Chihuahuas were bred for multiple roles in ancient Mesoamerican cultures, with strong ties to religious, ceremonial, and companionship functions rather than modern-day tasks like herding or hunting. Below is a concise overview of the main ideas scholars and credible sources discuss.

• Spiritual and ceremonial roles: The ancestors of Chihuahuas, particularly the Techichi, are widely cited as having religious or ceremonial importance in pre-Columbian civilizations such as the Toltecs and Aztecs. They were associated with the afterlife, ritual practices, and offerings, and some theories suggest their symbolic significance was a primary reason for their breeding in those eras. This view is echoed in multiple breed histories and authoritative sources on Mexican canine origins.

• Companionship and status: In many accounts, small dogs like the Techichi and later the Chihuahua served as lap companions for nobles and were valued for their delicate companionship and protective presence in the home environment. Their small size would have made them well-suited for close-contact living spaces and the social circles of elite households.

• Possible early practical roles: Some historians and investigators propose additional practical functions such as alerting owners to danger, guiding the living, or being part of ritual sacrifice practices in certain contexts. The exact mix of roles likely varied across regions and time periods, making a single, definitive breeding purpose difficult to pin down.

• Evolution from Techichi to Chihuahua: The modern Chihuahua is generally understood to descend from the Techichi, a larger ancient companion-dog, with selective breeding over centuries producing the very small size associated with today’s breed. The precise pathways and timelines are not exhaustively documented, but the lineage is widely accepted among breed histories.

If you’d like, I can pull from specific sources to give you direct quotes or compare how different experts describe the breed’s origins.