The art of ancient West Mexico comprises three distinct styles, named from the present-day Mexican states of Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco.

Ancient West Mexicans used a unique shaft-chamber tomb, an underground series of rooms reached by a narrow, vertical opening, or shaft.

The dead were surrounded by offerings of food and objects to aid them in the afterlife, including lively earthenware sculptures of people, animals and plants.

The closed eyes and open mouth of this figure depict a ritual specialist in a trance-like state.