The agricultural communities along Mexico´s west coast, in Jalisco, Nayarit and Colima, developed a very characteristic type of art, which involved the production of ceramic figures mainly representing human beings and animals, that were laid in the tombs next to the people with the highest social rank.

The figures represent important characters in the ideology of these peoples, such as dwarfs and hunchbacks who had special powers, dogs that accompanied the dead on their journey and protective warriors.