La panza del ozomatli: reminiscencias posclásicas de las figuras barrigonas

Potbelly style sculpture is a type of sculpture from the Middle or Late Preclassic Period found on the Pacific Coast. It consists of stone sculptures of the head alone, as well as the full body, which are characterized by chubby facial features and pudgy bellies. Th is style persisted during the Classic period in Teotihuacan and other areas, even though it was provided with more iconographic attributes. Mysteriously, the potbelly style disappeared in postclassical times. It is suggested that the physical features and quite possibly the meanings of the potbelly sculptures lived on in figures of monkeys during the Postclassic period as its physical representation and its symbolic complex were similar to those in earlier sculptures. The monkey was represented as potbellied and it was associated with fertility, excess, death, pulque, and possibly decapitation, among other aspects. Sexual excess was specially attributed to monkey, as is seen in codices which associate it with the transgressor and excrement, and depict it with a posture related to immorality. The negative side of the sign of the day of Ozomatli tended toward immoral sexual behavior. In the same way, the ape was conceived of as a women’s seductive and animal lover. This realm of sexual excess was shared by potbellied figures, at least in Teotihuacan and Mayan area.