Producer unknown to us
Ashtray
Americas, Mexico
1950–1977
Molded glass, polished, printed
Werner Hartwig (Ethnologist) acquired the ashtray on a study trip to Mexico between 1975–77
Donated to the museum by Hartwig in 1977
MAm 7858
This ashtray of polished molded glass shows a print of a woman in Zapotec garb, advertising a hotel in Juchitán, Oaxaca, in Zapotec language. The collector, Werner Hartwig, interpreted this piece as “evidence of independent capitalist development among the Zapotecs.”
Leipzig ethnologists Werner and Vera Hartwig visited Mexico on a study and teaching fellowship in 1975–77. They were particularly interested in cultural change and the socio-economic development of Indigenous communities, as well as the country’s policies on ethnic minorities. The Hartwigs collected many objects to document state-sponsored support for, and the growing cultural self-confidence of Indigenous communities in Mexico.
This interest aligned with the Marxist approach to ethnological research, and especially with the research tradition practiced at Leipzig, focusing on the historical development of class structures in global history as well as social and economic issues in history and ethnology.
Frank Usbeck