Ceremonial Village Scene with a Flying Figure

The hollow figure has a vent in the bottom and loose pellets which rattle inside. The body is broad and fat, with very wide shoulders and no breasts. The legs are spread apart and folded beneath the figure...

The hundredth meridian, or a line drawn north and south near Toluca, divides ancient Mexico into an eastern half, of high civilizations in densely populated regions, and a western half, of scattered, small, and isolated tribal groupings, whose archaeological history has been recovered only in the last twenty years. In the main, this western history comprises four principal stages: (1) an early era of Olmec style which endured many centuries in Guerrero, with sporadic manifestations farther …

There is a biting chill in the morning air which nips at his toes through the weave in his sandals. His stomach, however, is still warm from the drink of hot cacao and honey that he had heated over an open fire. During the night he had taken shelter in a grove of huamuchil trees that now seem to vibrate from a faint pulsating drumbeat originating in the west. In that direction, just over a low hill of terraced farming plots, the traveler can make out tall poles stretching toward the last of the …