Pre-Columbian, West Mexico, Nayarit, ca. 300 BCE to 300 CE. This is a red-burnished terra cotta with a red buff slip figure of a hunchbacked male. He sits with his knees up and his arms intertwined as they lean against his knees. He has the almond-shaped eyes and long nose that characterize West Mexican shaft tomb figurines. He is unclothed and has almost no decoration aside from his applique headband, large earrings, and a small bag slung over his left shoulder. Some scholars attribute the hunched back in West Mexican shaft tomb culture to a particular form of tuberculosis; his facial expression suggests a grimace of pain. Size: 8-1/2" H x 6" L x 5-1/2" W (22 cm x 15 cm x 13 cm).

Figures like this one would have been placed into the tombs dug in shafts beneath Jalisco households where family members were periodically interred; archaeologists believe that they were placed around the edges of the tomb facing inward, as if in conversation with the dead. This figure, with his hunchback, is particularly interesting and very similar to a figure held by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. He is unclothed and has almost no decoration aside from his applique headband, large earrings, and a small bag slung over his left shoulder. Some scholars attribute the hunched back in West Mexican shaft tomb culture to a particular form of tuberculosis; his facial expression suggests a grimace of pain.

Provenance: Ex-private Hooper collection, CA, acquired via family descent

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#110581

The piece is intact with no visible signs of repair. There is some manganese staining and faded paint but the body and features are clear.