Editing Cihuateteo (section)

== Depictions in art ==
[[File:Cultures précolombiennes MRAH Cihuateotl 291211 1.jpg|thumb|A terracotta statue depicting an El Zapotal ''cihuateotl''.|240x240px]]
[[File:Annotated Cihuateotl.png|thumb|Cihuateotl sculpture with significant features annotated.]]
''Cihuateteo'' can be characterized as “fearsome figures with clenched, claw-like fists, macabre, bared teeth and gums and aggressive poses.”<ref name=":0" /> Sitting with their clawed feet tucked beneath their skirts, they seem at once in repose and ready to attack. In Aztec art, the postpartum female body is often depicted with pendulous breasts and stomach folds. Within Aztec artistic tradition, ''cihuateteo'' are commonly depicted with taut stomachs, exposed breasts, and prominent nipples. These are all features that serve to highlight their unrealized potential as mothers, as these women died before having the opportunity to bear and nurse their newborn child.<ref name=":1" />

Oftentimes, ''cihuateteo'' are also depicted with swirling, unkempt orange hair and skirts fastened with snake belts. ''Cihuateteo'' figures found at the site of [[El Zapotal]] even carry staffs bearing heads as trophies, and seem to be covered with flayed skins, which suggests deference or worship to a female vegetation deity. The serpent around the waist may be a reference to the serpentine goddess [[Cihuacoatl]], who was not only associated with war, sacrifice, and political power, but also with fertility, childbirth, and midwifery.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of religion|date=2005|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|others=Jones, Lindsay, 1954-, Eliade, Mircea, 1907-1986., Adams, Charles J.|isbn=978-0028657424|edition=2nd|location=Detroit|pages=5905|oclc=56057973}}</ref> Finally, the unkempt hair is often associated with darkness and the earth.<ref name=":1" /> Not only was ''Cihuatlampa'' a place of darkness, but most Aztec associations with the earth (and particularly earth goddesses) symbolize both childbirth and sacrifice, two of the defining traits of the ''cihuateteo'' themselves.<ref name=":4" />