This volume considers a variety of anthropomorphic imagery from the Mesoamerican highlands, including the Basin of Mexico, West Mexico, and northeastern Oaxaca. Moving chronologically from the Formative to the Postclassic, contributors explore representations of bodies in multiple media, from ceramic figurines to stone sculpture to murals, with consistent attention to their archaeological context. The chapter authors demonstrate a careful application of ethnohistoric and ethnographic material as a way of accessing Mesoamerican ontology. Editors Brigitte Faugère and Christopher S. Beekman explain in their introduction that the study of anthropomorphic imagery can enable a better understanding of personhood, conceptions of the body, and relationships between humans, nature, and the divine. Although the editors suggest a number of themes that emerge from the contributed chapters, several stand out as particularly trenchant: the role of objects in performance and storytelling, the body and body parts, and the fluidity and stability of representations over time. Combined, the chapters offer an invigorating glimpse into the various roles of anthropomorphic imagery in diverse cultural contexts.

Studies of figurines and ceramic effigies are a particular strength of the volume. Many of these analyses coalesce around themes of storytelling and performance. Considering Formative Chupícuaro figurines within their depositional contexts, for instance, allows Faugère to suggest that they served a variety of functions, including as visual referents in ritual practices that emphasized processes of transformation and the cycle of life. Beekman explores human effigy figures from Colima, Nayarit, and Jalisco. He proposes they would have been used as mnemonic devices for narrative performances and that figures previously interpreted as shamans are instead warriors. Gabriela Uruñuela and Patricia Plunket present a compelling analysis of Early Classic figurines from Cholula, arguing that figurines were used in communal ceremonies at neighborhood shrine centers, evincing an emerging religious complexity that contributed to the beginnings of urban life in the center. Juliette Testard and Mari Carmen Serra Puche, in their contribution, track the social life of Epiclassic figurines from Xochitécatl and suggest that the increasing representation of women documents broader shifts in ritual, politics, and power. Working with life-size works rather than figurines, Marcus Winter's analysis of the Late Formative earth sculptures in the Cueva del Rey Kong-Oy in Oaxaca suggests an emphasis on themes of sexuality and regeneration through the explicit portrayal of naked bodies. Winter proposes that these sculptures may represent commemorated ancestors and foundational narratives invoked by moving through the space of the cave. By focusing on the active role of figurines and sculptures in ritual and in the creation and expression of identity, these contributors open up new avenues of interpretation for similar works throughout Mesoamerica.

Contributors also examine the representation and meaning of bodies and body parts. Claire Billard clarifies the iconography of the Old God in stone and ceramic braseros from Teotihuacan. Drawing from Postclassic sources, Billard suggests that old age was connected with both fire and power and argues that the Old God was a symbol of state authority in Teotihuacan. Sylvie Peperstraete considers Aztec approaches to bodies in her evaluation of the Aztec pictorial style. She finds that some elements are very consistent, such as the use of outline and flat color, but the idea that Aztec art is more naturalistic reflects a tendency, rather than a style; artists may have made choices about naturalism based on the space they were trying to fill. Also considering the Postclassic, Danièle Dehouve argues that Aztec kingship is best understood as a set of functions and that substitution is a key principle for understanding the deployment of royal duties, bodily modification and attire, and, more broadly, identity and transformation in Aztec ritual. Attention to gender in works by Faugère, Logan, and Testard and Serra Puche also creates productive intersections with the focus on the body. Melissa K. Logan's analysis of ceramic effigy pairs, for example, highlights variation in gender ideologies in West Mexico and its implications for sociopolitical organization in the Late Formative period.

A focus on the fluidity and stability of anthropomorphic representations emerges from several chapters in the collection. Refining the identification of the Teotihuacan Tlaloc, Andrew D. Turner proposes a two-part classification scheme for the rain god that encompasses the historical Tlaloc A and Tlaloc jars, which may represent directional manifestations of the god. Exploring evidence of deity impersonation, Turner connects manifestations of divine power in images at Teotihuacan to Postclassic concepts of teotl and teixiptla. At Tula, Cynthia Kristan-Graham argues that two sets of stone sculptures from Tula Grande and Tula Chico represent ancestors, indicating thematic consistency through time. She demonstrates that context is key to understanding the sculptures, connecting her interpretation to considerations of public and private space that mesh with Uruñuela's and Plunket's contribution, among others.

This volume has broader implications for the study of art and archaeology beyond the Mesoamerican highlands. The role of ceramic figurines in storytelling and performance is a particularly exciting approach that engages with object agency and could be applicable in other contexts. Reevaluation of the interpretive merits of shamanism and the explication of the body in indigenous ontology will be useful to scholars working in other regions, while understanding the development and modification of imagery related to the Old God and the rain god at Teotihuacan is a significant contribution to iconographic studies. Many chapters highlight the importance of incorporating multiple types of evidence: Testard's and Serra Puche's analysis of figurines from Xochitécatl, for instance, brings up questions about the role of women that intersect with existing studies of the Cacaxtla murals. Understanding Aztec ideas about substitution, too, suggests new approaches to the study of the body and embodied power in multiple ancient traditions. Throughout, the case studies in this book present analyses applicable to scholars working in different areas and disciplines, suggesting productive new understandings of objects and their roles in ancient lives.