Title: Predators of culture: Jaguar symbolism and Mesoamerican elites , By: Saunders, Nicholas J., Graham-Campbell, James, World Archaeology, 00438243, Jun94, Vol. 26, Issue 1

Predators of culture: Jaguar symbolism and Mesoamerican elites

Abstract

Jaguar imagery is one of the most frequently encountered features of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican symbolism. However, despite its appearance in art and iconography over a period of some three thousand years, most previous interpretations have tended to assert rather than prove its significance. In this paper an attempt is made to locate such imagery meaningfully in several categories of indigenous thought. Thus, this approach seeks to show how such symbolism is entrenched in Amerindian, Aztec and Maya conceptual systems, and how 'constructions' of the jaguar in classification led to the emically logical use of its verbal and artistic imagery in symbolic representations associated with warfare, and the display of elite status.

Situating symbols
One of the most frequently encountered images in Mesoamerican art and iconography is that which appears to show America's largest feline -- the jaguar (Panthera onca) -- in either naturalistic, stylized or anthropomorphic form. Yet, despite the frequency of representation, in civilizations spanning three thousand years, discussions of such imagery have often been lacking in analytical precision. Most accounts have tended arbitrarily to identify the animal, or its constituent parts, as jaguar, and then to assert its symbolic significance. Arguably the most serious consequence of this is that, hitherto, both formalist and analogical interpretations of such imagery have regarded the jaguar's importance as a self-evident 'fact' (e.g. Bernal 1976: 66; Furst 1968: 148; Krickeberg et al. 1968:11) rather than a graphic but speculative assumption.

Since art is one of the ways in which people represent how they conceive of themselves, and their place in the world (Roosevelt 1991: 89), the appearance and frequency of jaguar motifs, as with any animal motifs, is not arbitrary, but is centred on the symbolic systems which use the motifs metaphorically to express qualities regarded as significant for a given society, and within particular contexts. There is nothing obvious in the way in which a culture will regard a particular animal, or in the way in which it may utilize the animal's empirical behaviour or appearance in its symbolic reasoning (e.g. Douglas 1957; 1990; Lewis 1991), or image-making (e.g. Morphy 1989: 5). In this sense, the jaguar symbol did not come ready-made, with a cluster of inherently important attributes somehow ascribed to it by 'Nature'. Rather, the jaguar, along with the natural world's diversity of culturally defined animate beings and 'inanimate objects' (Levi-Strauss 1976: 184-5), should be regarded as a cultural appraisal. It is argued here that it is not from what we regard as empirical nature, but rather from an indigenously 'constructed nature' that animal symbols are taken, and from which they derive their efficacy as signifiers of human activity.

Species are not natural kinds, but rather a product of classification, as an ordering process which creates and sustains the potential for metaphor use (Douglas 1990). As a society's ideas about, and attitudes towards an animal are, at least in part, a product of classification, then the constraints of emic logic will, presumably, also circumscribe the use to which the image, symbol, or metaphor of that animal can be put. What is needed in order to consider meaningfully the jaguar symbol, like any symbol, is the identification of a local emic theory which entrenched its use in patterns of social behaviour and belief (ibid.: 27).

Image and imagination in Mesoamerican art
The physical and symbolic associations between large predatory cats, warfare, and pre-eminent social status are particularly evident in Mesoamerica, where images of felines, feline-like creatures, and humans with feline attributes, apparel, or accoutrements, are found in a number of chronologically and spatially separated cultures (e.g. Benson 1985; Coe 1972; Kubler 1972; Peterson 1990: 90-103; Saunders 1989). Whilst 'jaguar' imagery has been a recurring theme in Mesoamerican iconography from the Preclassic Olmec (c. 1250-400 BC) to the Postclassic Aztec (c. AD 1350-1521), assessing its significance has been problematical.

In one sense, interpretational difficulties began with assessments of Olmec art which identified what were assumed to be jaguar or were-jaguar images in a variety of media, from delicately carved jade items to monumental stonework and cave paintings (e.g. Coe 1968; 1972; Coe and Diehl 1980; Furst 1968; Grove 1984; Stirling 1943; 1955). Despite occasional more considered and sometimes contrary views (e.g. Coe 1990; Furst 1981; Luckert 1976; Stocker et al. 1980), the fascination of the Olmec 'feline complex', together with the outmoded but enduring view of the Olmec as a 'mother culture' (Bernal 1976), combined to produce a 'conceptual straitjacket' which constrained many subsequent discussions. Such views were often clearly influenced by a Eurocentric conception of the symbolic and ideological role of large felines in Old World culture history (e.g. Coe 1972: 1, 11; see also, Saunders 1992: 3-4, 220), and current Amerindian beliefs and practices concerning hallucinogenic rituals and shamanic vision quests (e.g. Furst 1968; Harner 1978). These accounts ignored the fact that Pre-Columbian 'jaguar' imagery cannot be considered a logical or all-inclusive antecedent to current Amerindian symbolism, still less a parallel to the attitudes displayed by a diversity of European cultures towards lions, tigers, or leopards.

This problem was compounded by an equally serious issue -- that which dealt with the nature of representation. Many interpretations seemed to assume that Pre-Columbian artists were concerned only or mainly to represent the animal naturalistically, either in part or whole. Such societies were evidently regarded as having been largely unaffected by cultural, psychological or any other factors which may have intervened to channel or influence their depictions (Ucko and Rosenfeld 1972; see also, Layton 1977: 34). In other words, ancient Mesoamericans appeared to subscribe to an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European artistic tradition of 'photographic reality' rather than to their own indigenous stylistic canons.

Closely linked to this issue was the unfortunate fact that hitherto feline imagery had often been labelled simply as 'jaguar', with little consistency or method in the terminology of such assumed species-identifications. For example, the Aztec term for the living jaguar, ocelotl, has been given in English as ocelot (e.g. Burland 1967: 90; Davies 1973: 143) or, even worse, as tiger (Vaillant 1944: 127). Further, Dibble and Anderson, in their translation of the sixteenth-century Florentine Codex (Sahagun 1950-78), conflate two Aztec terms, ocelotl (i.e. jaguar) and tlaco-ocelotl (i.e ocelot, Felis pardalis), thus using one English term, ocelot, to refer to what, in the corresponding Nahuatl text, are two clearly differentiated types of feline. The significance of such an indiscriminate and confusing use of terms lies in the fact that it obscured the emically logical process of classification by which Pre-Columbian societies recognized and named particular species, invested them with particular qualities, and used them to symbolize social values, attitudes and behaviour.

A further complication was that these interpretational difficulties were often nested within a wider debate on the appropriateness of using sixteenth-century Late Postclassic ethnohistorical data to interpret the iconography of earlier Preclassic and Classic period cultures. Where some authors clearly favoured the 'unitary' view of Mesoamerican civilization (Nicholson 1976: 169) -- where there is an assumed continuity of iconographic and ideological symbolism spanning three thousand years (e.g. Coe 1968: 111-15; Joralemon 1971; 1976) -- others urged caution, warning of the dangers of 'disjunctive situations', where form and meaning may have become realigned over time (Kubler 1967: 11; 1970). By relying on superficial resemblances of form to indicate resemblance of meaning, without any understanding as to how or why 'regularities' were generated, many previous interpretations have failed to consider that, even where there is historical continuity, this does not guarantee similarity of prehistoric, historical, or ethnographic 'cultural expressions' (Wylie 1985: 74-5).

Previous interpretations of so-called jaguar symbolism have, by and large, been evocative rather than compelling. Part of the underlying problem seems to have been that one-off, all-embracing explanations have been uncritically applied to a diversity of cultures, ignoring the fact that form, content and style of representation can differ within and between societies, and for a variety of ecological, psychological, cultural and utilitarian reasons (Ucko 1988: xi).

And yet, there is evidence from many parts of Mesoamerica that the jaguar appears to have been conceived in such a way that its meaning (i.e. the combination of qualities which it signified) was embedded in language and belief, as well as art. Whatever it was that the jaguar represented, it was apparently important enough to have been appropriated symbolically by the elites of at least two major Pre-Columbian civilizations -- the Aztec and Maya. In addition, these two civilizations appear to have thought about, 'constructed' and used jaguar imagery in broadly similar ways, and in certain analogous contexts, to recent Amerindian societies in both Central and South America. It is possible, therefore, to employ an analogical approach in assessing jaguar imagery, and perhaps to suggest a limited degree of convergence between ethnographic, ethnohistoric and archaeological data. By utilizing a deliberately restricted, as opposed to an all-inclusive, range of ethnographic materials, this paper aims to show how jaguar symbolism was entrenched in Aztec and Maya conceptual thought and anchored firmly in meaningful patterns of symbolic activity.

Locating meaning in the ethnographic dimension
Given the inadequacy of previous approaches, and archaeology's inability to provide conclusive answers unaided, the wealth of ethnohistoric and ethnographic data on jaguar imagery clearly comes into its own. This view is strengthened by an apparent unity of feline, and particularly large spotted-cat symbolism, in the ethnographic and archaeological records of Central and South America over a period of some three thousand years (Benson 1972; Saunders 1989; 1992: 224). However, in order to avoid previous pitfalls, analogical reasoning as employed here is not based on the assumption that human behaviour is generically uniform, or that any contemporary society will replicate the exact association of attributes distinctive of a prehistoric culture. It is acknowledged that analogy is an inductive, probabilistic argument which suggests but a partial similarity, never a complete identity (Wylie 1982: 392-3). It is further recognized that 'similarity' itself is a culturally relative notion. Nevertheless, it is apparent that a careful consideration of ethnographic contexts widens our interpretive horizons by suggesting generative principles and generalizations that can be tested against archaeological data (Stark 1993: 95). This process, I will argue, offers potentially useful insights into the architecture of ancient Mesoamerican conceptual thought.

In Central and South America, ethnographic data reveal a close symbolic relationship between the jaguar, social status, warfare, and the wielding of spiritual and political power by shamans and chiefs (e.g. Furst 1968; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975; Roe, forthcoming; Saunders 1992: 50-81). This contextual specificity indicates that jaguar imagery in dress and accoutrements was associated with aggression (e.g. Furst 1968: 152-3; Levi-Strauss 1948: 365), the qualities of strength and fierceness (e.g. Goldman 1979: 225; Karsten 1968: 124), supernatural protection (Karsten 1968: 123), and pre-eminent social status (e.g. Goldman 1979: 57). Jaguar killing, in particular, was a route to gaining and maintaining social prestige (e.g. Metraux 1946: 417; 1948: 412), and local terms for the jaguar were incorporated into the names and titles of priests, chiefs, deities and ancestors (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975: 45).

The greatest density of jaguar symbolism however, appears in association with the shaman (e.g. Furst 1968; Goldman 1979: 262; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975) -- a fact which has led to some of the interpretational problems mentioned above. The varied aspects of this relationship are well illustrated by the imagery invoked by Guahibo shamans

[who] still wear headresses of jaguar claws turned upwards, necklaces of jaguar teeth, and carry bags of jaguar fur that contain herbs, stones, and their snuffing equipment. The narcotic powder is kept in a tubular jaguar bone. ... An officiating Guahibo shaman paints his face with black spots in imitation of jaguar pelt marks, a form of facial paint that is only used by shamans.

(Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975: 46)

For Amerindian societies, a fundamental equivalence between the jaguar, shamans, warriors and hunters is reflected in etymology, inasmuch as local terms for the jaguar not only acknowledge its status as the pre-eminent predator (e.g. Arhem 1981:203), but can also denote predator status in extenso. This conceptual extension of the jaguar/predator category is based, for example in north-west Amazonia, on the belief that any animal or human which hunts any other can be referred to as yai (Hugh-Jones 1979: 124; Elizabeth Reichel, pers. comm.), though typically it refers to the jaguar and powerful shamans (1979: 124). Embedded in classification, the designation 'jaguar' signifies human attributes ascribed to the culturally constructed animal in distinctive configurations.

In the ethnographic context, jaguar imagery represents less a depiction or description of the living animal per se, than of a 'bundle' of negotiated meanings appropriate to the representation of certain culturally important qualities (Morphy 1989:5). From the evidence presented above, these meanings appear to have been acknowledged in local theories of the world within which the use of jaguar symbolism was apparently associated with notions of strength, aggression and pre-eminent status. The conceptual correlation between these notions and the relevant contexts of hunting, warfare, shamanistic ritual (i.e. spirit-attack and defence), and general status display, illustrates the degree to which jaguar symbols and metaphors were embedded in indigenous thought and action. In the light of this ethnographic evidence it is possible to consider the meaning and significance of such imagery in Aztec and Maya symbolic thought. By assessing how these two civilizations conceived of the jaguar, and in what contexts its symbolism was concentrated, it may be possible to throw some light on the indigenous logic which made the animal such an apparently suitable vehicle for the metaphorical expression of elite display.

The Aztec
In the Florentine Codex (Sahagun 1950-82), we find the jaguar referred to as ocelotl and regarded as the 'bravest' and 'fiercest' of animals, whose 'cautious', 'wise' and 'proud' disposition made it the 'ruler of the animal world' (ibid., Book 11: 1). This view suggests that the Aztecs conceived of the ocelotl as the embodiment of a distinctive configuration of human qualities, and that its imagery was appropriate to signify this 'bundle' of ascribed attributes in certain contexts. We subsequently find ocelotl symbolism associated with warriors, dignitaries and rulers -- the Aztec elite - for whom the classificatory attributes ascribed to the ocelotl were recognized as definitive qualities.

Especially brave warriors, for example, could become members of one of two elite military orders, the ocelotl warrior society and the cuauhtli (i.e. eagle) warrior society, and were then privileged to wear the appropriate costumes. Anawalt (1992) refers to the design of the ocelotl warrior's costume as connecting the wearer to the power and protection of the jaguar. Even the coincidences of birth-dates were significant, as those individuals born under the sign of the month called ocelotl were regarded as possessing the attributes signified by the jaguar (Duran 1971: 402), and thus were particularly suitable to lead a warrior's life. The degree to which this aggressive aspect of jaguar symbolism was embedded in Aztec thought is shown by terms with ocelotl as their root, which were applied adjectivally to individuals who displayed the appropriate qualities. Thus the terms ocelopetlatl and oceloyotl were considered particularly appropriate to describe valiant warriors, and the qualities of valour and bravery in general (Simeon 1988: 352).

A similar concentration of ocelotl symbolism is found in association with Aztec royalty, particularly in clothing and paraphernalia. According to Sahagun (1950-82, Book 8: 23-5, 8), Aztec emperors adorned themselves with ocelotl capes, breech clouts, and sandals made of the animal's pelt. Emperors also wore an insignia of ocelotl skin into battle (Simeon 1988: 352). This symbolic association is also evident in royalty's privileged access to the use of a variety of ocelotl-skin thrones, mats and cushions (Sahagun 1950-82, Book 8: 31) (Fig. 1), as an expression of authority and rulership (Dibble 1971: 324).

There was also a religious and ideological manifestation of ocelotl symbolism in the omniscient and omnipotent supreme Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca (Nicholson 1971: 412; Saunders 1990; 1992: 127-44). This god was the patron of royalty and played a central role in rituals of royal accession (Townsend 1987). The most convincing of Tezcatlipoca's many ocelotl associations was his transformational manifestation as the jaguar Tepeyollotli (Jimenez Moreno 1979: 28; Saunders, in press), who, in a number of codices, is shown either as a jaguar (e.g. Codex Borbonicus, Seler 1904: fig. 28a) (Fig. 2), or in association with jaguar imagery (e.g. Codex Borgia, Morante 1991:32). This symbolism was reinforced in Aztec cosmology and mythology, where Caso (1958: 14-15) relates how Tezcatlipoca was a nocturnal deity whose alter ego was the jaguar and, as such, was also the patron of Aztec sorcerers, who used the animal's claws, pelt, and heart in their magical activities (Sahagun 1950-82, Book 11: 3).

The Maya
In the various Maya languages the jaguar is called balam or bolom (Alvarez 1984: 328; Laughlin 1975: 84-5; Hunn 1977: 233). In the Colonial Period Yucatec Maya language, the balam was regarded as 'brave' and the etymologically-related term, boolay, signified 'savage', 'fierce' -- and thus, presumably, jaguar-like behaviour, in all animals that killed others (Alvarez 1984: 328). The Yucatec Maya phrase, balam-tah, translates, suggestively, as either 'to be like a jaguar' or 'to hunt like a jaguar' (ibid.: 329), and Thompson (1970: 291) notes also that the term balam was used as a symbol of strength, fierceness and valour. Thus, for the Maya, as for the Aztec, the jaguar appears to have signified predator status, and to have represented a cluster of highly specific human qualities. In the light of this, we might expect to find a conceptual extension of balam symbolism from the realm of animals to that of humans -- in other words to be associated with warriors and the elite of Maya society.

Consonant with this view, Laughlin (1975: 84), Pitt-Rivers (1970: 189), and Gossen (1975: 452) note that, amongst the more recent Maya, individuals with a strong and aggressive nature were considered as possessing a balam as an animal soul-companion, or nagual. Recent advances in Maya hieroglyphic decipherment appear to extend this association back into the Classic Maya period (Houston and Stuart 1989: 6). In Postclassic Maya society, not only were there balam warrior societies who wore balam insignia, apparel and accoutrements into battle (Landa 1982: 52; Orellana 1984: 60), but the whole concept of warfare is referred to in a Yucatec Maya phrase which translates as 'spreading the jaguar skin' (Roys 1967: 154). Similarly, in Classic Maya iconography, there is a close physical and symbolic association between jaguar imagery, warriors, and warfare. Specifically, Freidel (1986: 99-101) notes that the scroll-topped jaguar motif is a primary image of war, as it appears in the battle scenes of the Bonampak murals (see also, Miller 1986: 98, 107-8), is a prominent feature of war regalia in narrative scenes at Yaxchilan, and is physically associated with glyphic references to war, captives and sacrifice on many lowland Maya monuments.

Ethnohistoric evidence indicates that jaguar imagery was also associated with preeminent social status -- specifically with strong, powerful and leading members of society. The term balam, as well as certain of the living animal's physical attributes, appears to have signified lordship (e.g. Edmonson 1971: 148, 218). In the Popol Vuh of the Quiche Maya, the term balam referred to magical power and was used as an epithet, almost a title, signifying the qualities of strength and might (ibid.: 148). According to Thompson (1970), balam not only means jaguar, but also designated rulers and priests (see also, Edmonson 1984: 93). These associations are apparent also in Classic Maya iconography, where elite individuals wear what appears to be jaguar clothing, accoutrements and paraphernalia (e.g. Benson 1985; Robicsek 1975: 108-11) (Fig. 3), the remains of which have been found in elite mortuary contexts (e.g. Kidder, Jennings and Shook 1946: 155; Pendergast 1969: 21; Smith 1950: 90, Welsh, pers. comm.). A further association between rulers and balam imagery in the Classic period is found in the many depictions of jaguar-shaped thrones or cushions of jaguar-skin (Robicsek 1975: 108-18) -- an association paralleled during early Colonial times, when the phrase ix-pop-balam meant the 'jaguar mat', the seat of authority in a Maya council (Roys 1967: 66).

Conclusions
For both the Aztec and Maya, it appears that whilst Panthera onca was the empirical prototype, the culturally 'constructed' jaguar was the conceptual paragon. The latter, with its freight of cultural meanings, served as a source of appropriate metaphor to express a relational analogy consistent with the ascribed attributes of the animal in classification. To 'be jaguar', therefore, was to act in accordance with the distinctive, culture-specific configuration of human qualities which the jaguar signified. Consequently, representations of jaguars, either naturalistic or stylized, cannot be taken simply as denoting the animal but also as connoting a variety of other meanings (Tilley 1991: 44).

Whereas previous attempts to analyse jaguar symbolism in Mesoamerica have often assumed that it was self-evident that Pre-Columbian peoples would worship 'jaguar gods' (Krickeberg et al. 1968: 11), and that the jaguar was an obvious emblem for hierarchical, sophisticated civilizations because it was such an 'essential animal' (Bernal 1976: 66), I have argued that such views represent an unwarranted assimilation of the past to the present. I have also argued that it is possible to locate the meaning of such imagery more securely in contexts of indigenous thought and action. Whilst I do not suggest that this provides a definitive resolution to the problems raised by the analysis of such symbolism, it may have gone some way to establishing what Douglas (1990: 28) has called a 'theory of behaviour' rather than a correlation of superficial resemblances.

More specifically, amongst the Aztec, Maya and more recent Amerindian societies, conceptions of the jaguar, linguistic terms referring to human qualities which the animal signified, and the context-specific uses of its imagery, have been shown to exhibit a degree of similar patterning, in terms of warfare and status display. As the use of jaguar imagery appears to have been internally consistent for each society, and as warfare and status-related situations displayed the greatest density of such imagery, it can be suggested for these designated contexts that the enduring form of symbolism possessed, at least in part, an enduring similarity of culturally ascribed meaning and associated cultural behaviour. In the light of this, the analogy between the ethnographic source and the archaeological subjects can be regarded as having thrown further light on the meaningful uses of jaguar imagery by the elites of two of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica's major civilizations, and may serve as a starting point for more thoughtful considerations of similar imagery in other Mesoamerican cultures.

8.x.93

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Figure 1 The jaguar-skin throne of the Aztec emperor Acamapichtli (from Codex Tovar).

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Figure 2 Tepeyollotli, the jaguar manifestation of Tezcatlipoca -- the omniscient suppreme Aztec deity (from Codex Borbonicus; after Seler 1904).

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Figure 3 A Classic Maya ruler from Temple III, Tikal, Guatemala. The figure is wearing a huge jaguar-head helmet and an elaborate jaguar-skin costume, complete even to the tail (after W. R. Coe, Tikal Project).

References
Alvarez, C. 1984. Diccionario etnolinguistico del idioma Maya Yucateco Colonial. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

Anawalt, P. R. 1992. A comparative analysis of the costumes and accoutrements of the Codex Mendoza. In The Codex Mendoza (eds F. Berdan and P. R. Anawalt), Vol. I. Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 103-50.

Arhem, K. 1981. Makuna Social Organization. Uppsala: Uppsala Studies in Cultural Anthropology 4; Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.

Benson, E. P. (ed.) 1972. The Cult of the Feline. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks.

Benson, E. P. 1974. A Man and a Feline in Mochica Art. Washington: Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology 14, Dumbarton Oaks.

Benson, E. P. 1985. The Classic Maya use of jaguar accessories. In Fourth Palenque Round Table VI (ed. E. P. Benson). San Francisco: Pre-Columbian Art Institute, pp. 155-8.

Bernal, I. 1976. The Olmec World. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Burland, C. 1967. The Gods of Mexico. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.

Caso, A. 1958. The Aztecs: People of the Sun. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Coe, M. D. 1968. America's First Civilization: Discovering the Olmec. New York: Van Nostrand.

Coe, M. D. 1972. Olmec jaguars and Olmec kings. In The Cult of the Feline (ed. E. P. Benson). Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 1-18.

Coe, M. D. 1990. The Olmec heartland: evolution of ideology. In Regional Perspectives on the Olmec (eds R. J. Sharer and D. C. Grove). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 68-84.

Coe, M. D. and Diehl, R. 1980. In the Land of the Olmec. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Davies, N. 1973. The Aztecs. London: Macmillan.

Dibble, C. E. 1971. Writing in Central Mexico. In Handbook of Middle American Indians Vol. 10, part 1 (ed. R. Wauchope). Austin: University of Texas Press, pp. 322-32.

Douglas, M. 1957. Animals in Lele religious symbolism. Africa, 27: 46-58.

Douglas, M. 1990. The pangolin revisited: a new approach to animal symbolism. In Signifying Animals: Human Meaning in the Natural World (ed. R. G. Willis). London: Unwin Hyman, pp. 25-36.

Duran, F. D. de. 1971. Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar (trans. D. Heyden and F. Horcasitas). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Edmonson, M. S. 1971. The Book of Counsel: The Popol Vuh of the Quiche Maya of Guatemala. New Orleans: Publication 35, Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University.

Edmonson, M. S. 1984. Human sacrifice in the Books of Chilam Balam of Tizimin and Chumayel. In Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica (eds E. P. Benson and E. H. Boone). Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 91-100.

Freidel, D. A. 1986. Maya warfare: an example of peer polity interaction. In Peer Polity Interaction and Socio-Political Change (eds C. Renfrew and J. Cherry). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 93-116.

Furst, P. T. 1968. The Olmec were-jaguar motif in the light of ethnographic reality. In Conference on the Olmec (ed. E. P. Benson). Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 143-75.

Furst, P. T. 1981. Jaguar baby or toad mother: a new look at an old problem in Olmec iconography. In The Olmec and their Neighbours (ed. E. P. Benson). Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 149-62.

Goldman, I. 1979. The Cubeo. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Gossen, G. H. 1975. Animals souls and human destiny in Chamula. MAN, 10(3): 448-61.

Grove, D. 1984. Chalcatzingo. London: Thames & Hudson.

Guggisberg, C. A. W. 1975. Wild Cats of the World. Newton Abbot: David & Charles.

Harner, M. J. 1978. Hallucinogens and Shamanism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Houston, S. and Stuart, D. 1989. The Way Glyph: Evidence for 'Co-essences' among the Classic Maya. Washington: Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing 30, Center for Maya Research.

Hugh-Jones, S. 1979. The Palm and the Pleiades: Initiation and Cosmology in Northwest Amazonia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hunn, E. S. 1977. Tzeltal Folk Zoology: The Classification of Discontinuities in Nature. London: Academic Press.

Jiminez Moreno, W. 1979. De Tezcatlipoca a Huitzilopochtli. Actes du XLIIe Congrès International des Americanistes, 6: 27-34.

Joralemon, P. D. 1971. A Study of Olmec Iconography. Washington: Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology no. 7, Dumbarton Oaks.

Joralemon, P. D. 1976. The Olmec dragon: a study in Pre-Columbian iconography. In Origins of Religious Art and Iconography in Preclassic Mesoamerica (ed. H. B. Nicholson). Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, pp. 27-72.

Karsten, R. 1968. The Civilization of the South American Indians. London: Dawsons of Pall Mall. Kidder, A. V., Jennings, J. D. and Shook, E. M. 1946. Excavations at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Krickeberg, W. et al. 1968. Pre-Columbian American Religions. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Kubler, G. 1967. The Iconography of the Art of Teotihuacan. Washington: Studies in Pre-Columbian Art & Archaeology 4, Dumbarton Oaks.

Kubler, G. 1970. Period, style, and meaning in ancient American art. New Literary History: A Journal of Theory and Interpretation from the University of Virginia, 1-2: 127-44.

Kubler, G. 1972. Jaguars in the Valley of Mexico. In The Cult of the Feline (ed. E. P. Benson). Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 19-49.

Landa, D. de. 1982. Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan. Mexico City: Editorial Porrua.

Laughlin, R. M. 1975. The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of San Lorenzo Zinacantan. Washington: Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, No. 9, Smithsonian Institution Press.

Layton, R. 1977. Naturalism and cultural relativity in art. In Form in Indigenous Art (ed. P. J. Ucko). London: Duckworth, pp. 33-43.

Levi-Strauss, C. 1948. The Nambicuara. In Handbook of South American Indians, Vol. 3 (ed. J. H. Steward). Washington: Smithsonian Institution, pp. 361-70.

Levi-Strauss, C. 1976. The Savage Mind. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Lewis, I. M. 1991. The spider and the pangolin. MAN, 26: 513-25.

Luckert, K. V. 1976. Olmec Religion: A Key to Middle America and Beyond. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Metraux, A. 1946. Ethnography of the Chaco. In Handbook of South American Indians, Vol. 1 (ed. J. H. Steward). Washington: Smithsonian Institution, pp. 197-370.

Metraux, A. 1948. Tribes of Eastern Bolivia and Madeira Headwaters. In Handbook of South American Indians, Vol. 3 (ed. J. H. Steward). Washington: Smithsonian Institution, pp. 381-454.

Miller, M. E. 1986. The Bonampak Murals. New York: Princeton University Press.

Morante, R. 1991. Tezcatlipoca: El Dios de todo lugar. Mexico desconocido, XIV(171): 30-2.

Morphy, H. 1989. Introduction. In Animals into Art (ed. H. Morphy). London: Unwin Hyman, pp. 1-17.

Nicholson, H. B. 1971. Religion in Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico. In Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 10. Archaeology of Northern Mesoamerica, Vol. 1 (eds G. Eckholm and I. Bernal). Austin: University of Texas Press, pp. 395-445.

Nicholson, H. B. 1976. Preclassic Mesoamerican iconography from the perspective of the Postclassic: problems in interpretational analysis. In Origins of Religious Art & Iconography in Preclassic Mesoamerica (ed. H. B. Nicholson). Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, pp. 157-76.

Orellana, S. 1984. The Tzutujil Mayas. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. Pendergast, D. M. 1969. Altun Ha, British Honduras (Belize): The Sun God's Tomb. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, Art & Archaeology Occasional Paper 19.

Peterson, J. F. 1990. Precolumbian Flora and Fauna. San Diego: Mingei International Museum Exhibition Documentary Publication.

Pitt-Rivers, J. 1970. Spiritual power in Central America: the Naguals of Chiapas. In Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations (ed. M. Douglas). London: Tavistock Publications, pp. 183-206.

Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. 1975. The Shaman and the Jaguar: A Study of Narcotic Drugs among the Indians of Colombia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Robicsek, F. 1975. A Study in Maya Art and History: The Mat Symbol. New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.

Roe, P. G. Forthcoming. More than human: the jaguar as paragon and peril in lowland Amerindian symbolism. In Icons of Power: Feline Symbolism in the Americas (ed. N. J. Saunders). In preparation.

Roosevelt, A. C. 1991. Moundbuilders of the Amazon. London: Academic Press.

Roys, R. L. 1967. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Sahagun, B. de. 1950-82. Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain (trans. and eds by A. J. O. Anderson and C. E. Dibble). Santa Fe: The School of American Research and the University of Utah. 13 vols.

Saunders, N. J. 1989. People of the Jaguar. London: Souvenir Press.

Saunders, N. J. 1990. Tezcatlipoca: jaguar metaphors and the Aztec Mirror of Nature. In Signifying Animals: Human Meaning in the Natural World (ed. R. G. Willis). London: Unwin Hyman, pp. 159-77.

Saunders, N. J. 1992. The jaguars of culture: symbolizing humanity in Pre-Columbian and Amerindian societies. Doctoral dissertation. Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton.

Saunders, N. J. In Press. At the mouth of the Obsidian Cave: deity and place in Aztec religion. In Sacred Sites, Sacred Places (eds D. L. Carmichael, J. Hubert, B. Reeves and O. Schanche). London: Routledge.

Seler, E. 1904. Ueber Steinkisten, Tepetlacalli, mit Opferdarstellungen und andere ahnliche Monumente. Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Amerikanischen Sprach- und Altertumskunde, 2: 717-66.

Simeon, R. 1988. Diccionario de la lengua Nahuatl o Mexicano. Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno.

Smith, A. L. 1950. Uaxactun, Guatemala: Excavations of 1931-1937. Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 588.

Stark, M. T. 1993. Re-fitting the 'cracked and broken facade': the case for empiricism in post-processual ethnoarchaeology. In Archaeological Theory: Who sets the Agenda? (eds N. Yoffee and A. Sherratt). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 93-104.

Stirling, M. 1943. La Venta's green stone tigers. National Geographic, 84: 321-32.

Stirling, M. 1955. Stone Monuments of the Rio Chiquito, Veracruz, Mexico. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 157, pp. 1-24.

Stocker, T. et al. 1980. Crocodilians and Olmecs: further interpretations in Formative period iconography. American Antiquity, 45: 740-58.

Thompson, J. E. S. 1970. Maya History and Religion. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. Tilley, C. 1991. Material Culture and Text: The Art of Ambiguity. London: Routledge.

Townsend, R. F. 1987. Coronation at Tenochtitlan. In The Aztec Templo Mayor (ed. E. H. Boone). Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 371-410.

Ucko, P. J. 1988. Foreword. In What is an Animal? (ed. T. Ingold). London: Unwin Hyman, pp. ix-xii.

Ucko, P. J. and Rosenfeld, A. 1972. Anthropomorphic Representations in Palaeolithic Art. Santander: Separata de Actas del Simposio Internacional de Arte Rupestre.

Vaillant, G. 1944. The Aztecs of Mexico. New York: Doubleday.

Wylie, A. 1982. An analogy by any other name is just as analogical. In Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 1 (4): 382-401.

Wylie, A. 1985. The reaction against analogy. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 8 (ed. M. B. Schiffer). London: Academic Press, pp. 63-111.

Wylie, A. 1989. Matters of fact and matters of interest. In Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity (ed. S. Shennan). London: Unwin Hyman, pp. 94-109.

~~~~~~~~

By Nicholas J. Saunders, Department of History, University of the West Indies, Jamaica