Nayarit Seated Figure with Bowl and Tube, Ixtlán del Rio style, Protoclassic, circa 100 BC - AD 250

John Huston, St Clerans, Craughwell, County Galway, and California, acquired during the 1940s - 1970s
Andy Williams, California, acquired from the above on June 25, 1985
Andy and Deborah Williams, California

The figure is in the midst of a ceremonial feasting or initiation ritual, with the globular vessel balanced between his feet, and the patterned undulating tube, perhaps an acocote gourd, placed into his mouth. His wide-eyed expression and densely painted facial tattoos accentuate the dramatic moment of ingesting the ceremonial liquid. Similar tubes were used for the procurement of aquamiel from the maguey cactus plants. He is adorned with a large crescentic nose piece and neck pendant, beaded armbands, and narrow, striped animal pelts as headbands with added medallions. Tiny multiple earrings line his earlobes.

The act of 'ritual consumption" was well documented in Nayarit figures; the organized feasts "[...] represent not an everyday meal... but a momentous event deemed worthy of meticulous and repeated dramatization." (Kristi Butterwick, "Food for the Dead, The West Mexican Art of Feasting", in Richard F. Townsend, ed., Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past, Chicago, 1998, p. 99).