Predators of culture

Jaguar symbolism and Mesoamerican elites

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3919872
AutoresNicholas J Saunders (University of the West Indies System, autor de correspondencia)
Año1994
Volumen26
Número1
Páginas104-117
Fecha de publicación1994-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaWorld Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00438243.1994.9980264
OpenAlexW2021705570
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas28
Referencias citadas36

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

Elite · Jaguar · Maya · Naxi · The Symbolic · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Latin American history and culture