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Archaeologists commonly track the circulation of objects through provenance and interaction studies, but determining why those objects moved is difficult. In a ritual economy, the economic implications of ritual obligations provide one such impetus for object circulation. This perspective is explored through an analysis of ethnographically documented ritual movements of people and objects, and the use of ritual objects in ceremonies by the Huichol (Wixárika) of the Sierra Madre Occidental. This case study is used to determine whether ritually deposited assemblages can be identified as such archaeologically, and to evaluate criteria proposed for identifying ritual deposits in the archaeological record.