volador with dancers below, .17 m
(Tezoatega) [1535]:413– 414 of cacao and 8–10 days later climbed
up and knocked off image of
Cacao god from top of pole
Iguala, Guerrero Dahlgren de Jordan 1540 Volador
(Nahua) 1954:279
Oaxaca (Mixtec Dahlgren de Jordan 1545–1549 Yutnusicoyaha—Volador or
and Zapotec) 1954:279–280 pole-climbing variant to ask
for rain (had moved to hill-
top for secrecy after Con-
quest)
Codex Mexicanus Graulich and Barlow 1549 Volador
(1549), Lámina 82, 1995:144, n. 94
Central Mexico
Tlatelolco (Mexica) Torquemada 1943 1568–1580 (see Fiesta de la Volador dressed as birds
[1612]:305–307 Leal 1977–1978: Conquista
137), 1611
Codex Azcatitlan Graulich and Barlow Historic event?— Volador wearing wings that
(16th century), 1995:144–146 sixteenth century may represent birds or an-
Lámina 27, Valley gels
of Mexico (Mexica)
Central Mexico Spanish–Otomi dictio- seventeenth Volador
(Otomi) nary in Carrasco 1979 century or earlier
[1950]:215
Santiago de Guate- Fuentes y Guzmán late seventeenth Volador dressed as birds. Termer 1957 esti-
mala, Guatemala 1932–1933:364–366 century Clown figure dressed as mates .12–15 m
(Cakchiquel) monkey stays on top
Esquintepeque, Fuentes y Guzmán late seventeenth Volador
Guatemala (Pipil) 1932–1933:366 century
Central Mexico Clavijero 1958 [1780– up to 1700s Volador dressed as birds As much as 21 m
1881]:Book 2:282–284,
possibly copied from
Torquemada
Sierra de Guachi- Nebel 1963 ca. 1830 Volador 15–18 m estimated
nango (prob. Otomi) [1840]:Plate 13 from his drawing
San Antonio Aguas Termer 1957:223 late 1800s Volador
Calientes, Guatemala
(Cakchiquel)
Coyutla, Veracruz Breton 1910:515 1898 November 30– Volador in plaza 21 m
(Totonac) December 9
Tepexco, Veracruz Breton 1910:515–516 1899 January 17 Volador in plaza 21 m
(Totonac and and 18
Nahuatl)
(continued )
Agricultural pole rituals and rulership in Late Formative Central Jalisco 305

Table 1. Continued

Date to which
Location and Group Source Source Refers Time of Year Ceremony Pole Height

San Pedro de la Termer 1957:223 pre-1920s Volador

Laguna, Guatemala
(Tzutujil)
Tepoztlán, Morelos Mena and Arriaga 1920s Volador in plaza 11 m 3 25 cm
(Nahua) and 1930:39– 41 diameter
Papantla, Veracruz
(Totonac)
Various towns in Termer 1957:222–227 Approximately December 1925 Volador in plaza. Monkey
Guatemalan High- 1880s–1920s, (Chichicastenango); August clowns present at Joyabaj
lands (Quiché) and declining 1927 (Joyabaj). Both appeared (Quiché)
to be paired with the Fiesta de
la Conquista.
Santo Tomás Redfield 1936:236– 1930s Volador
Chichicastenango 237 (personal com-
(Quiché), Santa munication, Sol Tax
Apolonia/ to Redfield)
Chimaltenango,
and San Pedro
(Cakchiquel),
Guatemala
San Luis Potosi Stresser Pean 1948 1930s Bixom tíu—Volador
(Huastec)
Pahuatlan, Sierra de Larsen 1937a 1930s “. . .at fiestas such as Corpus Volador 21 m
Puebla (Otomi) Christi”
Xicotepec, Sierra de Larsen 1937b in Leal 1930s Volador explicitly readopted
Puebla (Otomi) 1977–1978:139 to propitiate maize and earth
to obtain good crops
Chichicastenango Bunzel 1952:424– 1940s Cut tree in October, early No- Ajuwi’che’—Volador 25 m in hole
(Quiché), Guatemala 425 vember gives thanks 3 m deep
for harvest, tree comes to
village early December,
up for about 20 days
Huitziltepec, Weitlaner et al. 1947 1940s Volador
Guerrero (Nahua) in Dahlgren de
Jordan 1954:279
Chila, Sierra de Kurath 1967:159, 167 ca. 1950s February 10–17 Volador
Puebla (Otomi)
Pahuatlan, Sierra de Kurath 1967:159–161 ca. 1950s Easter (late March–April) Volador
Puebla (Otomi)
Papantla, Veracruz Kurath 1967:161 ca. 1950s Corpus Christi (8.5 weeks after Volador
(Totonac) Easter—end of May–June)
Sierra de Puebla Dow 1974:120, n. 5 1960–1970s Volador
(Otomi)
Sierra de Puebla Galinier 1997:193– 1970–1980s Carnaval (anywhere between Volador
(Otomi) 203, Plates 1,2 January 31 and March 5)
Papantla, Veracruz Castro de la Rosa 1980s Corpus Christi (8.5 weeks after Volador dressed as birds 21 m
(Totonac) 1985 Easter—end of May–June)
(Castro says 10 days in June),
and some of following dates:
August 15, December 15, De-
cember 25, January 8, Septem-
ber 16 Independence
San Pedro Tarím- Sereno Ayala 1978 in ? Volador dressed as birds
baro, Michoacán Castro de la Rosa
(Purépecha) 1985:51

Note: Note the wide range of locales for the ceremony. There is no indication that the volador originated in Veracruz, an entrenched myth originating with Krickeberg
(1964).
306
Figure 6. Cross-section of maize variety Harinoso de Ocho next to a plan
drawing of a sample guachimontón from Potrero de las Chivas. Redrawn by
the author from Wellhausen et al. (1952:Figure 51) and Weigand (1975:Fig-
ure 4).
mixed with the dough that in this land they use to make bread,
so as to eat some little part, which they believed would make
them valiant men [Motolinia 1903 [1536–1541]:Capítulo 19:61;
my translation].
Figure 7. The Tequila Valley Regional Archaeological Project 2000 map of Llano Grande, Jalisco. Contour interval is 1 m.
Beekman
As described by various Spanish and native sources (Table 2),
the ritual for this “month” involved the ceremonial raising of a
pole, of approximately the same height (15– 46 m) as that of the
volador. Atop it were placed either banners or an image in ama-
ranth dough of a bird, of the god of fire and time Xiuhtecuhtli, or
the related Otomi deity Otontecuhtli. Dancing, feasting, and drink-
ing of alcoholic pulque were part of the ceremony, which culmi-
nated in a race among male youths to reach the top of the pole and
capture the image. Depending on which source one emphasizes, at
some point during the ceremony one or more individuals were
sacrificed by fire as an offering to Xiuhtecuhtli or the closely
related Huehueteotl (the Old Fire God). The latter is specified
only in two of the codices of the Magliabecchiano group.
Eduard Seler (1993a [1908]:Book 4:139–143) and more re-
cently Annabeth Headrick (2002) have interpreted this ritual as
martial in orientation and as devoted to the souls of dead warriors
or princes who have gone to an afterlife with the sun. Headrick
notes, however, that the Tepantitla mural painting that depicts the
Xocotl Huetzi ceremony or its analogue at Classic-period Teoti-
huacan also includes agricultural motifs associated with the Great
Goddess. Indeed, Betty Ann Brown (1988) actually argues that
this monthly ritual was more oriented toward agriculture before
the Aztecs turned it into an instrument of state terror, something
the Teotihuacan state may have done, as well.
If we acknowledge this possibility, we can note that both the
volador and Xocotl Huetzi rituals make a number of interesting
Agricultural pole rituals and rulership in Late Formative Central Jalisco
Figure 8. The Tequila Valley Regional Archaeological Project 2000 map of the guachimontón at the Group 14 circular complex, Llano
Grande, Jalisco. Contour interval is 10 cm.
Figure 9. Photograph of carved hole in center of patio in the Llano
Grande guachimontón. Scale 5 25 cm.
307
parallel references to fertility—or, more specifically, to agricul-
ture (Castro de la Rosa 1985; Kelley 1974:25–32; Leal 1977–
1978). Both pole ceremonies have been seen by some scholars
(Galinier 1997:193–203; Margain 1939; Stresser Pean 1948) as
phallic in their symbolism, and, of course, much could be made of
the climactic moment of the volador ceremony when the four
flyers leap from the top of the pole. We have no pre-Columbian
name for the volador ritual, but Xocotl Huetzi (Nahuatl for “The
xocotl fruit falls”) may be a reference to ripening plants, or it
could just refer to the collapse of the xocotl pole at the end of the
ceremony. Walter Krickeberg (1964:160) thought that the volador
represented agricultural crops descending from the heavens, and
Konrad Theodor Preuss noted that the related Huichol spring and
harvest-pole ceremonies represented maize’s descent from and as-
cent to the heavens (Preuss 1998:229–230, 272–274). Barbro Dahl-
gren de Jordan (1954:279–80) describes volador ceremonies among
the Zapotec and Mixtec as explicitly tied to pleas for rain for
crops.
308
Figure 10. Xocotl Huetzi ceremony, Codex Borbonicus (from Seler 1908:Fig-
ure 75).
Rituals similar to the Xocotl Huetzi and recorded ethnograph-
ically among the Maya all share a strong emphasis on agricultural
symbolism in the absence of most references to fire, warriors, or
youths (Redfield 1936). Indeed, ethnographic cases of pole cer-
emonies from the Huichol, Zapotec, and the Maya indicate that
the military and death aspects have been replaced since the
Conquest with ritual clowns or monkeys (see the discussion in
Redfield [1936] and compare Table 2) while retaining explicit
agricultural references. Of course, no reason exists that militarism
and fertility need be competing interpretations for the pole cer-
emonies. The annual cycles of warfare and agriculture appear to
have been inversely correlated in Mesoamerica, partly because
most warriors were also farmers. As Ross Hassig (1988:53–54)
notes, Aztec military campaigns could not begin until the harvest
had been brought in. David Webster (1999:80, 100–101) cites a
variety of hieroglyphic and ethnohistoric accounts indicating that
Maya warfare occurred primarily in the dry season, beginning in
earnest right after harvest time. The Xocotl Huetzi ceremony, and
that of the volador, thus has a twofold aspect, emphasizing the
Beekman
Figure 11. Xocotl Huetzi ceremony, Primeros Memoriales (from Seler 1908:Fig-
ure 76).
calendar, the sun, and agriculture on one side and elite ancestors
and masculine youth on the other.
Indeed, the timing of both ceremonies and their relationship to
annual cycles seem highly suggestive. The volador was never
linked to a particular Mesoamerican “month.” Early accounts do
not say much about its schedule, but I have already mentioned its
association with pleas for rain, and one Nicaraguan source specif-
ically assigns it to the end of the cacao harvest (see Table 1). The
Xocotl Huetzi ceremony in the sixteenth century was firmly linked
to late August among those sources from the central highlands of
Mexico, as was another pole-raising ritual in Yucatan (Table 2).
Because the Gregorian calendar reform was not implemented in
the Spanish colonies until 1582, these dates in late August would
actually correspond to early September in our current under-
standing of the seasonal round. This would typically be too early
for a full-fledged maize harvest. But it does correlate reasonably
well with the historically and ethnographically important early
harvest of the green maize that has just turned milky, and thus
edible, usually a month or two before the main harvest.
The changes that occurred after the Conquest as part of the
general accommodation of native beliefs to the Catholic ritual
schedule altered the original timing of these ceremonies. It ap-
pears as if the Xocotl Huetzi ceremony was broken up into its two
aspects. The celebrations of the ancestral dead that were part of
Hueymiccailhuitl and the veintena prior were recognized by
Durán to have moved to November 1 and 2 to merge with All
Saint’s and All Soul’s Days (Durán 1971 [1579]:441– 443). Within
the last century or so, pole ceremonies reminiscent of the Xocotl
Huetzi (though long since forced to give up that name) have been
documented from December through March (Table 2), and one
Huichol case in October retains its connection to a green-corn
ceremony (Fikes 1985:172–186; Preuss 1998:229–230, 272–
274). The modern cases of the volador have nearly the same sched-
Agricultural pole rituals and rulership in Late Formative Central Jalisco 309

Table 2. Listing of known references to Xocotl Heutzi and similar ceremonies

Date of Pole
Location and Group Source evidence Time of Year a Ceremony Heights

Tepantitla murals, Headrick 2002 Middle Classic Pole in plaza as world tree, with
Teotihuacan, central iconographic reference to both
Mexico warfare and fertility
Lienzo de Zacatepec 1, Smith 1973:111, 118, Historic event— 11 Tiger sits atop pole supported
Oaxaca (Mixtec) 119 Probably four- by ropes
teenth century
at latest
Coyoacan (Tepanec) Durán 1994 [1581]:91 Historic event— Month of Xocotl Huetzi
Late Postclassic,
Reign of Itz-
coatl
Chalco (Chalca) Durán 1994 [1581]:142– Historic Month of Xocotl Huetzi Mexica captive commits suicide by 33 m
143 Event— pole while other captives dance
Late Postclassic, below
Reign of
Motecuhzoma
Tlacopan, Coyoacan Motolinía 1903 [1536– Contact period Month of Hueymiccailhuitl “Flying pole” raised, climbed pole
(Tepanec) 1541]:46 to get prizes
Tlacopan, Coyoacan, Motolinía 1903 [1536– Contact period Month of Xocotl Huetzi Raised pole, fire sacrifice, knocked 18 m
Azcapotzalco (Tepanec) 1541]:61 down pole to get pieces of dough
idol
Tlacopan, Coyoacan, Motolinía 1951 Contact period Raise pole, fire sacrifice, knocked 18 m
Azcapotzalco (Tepanec) [15??]:117. Derivative down pole to get prizes
of Memoriales . . .
Codex Borbonicus, Anders et al. 1991:149– Contact period Trecena 1 Pedernal Young men climbing pole to obtain
Central Mexico 150 prizes; explicit reference to per-
sonal distinction and an afterlife
with the sun
Codex Borbonicus, 28 Anders et al. 1991:206– Contact period Month of Xocotl Huetzi, October? Raising of pole with paper image of
right, Central Mexico 208; Couch 1985:65– 68, (according to Couch 1985: Figure 14, Otontecuhtli on top, dancing below
Figure 14 but not clear why)
Reconstructed prototype Boone 1983:Tables 19, Contact period Month of Hueymiccailhuitl, August
of Magliabechiano 20 28, Día de San Augustus
group (1528–1553)
(Lost), Valley of Mexico
(Mexica)
Codex Tudela (Folio 20 Boone 1983:64– 66, Contact period Month of Hueymiccailhuitl, August Shows Xiuhtecutli as figure atop
recto and verso) Tables 19, 20 18 pole
(ca. 1553), Valley of
Mexico (Mexica)
Fiestas (7 recto), Valley Boone 1983:Tables 19, Contact period July 19 (a clear error—does not fit
of Mexico (Mexica) 20 with entry that follows)
Libro de Figuras (Lost), Boone 1983:Tables 19, Contact period Unstated month, August 28
Valley of Mexico 20
(Mexica)
Cronica (37 recto and Boone 1983:Tables 19, Contact period Unstated month, August 28
verso), Valley of Mexico 20
(Mexica)
Codex Magliabechiano Boone 1983:Tables 19, Contact period Month of Hueymiccailhuitl, Xocotl Climbing pole to obtain bread, fire
(Folio 37 verso, 38 20, 195–196 Huetzi sacrifice, dedicated to Huehueteotl.
recto) (mid sixteenth Image depicts Otontecuhtli
century), Valley of
Mexico (Mexica)
Codex Ixtlilxochitl (Folio Boone 1983:Tables 19, Contact period Month of Xocotl Huetzi, August 28, Pulling down pole, fire sacrifice.
98 verso) 20 Día de San Augustus Dedicated to Huehueteotl
(ca. 1600), Valley of
Mexico (Mexica)
Yucatan (Yucatec Maya) Landa 1978 [1937]: Contact period Third day of month of Zip, which Worship by physicians, hunters,
72–73 was August 28 in 1553 and fisherman, raising of pole
(continued )
310 Beekman

Table 2. Continued

Date of Pole
Location and Group Source evidence Time of Year a Ceremony Heights

Central Mexico Sahagún 1997 [1559– Contact period Month of Hueymiccailhuitl, Xocotl Placement of Otontecuhtli dough
(Mexica) 1561]:61– 62 Huetzi, August 5 image atop pole raised at the end of
the previous month, sacrifice of
Yacatecuhtli, dance, pole climbing
for prizes

Codex Telleriano Quiñones Keber Contact period Month of Hueymiccailhuitl, August Depiction shows mummy bundle
Remensis (1562–1563), 1995:142–143 with features of Otontecuhtli, Xiu-
Folio 2v, Valley of htecuhtli, Ixcozauhqui, and Paynal
Mexico (Mexica)

Central Mexico Sahagun 1950–1969 Contact period Xocotl Huetzi Pole raising, dance, fire sacrifice, 46 m
(Mexica) [1578–1580]:17–18 pole climbing to obtain dough im-
age of god
Central Mexico Sahagun 1950–1969 Contact period Xocotl Huetzi Pole raising, placement of dough
(Mexica) [1578–1580]:111–117 image of Xocotl atop pole, dancing,
Paynal visits the captives, fire sacri-
fice to Xiuhtecuhtli, pole climbing
to obtain image, pole pulled down

Valley of Mexico Durán 1971 [1579]:161– Contact period Annual, apparently around planting A central tree called Tota was tied
(Mexica) 166, Plate 14 time (p. 165) with ropes to four smaller ones
around it. They were set up in front
of temple of Tlaloc. Accompanied
by child sacrifice in Lake Texcoco

Valley of Mexico Durán 1971 [1579]:203– Contact period Month of Huey Miccailhuitl, Xocotl Pole raising with dough bird on 34– 43 m
(Mexica) 209, Plate 19; 1971 Huetzi, August 27 or 28, notes fear atop, then 20 days later fire sacrifice
[1579]:444– 446, of frost over the 20 days prior followed by pole climbing and
Plate 47 dancing around pole. Image includes
mummy bundle in corner

Central Mexico
Durango (Acaxee)
Central Mexico (Otomi)
Santa Catarina, Jalisco
(Huichol)
Jalisco (Huichol)
Boturini 1999 Contact period Xocotl Huetzi Pole raising and fire sacrifice
[1746]:20–21
Beals 1932:212 ca. 1600 Prior to planting, and after first har- Hang idols and human remains from
vest pole to obtain rain, and later make
first fruits offerings at base of pole
Carrasco 1979 Seventeenth cen- Month of Antãngotu, August “Great Feast of the Dead”
[1950]:173, 179–181 tury or earlier
Preuss 1998:173–175, 1890s, 1900s March (Preuss), although context in Fiesta del Tostado del Maíz
252–253, 283–284, Lumholtz suggests late in rainy sea- (Preuss), but Lumholtz mentions it
probably same referred son (June–October) and even Preuss during description of Feast of Un-
to in Lumholtz 1902:46 makes reference to it being just hulled Maize. People tied to a pole
as a variant “in the before harvest (p. 284) dance around it in adoration of sun.
southeastern part of the Ceremonial clowns make clear
country” references to fertilization
Preuss 1998:229–230, 1900s Harvest time for green corn, October Fiesta de la Cosecha (and other
272–274 names). Magic feather rods hang
from a pole, while squash and other
offerings are placed at its base.
Maize ascends pole to sky

Socotz, NW Belize Thompson 1930:111– 1920s March 19, Feast of San José Dancing around ceiba pole in plaza,
([Itza?] Maya) 112, in Redfield in honor of “spirit of vegetation”
1936:231 (Thompson 1930:112). Clown
present

Xcaxcal, NW Quintana Redfield 1936:231–232 1930s Usually December 8, Day of the Pole climbing of yaxche tree, but
Roo (Maya) Virgin’s Conception, postponed to substituted sapote. Scattering of
March 1 in 1936 seeds from pole. Clown present

Mitla, Oaxaca (Zapotec) Parsons 1936:246–249 1930s January, Festival of San Pablo (prob- Pole climbing to reach prize in 15 m
in Redfield 1936:233 ably January 25) plaza. Clown present

Santa Catarina, Jalisco Fikes 1985:172–186 1979, 1980 Mid-October Tatei neixa “Dance of our Mother”.
(Huichol) Defers to earlier descriptions by
Preuss and Lumholtz but empha-
sizes ritual purification of maize

a
Dates in bold are prior to the Gregorian calendar reform. Ten days should be added to gain a date that more correctly represents the time of year as understood today.
Agricultural pole rituals and rulership in Late Formative Central Jalisco
ule (extending into April), with the better-known voladores of
Papantla bucking the pattern and celebrating it several times a
year (Table 1). There seems to be a special emphasis on Catholic
holidays of spring renewal, such as Easter, perhaps a reinter-
pretation of the pre-Columbian meaning.
An interesting possibility suggests itself. The volador and Xo-
cotl Huetzi, so frequently intertwined in their timing and mean-
ing, may originally have been paired rituals occurring in the spring
and fall. The western Mexican ceramic models are ambiguous as
to which ceremony is truly being represented, but their overlap-
ping symbolism suggests that a general reference to critical points
in the agricultural cycle—specifically, maize—was meant. We can-
not assume that these were the only ceremonies enacted within the
circles, but the fact that the ancient ceramicists chose to represent
these so frequently speaks to their importance.
GREEN-MAIZE CEREMONIES
To summarize (Table 3), the symbolism and scheduling suggest
that the pole ceremonies described from Spanish Contact were
related in one way or another to agricultural fertility. Specifically,
a few references exist that tie the volador to the spring and pleas
for rain, and the Xocotl Huetzi is strongly associated with the fall
and an early harvest ritual. The interpretation of the Xocotl Huetzi
as a first-fruits ritual may, in fact, originate with Seler (cf. Brown
1988:181n.2, although I could not find the reference she indicates).
The green-maize harvest in many ways carries more symbolic
significance than the full-fledged harvest, as it signifies an end to
the long period of careful rationing of the previous year’s stores. It
was particularly well known among eastern North American maize
farmers. Several groups in the east carried out green-corn ceremo-
nies within architecture or specially dedicated plazas (Witthoft
1949:20, 64– 65), and the Delaware, Cherokee, Creek, and Natchez
even used a central pole as the focal point for the dances (Witthoft
1949:16–17, 48– 49, 62, 71; note especially the description of the
ceremony among the Delaware). Fire played a common role in
these rituals, either through the renewal of fire throughout the
community or in the roasting of the first green-maize ears (e.g.,
Witthoft 1949:32, 53– 62). We might speculate that the Mesoamer-
ican element of tossing human beings onto the fire during the
Xocotl Huetzi symbolized the latter.
In Mesoamerica, ethnohistoric evidence for an early harvest
exists in the numerous references to green corn and its dietary uses
by sources as diverse as Sahagún (1950 –1969 [1578–1580]:
Table 3. Summary of data in Tables 1 and 2
Ceremony Cases Distribution
Volador and 35 Central Mexico through Nicaragua. Late Postclassic
similar rituals Most examples from highlands, through modern
and most of those from Central times
Mexico and Oaxaca
Xocotl Huetzi and 31 Durango through Belize. Middle Classic
similar rituals Most examples from highlands, through 1930s
and most from Central Mexico
311
Book 2:64, Book 6:228, 235, Book 8:38, Book 10:42, 79, Book
11:279, 281, Book 12:75) and Thomas Gage (1958 [1648]:222–
223). The Otomi of north-central Mexico were said to have held a
special regard for green maize (Sahagún 1950 –1969 [1578–
1580]:Book 10:179–180, Book 12:75), although the story is pre-
sented as a cautionary tale against harvesting too much of one’s
crop before full maturity. In the past century, early maize harvests
have been reported from September to November for Mesoamer-
ica as a whole (Palerm 1967:29–30; Reina 1967:318–324). Alan
Sandstrom (1991:124–125) reports green-maize harvests from Sep-
tember to early October among Nahua speakers in Veracruz. Cer-
emonies celebrating the green-maize harvest are reportedly held
in several areas of the Maya Lowlands and Highlands (Stross
1994:n. 25; see also Collier 1975:72–74).
There seems to have been a particular emphasis on green-corn
harvests in western Mexico. They have been reported repeatedly
among the Sierra Purépecha of Michoacan (Beals 1946:20–22;
West 1948:34–39, 45). Among the Huichol, Tepecano, and Cora,
green-corn ceremonies have been held from August to the end of
October, depending on local humidity and planting conditions
(Fikes 1985:170–186; González Ramos 1972; Lumholtz 1902:Book
2:119, 126–127; Mason 1913:348–349; Weigand 1992b:56– 60;).
That of the Huichol is particularly relevant: Not only it makes use
of a raised pole as its centerpiece; so does its companion ritual in
the spring (Preuss 1998:173–175, 229–230, 272–274, 283–284).
One of Preuss’s descriptions of the October ritual is as follows:
At midday during the same fiesta (of Toasted Maize) they carry
out a second very characteristic ceremony, accompanied by the
song ipinári. The name refers to the “post that reaches to the
sky”, which is located in the plaza in front of the temple and
where they hang belts with attractive woven designs that are of
the same type as those the Huichol use. The number of belts
corresponds to the number of the custodians of the temple. The
custodians appear as women, hold the belts, and dance around
the post. One man named huna holds the post so that it doesn’t
fall. . . . On his back the man carries a bag with tamales made
of raw and cooked maize. . . . Another man, the harapái . . .
also holds the post, but he carries strapped over his shoulders a
drum used by the singer that stands behind him. The most im-
portant role is of the yuhuname. The young men do not want
the role, and so an old man holds it. He must run around with
his penis exposed and imitating sexual relations with the danc-
ers dressed as women. The idea that is expressed, so soon be-
fore the harvest, is too obvious to have to explain [Preuss
1998:284; my translation].
Dates Time of Year or Occasion Pole Heights
Appears to be November– 11–25 m, averaging
February, with possibly around 18 m, with one
later addition of Catholic extreme outlier of 55–73 m.
holidays of renewal
(Easter through Corpus Christi)
Planting time, March, 15– 46 m, clustering
September (esp. late), toward the top and bottom
October, early harvest time. of that range.
Rare December–January
312
Lumholtz (1902:Book 2:46) describes the ritual in a more sum-
mary manner, as he did not witness it himself. Jay Courtney Fikes
(1985:172–186) witnessed the same tatei neixa (Dance of Our
Mother) as it was performed in 1979 and 1980, but he is suffi-
ciently satisfied with the earlier descriptions that he focuses on
interpretation. He notes that the ritual today is a first-fruits cer-
emony in which the new maize is ritually purified and thanks are
given, but the tatei neixa also holds a wider symbolic signifi-
cance, as it marks the beginning of the dry season and world
renewal.
Each of the western Mexican groups cited so far has comple-
mentary spring rituals generally associated with requests for rain.
The Tepecano have the Feast of Planting Corn in April and repeat
it until the rains begin (Lumholtz 1902:Book 2:119; Mason 1913).
The Cora have rain and planting festivals throughout the month of
May (Lumholtz 1902:Book 1:509), and sources frequently state
that the Huichol continue to ask for rain throughout the rainy
season (Lumholtz 1902:Book 2:1, 6–14).
The ubiquity of green-maize ceremonies among western Mex-
ican indigenous groups may relate to the presence of a variety of
the maize race Harinoso de Ocho, known as the Elotes Occiden-
tales (Wellhausen et al. 1952:70–73, Figure 24). According to
E. J. Wellhausen and colleagues (1952:71), flour corns such as
Harinoso de Ocho are excellent for roasting, which was a cultur-
ally preferred method of eating green maize still practiced today
in Jalisco. However, maize harvested early must either be eaten
relatively soon or boiled and dried to prevent rotting. An emphasis
on an early harvest may signify that the previous year’s maize
stores will not hold out until the regular harvest (not particularly
plausible in a relatively rich and diversified environment such as
the Tequila valleys). It could also be a risk-avoidance practice,
bringing in part of the harvest before frosts can wipe out the crop
(again, not very plausible with the reduced risk of frost in this
region).
Note, finally, that the appearance of green maize is not a single
event. The first milky ears may appear up to two months before
they are considered numerous enough to harvest (Berlin et al.
1974:120–121), and green-maize celebrations have been known
in which the festivities were broken into two separate events spaced
a month apart (e.g. Witthoft 1949:41– 44). The Aztec feast of Huey
Tecuilhuitl, in fact, occurs 40 days before the Xocotl Huetzi and
marks the very first appearance of green maize in the ceremonial
cycle (e.g., Durán 1971[1579]:437; Sahagún 1950–1969 [1578–
1580]:Book 2:96–107). The veintena 20 days after Xocotl Huetzi,
however, has been interpreted by N. C. Christopher Couch
(1985:70) as a celebration of the full-fledged harvest, and various
elements described by Sahagún (1950–1969 [1578–1580]:Book
2:124), such as the scattering of fully ripened seed, support this.
AGRICULTURAL RITUAL IN WESTERN MEXICO
AFTER THE TEUCHITLAN TRADITION
The central pole continued to be an element of sacred centers in
western Mexico well after the Teuchitlan tradition disappeared in
the Epiclassic period (a.d. 600–900). Antonio Tello makes refer-
ence to a pine tree standing in the main plaza of Ocotlan, on the
shores of Lake Chapala, when Nuño de Guzman invaded Jalisco
in 1530 (Tello 1997 [1650–1653]:77). Around 1600, the two Je-
suit priests Arnaya and Santarén each reported that a zapote tree
stood in the plaza of the communal houses in Acaxee communities
to the north, in Durango (Beals 1932:212). This tree was the cen-
Beekman
terpiece for two rituals. During planting time, the Acaxee would
hang idols and the bones and skulls of the dead from the zapote so
that the dead would sow the first seeds (a belief recorded among
the Cora and Huichol of the late nineteenth century, as well [Lum-
holtz 1902:Book 1:509, Book 2:28, 49]; see Furst [1982] for the
wider Mesoamerican parallel to this). Later, the Acaxee would
give the first maize cobs to their deities by placing them at the foot
of the same zapote (Beals 1933:27–29).
In the very early 1900s, J. Alden Mason (1918) recorded an
annual cycle of rituals among the Tepecano Indians of northern
Jalisco that is worth final consideration. Many of these rituals
took place in patios (Mason 1913:348–349, 1918) that turn out to
be ruined guachimontones (Weigand 1975:215–219). The transla-
tions are replete with references to the sky, the four cardinal di-
rections, and requests for rain, extremely common features to ritual
among the Huichol and Cora, as well. Among the various ceremo-
nies transliterated and translated by Mason in Colotlan, several
refer to the chanes (Mason 1913:125–129), apparently a locally
used term for snake creatures called o’oikam in the actual Tepe-
cano rituals.
The chanes are malevolent water-serpents which inhabit the
springs and streams. They are horned and of many colors. They
always travel in pairs, male and female, and love to stretch
themselves through the clouds in rainy weather, head in one
spring and tail in another, visiting. In this form they appear as
rainbows. They are called the “winds of the water”. The chanes
are vicious and will sting those who have not placated them. . . .
When a man decides to build a house and make his home on a
new site it is necessary for him to placate the chanes of the
spring whence he draws his water supply [Mason 1913:126].
The chanes are known as haiku to the Huichol, who believe that
they share most of the attributes described earlier, that they have
wings (Seler 1993b [1908]:Book 4:194), and that they are associ-
ated with the four cardinal directions (Preuss 1998:100). They are
known to the Cora as chacanes (Hinton 1972:36).
Similar creatures were recorded among the seventeenth-
century beliefs of the Tecuexe, Nahua-speaking peoples of central
and eastern Jalisco.
[T]he principal idols that they worshipped were the sun, and
the moon, and other animals that they made of stone, such as
snakes which they celebrate as water deities that they called
chaneques [Paso y Troncoso 1946 (1652):17–18; my translation].
Ohhuican Chahnequeh (dwellers in dangerous places, in Nahuatl)
were described by Ruíz de Hernando Alarcón (1984 [1629]:232)
as forest spirits, and they are still known in some areas of Mexico
today as chaneques, a kind of duende, or goblin. The koo savi of
modern Mixtec belief are feathered serpents whose passage through
the clouds produces rain (Monaghan 1995:105–110, Figures 6
and 7).
The chanes most closely relate to the Cholan and Tzotzilan
Maya term for “snake,” chan, which can also mean the number
“four” or “sky.” This is not a mere phonetic correspondence, as
the chic-chan (in Chorti, “[deer?] snake”; Karl Taube, personal
communication 2002) are rain spirits of the first order. The sky
chic-chan are described by Charles Wisdom (1961:444– 447) in
his early-twentieth-century ethnographic work as horned, fre-
quently traveling in mated pairs, and four in number, each associ-
Agricultural pole rituals and rulership in Late Formative Central Jalisco 313

ated with a major body of water and one of the cardinal directions.
Rainbows are their bodies, thunder is their voice, and storms are
caused by their passage across the sky. Chic-chan from the earth
are similar, and they are described as living upstream during the
dry season and moving downstream with the coming of the rains
and the swelling of the rivers.
As mentioned earlier, the main section of the site of Llano
Grande sits atop a mesa bounded by deeply cut seasonal arroyos
to the north and south, which join at the head of the mesa. The
arroyo below the junction is called the Arroyo el Chan, and our
local informants could not provide us with an explanation for the
toponym. The correspondence is tantalizing and would help to
link the disparate evidence for agricultural ritual to the area around
Llano Grande. But research among the rural populations of central
Jalisco has tended to focus more on the rich history of tequila and
haciendas than on the persistence of still older belief systems.

AGRICULTURAL RITUAL AND POLITICAL POWER

I have drawn on western Mexican imagery, later ethnohistoric and
ethnographic data on ritual and religious beliefs, and their paral-
lels elsewhere in Mesoamerica to argue that the guachimontón
was intimately connected to important rituals of the agricultural
cycle. Specifically, ceremonies linked to the planting and harvest-
Figure 12. Detail of a small ceramic diorama, reportedly from Nayarit.
ing of maize are depicted in ceramic models of the architecture.
Redrawn by Kathy Beekman from Von Winning and Hammer (1972:Fig-
The degree to which this religious significance may have trans- ure 50).
lated into political power is an interesting question. The con-
nections between Mesoamerican rulership and the agricultural
symbolism discussed here are numerous. Virginia Fields (1989:18)
and Brian Stross (1994:15, 21–25) have shown how maize imag-
ery was frequently associated with lowland Mesoamerican rulers
and their ritual duties during the Late Formative period. The prac-
tice of ritual bloodletting among Classic-period Maya royalty had
fertility—especially agricultural fertility—as its goal (Schele and
Miller 1986). Joyce (2000) has similarly argued that Formative-
and Classic-period Zapotec rulers justified their status through
their role as mediators between commoners and the divine in pro-
moting agricultural success.
Depictions of ritual are one thing, but can any of the imagery
discussed be considered an iconography of rulership, as Mark
Miller Graham (1998) asks of the western Mexican corpus? One
example of an architectural scene shows the central pole with a
flat, starburst-shaped object atop it, with a painted circle surround-
ing a cross on the dorsal surface (Von Winning and Hammer
1972:Figure 50) (Figure 12). This may, of course, refer to the
quadripartite concepts that we have discussed, though I suggest
that another connection exists to be made here. Commonly de-
picted in western Mexican art are small, solid clay people seated
or standing next to an upright pole with a disk on top (e.g., Von
Winning and Hammer 1972:Figures 62– 64). The captions com-
monly label the poles as sunshades. But consider the larger, hol-
low figure illustrated in Figure 13. A male, decorated with jewelry
and body and facial tattoos, holds a staff that is clearly a larger and
more detailed version of the object interpreted elsewhere as a
sunshade. The vertical bar has latitudinal stripes, while the flat
“shade” at the top has four equally spaced nubbins around the
upper rim of the disk and a single larger nubbin in the center,
forming a cross. The clay artists of western Mexico frequently
simplified the guachimontón in a similar way to depict the circular
complexes in a secondary role—for example, the battle scene de- Figure 13. Detail of a hollow figure, Ixtlan del Rio style, Nayarit. Redrawn
picted in Figure 14 (for another example, see Von Winning and by Kathy Beekman from Anawalt (1998:Figure 1).
314
Figure 14. Pottery warrior group, Nayarit style. (Catalogue number 30.3/
196; courtesy Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural
History, New York, NY.)
Hammer 1972:Color Plate 5). Here a single structure, a circular
patio, and a stubby central pole are enough to indicate the guachi-
montón form.
If the staff in Figure 13 is a stylized representation of a guachi-
montón with pole, its context suggests that it is an emblem of
office, whether religious, political, or both. In this sense, it may be
comparable to the Classic Maya “Jester God,” or the “Double
Headed Serpent Bar.” These symbols of rulership are not found
with every image of Maya kings, but they identify the holder as a
person of the greatest political power when they do occur (Freidel
and Schele 1988:552; Schele and Miller 1986:72–73, 111). The
associated sky imagery common to the Serpent Bar also relates
the holder specifically to the celestial regions (Schele and Miller
1986:109, 120–121). On the sarcophagus lid of the ruler Pacal II
of Palenque, the Double Headed Serpent Bar is even depicted as
wrapped around the central World Tree (Freidel et al. 1993:77–
79), again relating rulers and the tree (or pole) that links them to
the heavens. Postclassic rulers from the central highlands were
likened to cypress trees (Sahagún 1950–1969 [1578–1580]:Book
6:252), a common reference to their central position as a spiritual
axis mundi and link to the heavens. Hasso von Winning once
made a similar observation about the pole ceremonies depicted in
western Mexico (Von Winning and Hammer 1972:25), citing them
as conduits between this world and the upper world. The individ-
ual in Figure 13, by using an abstracted guachimontón and pole as
a symbol of authority, is making a parallel statement: By virtue of
his role as a mediator in ritual activity, he holds a special relation-
ship with the celestial regions.
Although various concepts and imagery related Mesoamerican
rulers to agricultural fertility, how may this relate to the activities
that took place within guachimontones such as that at Llano Grande,
where cosmological and agricultural symbolism created a locus
for political power? The Franciscan Antonio Arias y Saavedra
(McCarthy and Matson 1975:204–215) reported that, as of the
mid-seventeenth century, Indians from the Pacific coast visited
the highland Cora Sun temple at the ceremonial center of Nayarit
to ascertain the timing of the first rains from the Sun God and the
preserved corpses of past priests that were kept in its temple. The
Beekman
Sun God received these requests, because it was believed to be the
one who sent rain, and the dead priests served as its oracles (Mc-
Carthy and Matson 1975:210). Later in the year, farmers brought
the first fruits of the harvest to that temple. The modern Mestizo
inhabitants of Tuxpan, Jalisco, have done the same thing in recent
times, paying the town’s Catholic priest a percentage of their crop
and offering first fruits to the church (Silva 1956:71). No poles or
trees are reported in these two cases, but the parallels to the Acaxee
report seem clear. The use of dried and mummified past priests or
rulers as oracles is a fascinating extension of Headrick’s (1999)
argument that preserved mummy bundles served the same pur-
pose elsewhere in Mesoamerica and were important symbols of
lineage at Classic-period Teotihuacan.
Similar themes have been recorded in more recent times and
within the guachimontón architecture itself. Weigand (1975:216–
220) has described how a ruined guachimontón at Cerro de Colot-
lan, in northern Jalisco, was used by the Tepecano Indians in the
early twentieth century. There, priest singers, each representing a
separate lineage and seated within a separate structure, communi-
cated with their deities by passing messages through both a fire in
the patio and with the help of an eagle, which would transmit
messages skyward. The responses, relayed through the shaman,
determined where individuals were to plant and who was to hold
political office. Weigand adds that, as of the late 1960s and early
1970s, offerings were still left at the circle both before the begin-
ning of the rainy season and later at harvest time. The Cora and
Tepecano cases provide clear examples in which beliefs regarding
the role of hereditary priests as mediators between farmers and the
supernatural might have been transformed into a broader form of
authority.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The presence of a political elite in the Late Formative Teuchitlan
tradition has been inferred from the archaeological evidence for
unequal access to wealth and a growing settlement hierarchy, but
more indigenous concepts of rulership are finally beginning to
take shape. By the Late Formative period, Mesoamerican cosmo-
logical models with ties to maize agriculture were being drawn on
to inform public architectural design (Beekman 2003). The simi-
larities noted between the pole ceremonies described in the ce-
ramic models and ethnohistoric accounts in western Mexico suggest
that the guachimontones were the locations where public ritual
relating to agriculture took place. Spring rituals probably related
to requests for rain, but the Acaxee and Nayarita accounts suggest
that farmers sought advice on scheduling, as well, and repaid the
temple for its services once the harvest began to come in.
The familiar Mesoamerican relationship among the calendar,
cosmology, ritual, architecture, and maize has been highlighted
repeatedly in the evidence outlined in this paper and may provide
the central kernel in the local conception of rulership. Temple
officials carried out the rituals that renewed the natural cycle but
may have been responsible for maintaining the calendar, as well.
Some ceramic figures suggest the presence of individuals deriving
special ties to the sky or upper world from their roles in temple
ritual. The association of the wealthier shaft tombs with the guachi-
montones (Beekman 1999) suggests that this role was economi-
cally or socially profitable, allowing accumulation during life or
attracting offerings at death.
The question remains whether political authority in the Teu-
chitlan tradition was limited to the almost passive form described
Agricultural pole rituals and rulership in Late Formative Central Jalisco
in the ethnohistoric and ethnographic reports, or whether elites
took a more active role. Were elites providing specialist knowl-
edge about the calendar to farmers regarding the timing of plant-
ing, then reaping the benefits of this role after the harvest by
receiving first fruits from a grateful populace? This in a sense is
an exchange of services among specialists. But the ethnographic
evidence from the Tepecano and Cora gives us an idea of how
elites might have been able to exert greater political power through
supernatural sanction. The critical points in the agricultural cycle
when priests were consulted—planting and harvest—were also
bottlenecks for labor allocation. The coordination of work in the
pursuit of subsistence eventually may have been co-opted by elites.
RESUMEN
Las investigaciones actuales sobre la tradición teuchitlan siguen mejo-
rando nuestro conocimiento de la relación entre el occidente de México y
el resto de mesoamérica. Se define esta tradición por el uso de arquitectura
pública distinta, pero hay pocos estudios que la relacionan a las élites y a
la sociedad. Se propone que un análisis más emic del sistema político
pueda clarificar la relación entre la arquitectura, el ritual y las élites políti-
cas en el formativo tardío de Jalisco (300 a.C.–200 d.C.) En este estudio,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This paper has its origins in ongoing collaborative research on traditional
agriculture with William Baden. I thank the Instituto Nacional de
Antropología e Historia, which provided the permit to work at Llano Grande,
and the National Science Foundation, which generously funded the field
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