From Cholula to Nicaragua: The Origins of the 'Mixteca-Puebla' Tradition in Polychrome Ceramics

Geoffrey McCafferty, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of Calgary

This presentation covers 40+ years of research in the central Mexican religious center of Cholula (Puebla, Mexico) that eventually took the speaker to Pacific Nicaragua, following ethnohistoric accounts of migration during the Early Postclassic period. A central theme of this journey has been an interest in the beautiful and richly symbolic polychrome pottery that characterizes the 'Mixteca-Puebla stylistic tradition.' Cholula was a cult center for Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, patron of sacred knowledge as well as long distance merchants. Cholula was famous as a marketplace for exotic goods originating throughout greater Mesoamerica, as well as being an artisan center for elaborate crafts, including brightly colored ceramics embellished with codex-style iconography. Similar pottery caught the attention of Central Americanist archaeologists in the early 20th century, and the prominence of feathered serpents as a decorative element implied a connection with Cholula itself. This was further amplified through ethnohistoric accounts of migrations into Nicaragua by the Oto-Manguean-speaking Chorotega culture, plausibly a derivation of Cholulteca (inhabitants of Cholula). This presentation will outline cultural similarities and differences relating to the alleged migration, emphasizing the evidence found in the polychrome pottery and concluding with a plot twist and a sweet ending.

Geoffrey McCafferty, PhD, is Professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, as well as current Research Adjunct at the University of Kentucky. He began his graduate school career at the Universidad de las Americas in Cholula (Puebla, Mexico) before completing his PhD at the State University of New York in Binghamton. Following graduation, he was a Mellon Fellow in Latin American Art and Architecture at Brown University before moving to Canada. Although he began his career focusing on central Mexico, since 2000 he has excavated in Pacific Nicaragua in search of evidence of the migrations 'out of Mexico.' His wide-ranging research interests center around past social identities such as ethnicity and gender, using archaeological, ethnohistorical, and art historical sources. He has published over 100 books and articles, often in collaboration with his wife, Sharisse. He is currently editor of the journal Latin American Antiquity for the Society for American Archaeology.

This September member-supported meeting will be presented on Zoom. This meeting is open to the public but you must pre-register to attend. To sign up for this meeting, click HERE .