Abstract

CARREON BLAINE, Emilie. Barbie en Palenque, o la manufactura de lo intangible. An. Inst. Investig. Estét [online]. 2013, vol.35, n.102, pp.65-91. ISSN 0185-1276.

An important issue in pre-Columbian art historical studies is the interconnection between diferent dimensions of Mexican reality, i.e. pre-Columbian and modern Mexico, as it reveals many notions and misconceptions about its pre-Hispanic past-particularly in regards to the Mexica, also known as the Aztec in the English speaking world-, which are today held true within modern Americanist scholarship. Once the pre-Columbian world was overpowered, antique codied images, which possessed a determined meaning and significance, were translated to European thought and writing to adapt and insert them within European notions, thus hiding and eventually obliterating their original meaning. In dierent degrees, with varying consequences, fragments of a pre-Columbian past have been reassembled into an add-mixture, as can be exemplified in the case study of Barbie as an "Aztec Princess", and as conceived by a major American toy manufacturer. Each element and its ramifications-context, packaging, dress, jewels, posture, among other subjects and themes- can be dissected and the reconfiguration of elements within a new context analyzed to expose how a fictitious historica figure became a theme doll, and the manner in which a series of antique Mexican prototypes, gleaned from diverse pre-Columbian cultures (Aztec, Maya, Mixtec), have been displaced and restructured with the appearance of Barbie as a incongruous interpretation of an Aztec princess who lives in Palenque in the contemporary toy market, shaping the imagination and knowledge of little girls and doll collectors all over the world.

Keywords : dolls; Aztecs; princesses.

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