Girling the girl and boying the boy: the production of adulthood in ancient Mesoamerica

Drawing on the work of Judith Butler, I analyse practices through which lifecycle transitions were marked on the bodies of sixteenth-century Aztec children. Because the production of disciplined adults was socially so significant, it was also profoundly conservative. I examine implications of this ethnohistoric study for earlier societies that formed part of a Mesoamerican longue duree. The interpretation of archaeologically excavated material is transformed when related to the life course. Examples discussed include new perspectives on Formative period (c. 1500-400 BC) costume ornaments, conventions of figural representation, and feasting in domestic quarters.