P'urhépecha Art and Sculpture

Long known as the "Tarascan" civilization, the P'urhépecha peoples were a fairly recent yet resilient superpower in West Mexico. By the end of the fourteenth century, the conquests and exploits of the king Tariácuri helped unify the cities around Pátzcuaro, a lake in the center of what is today the west Mexican state of Michoacan.
Much like their Mixtec contemporaries in Oaxaca, the P'urhépecha were skilled in the crafts of ceramics and metallurgy. Copper was the major material for P'urhépecha metal work, with which they prepared exquisite works such as the plate here.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

Here are examples of the fine jewelry the P'urhépecha were producing in metal, stone, and obsidian. The cases here focus on labrets, ornaments that would have been attached to a large piercing in the lower lip. Although the Mixtec learned metallurgy through contact with Andean peoples of South America, the P'urhépecha may have brought it with them directly from the source!
For a long time anthropologists were aware that their language was a curious language "isolate," meaning that it had no known relatives - until new studies have come to suggest that perhaps there were related languages, just back in South America! This idea would strengthen the cultural connections between Mesoamerica and the Andes in the ancient world.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

The P'urhépecha used obsidian for a variety of purposes, such as ritual mirrors, sacrificial knives, domestic tools, and hunting spearheads. These pieces of jewelry are the best illustrations of their craftsmanship in Michoacan. The earspool at left includes a mosaic of finely cut turquoise pieces. The most noteworthy piece in the ensemble at right is the large hook earring, which recalls similar shapes made in shell from the Gulf of Mexico.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

Although the P'urhépecha worked much with copper, they also created beautiful works in gold. Unlike the Mixtec and other Mesoamerican civilizations that worked metals through smelting, the P'urhépecha used a hammering technique (also likely drawn from South American practices) to create sheet metal pieces such as those presented here. The gold pin at right is an excellent example of the style. Look at the tiny frog in the necklace at left! The details were quite precise.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

This exceptional piece is a rather large set of pincers with the additional decoration of spirals in filigree. At a time when the Aztecs were aggressively trying to conquer all of Mexico and control their subjects' industries, the P'urhépecha could maintain their own economy because they were an empire in themselves. They were one of the few civilizations that actively stood up against the Aztec armies, largely because the P'urhépecha used its armed forces to protect the borders they already had rather than expand them.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

Composed from a variety of materials including shell and turquoise, this necklace is one of the most intriguing pieces I have seen from the ancient P'urhépecha. It is a reflection of the vast territory that their civilization would control by the turn of the sixteenth century as they were drawing wealth and resources from the Pacific Coast to the Central Sierra. (Call it pareidolia: I see something of a face in this setup.)

National Museum of Anthropology and History

The stirruped handles on these smoothly fired ceramic vessels are distinct to the P'urhépecha; again, these styles look more like traditions from South American forefathers than their own Mexican neighbors!
Spiraled whorls frequent P'urhépecha ceramics and sculpture, as seen on some of the larger vessels here. Miniatures were often found in burial settings, their exact meaning uncertain but perhaps relating to the preparation or containment of ritual materials. Among the more curious of these miniatures are the distinctive patojo vessels named for their duck shape. These have been found from the American Southeast to Chile, but they are most common to Mexico and Central America.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

Even though the P'urhépecha had many artistic, spiritual, and architectural qualities that differed from the rest of the Mesoamerican culture area, there were points of cultural exchange. The figure at left is such a case: it depicts a reclining man with upturned chest and a vessel in hands. This type of sculpture is called a chac-mool, and the kasonsi or governor of the city of Ihuatzio must have used this design to show a connection with the legendary civilization of the Toltec in Central Mexico. Named after the P'urhépecha word for 'coyote,' Ihuatzio was a major political center along the shore of the Pátzcuaro lake. The coyote throne at right symbolizes the site's mascot.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

Yákata comes from the P'urhépecha word for 'temple base.' The capital of Tzintzuntzan has a row of five such structures, each built as a semicircle against a wide rectangle in at least seven rising tiers. They served as temples for deceased kings. The original shrine atop each structure would have kept a fiery brazier, but they have long since worn away.
Named after the P'urhépecha 'butterfly,' Tzintzuntzan was the imperial capital by the sixteenth century. Its population may have reached 35,000. Its archaeological site now stands over the modern town with the same name, and many P'urhépecha people there continue to produce high-quality folk art representing their unique culture.

Tzintzuntzan