纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 069瓦斯特克女神雕像（4）（在线收听）

But she does have two humanising aspects. Her small head is unexpectedly animated, she appears to be looking up and to the side towards something, and her lips are open, as though she may even be speaking. And below her breasts are the only surface detail on the entire body, curved lines of sagging stone flesh, signs certainly of maturity, possibly of maternity - which has led many people to believe that she may be a mother goddess.

We know virtually nothing about the Huastec mother goddess, but we do know that for the conquering Aztecs she was the same being as their own mother goddess, Tlazolteotl. Now you might imagine that all mother goddesses have a pretty straightforward job-description - ensuring fertility and seeing everybody safely into adulthood - but as the cultural historian Marina Warner points out, it's often much more complicated than that:

但她也有两处人性化的地方。首先头很小，却出人意料地很有生气，眼睛好像在侧上方看到了什么，嘴唇微启，似乎在诉说着什么。此外是胸部，她身体上唯一被刻画的细节，几道曲线表现了胸部下垂的状态，明显是成熟女性的标记，也可能是母亲的象征。因此很多人认为，她也许是母亲神。

我们对瓦斯特克族的母亲神一无所知，只了解对征服者阿兹特克人而言，她的地位与他们自己的女神特拉佐尔特奥特尔相当。你可能会觉得，所有母亲神扮演的角色都大同小异：确保民族繁衍生息，看顾幼儿成长。但文化历史学家玛丽娜沃纳认为实际情况要复杂一些：