A Conference in Pre-Columbian Iconography Elizabeth P. Benson
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A Conference in Pre-Columbian Iconography OCTOBER 3l ST AND NOVEMBER l ST, 1970 Elizabeth P. Benson, Editor Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections TRUSTEES FOR HARVARD UNIVERSITY Washington, D.C. Copyright 1972 Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C. Library of Congress catalog number 72-90080 Preface OBERT WOODS BLISS began collecting Pre-Columbian art because he was lured by the beauty of the materials, the fineness of the craftsmanship, and Rthe fascination of the iconography of the first Pre-Columbian objects he saw. The Bliss Collection has been, since its beginning in 1912, primarily an esthetic one-probably the first esthetically oriented collection of Pre-Columbian artifacts- so it seemed appropriate to organize a conference that would focus on a cross-cultural, art-historical approach. When we sought for a theme, the first that came to mind was that great unifying factor in Pre-Columbian cultures, the feline. Large cats such as the jaguar and puma preoccupied the artists and religious thinkers of the very earliest civilizations, the Olmec in Mesoamerica and Chavín in Peru. The feline continued to be an important theme throughout much of the New World until the European con- quests. We are indebted to Barbara Braun for the title, “The Cult of the Feline.” Pre-Columbian studies merge many disciplines. This conference was not only cross- cultural but cross-disciplinary-with contributions from anthropologists, archaeolo- gists, art historians, and ethnologists-since we believed that the art-historical ap- proach to iconography should be based on the knowledge of what has been found archaeologically and what is known of the customs of the present-day peoples who have been isolated enough to carry on what must be very ancient traditions. Perhaps we should also have invited a zoologist. The conference, ably chaired by Geoffrey Bushnell, covered various facets of the feline presence and meaning in Pre-Columbian cultures from the Valley of Mexico to Argentina, from 1200 B.C. to present-day sur- vivals. We have published in this volume not only the papers of the panelists but vol- unteered contributions from Alberto Rex González, David C. Grove, and Chiaki Kano (whose material was presented at the conference by Donald Lathrap). Other material-of great interest, but not suitable for publication here-was presented by Mary Elizabeth King, Arthur G. Miller, and Peter Roe. We are grateful for help received from the many members of the Dumbarton Oaks staff who worked to make the conference a success. In the preparation of this volume, we are appreciative of the editorial assistance of Barbara Braun, formerly the Assistant Curator for the Pre-Columbian Collection, most especially in transcribing the dis- cussion-period tapes. E LIZABETH P. BENSON MICHAEL D. COE v THE PANEL Geoffrey H. S. Bushnell, Chairman George Kubler Michael D. Coe Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff Michael Kan Alan R. Sawyer THE PARTICIPANTS Joyce Bailey Julie Jones Junius Bird Michael D. Kampen Peggy Bird Mary Elizabeth King Ingeborg Bolz Elizabeth Kubler J. O. Brew Donald W. Lathrap Patricia Bushnell Maria Antonieta Cervantes de Larrauri Frederick J. Dockstader Olga Linares Dudley T. Easby, Jr. Arthur G. Miller Elizabeth Easby Louise Milliken Gordon F. Ekholm Christine Niederberger Marguerite Ekholm Lee A. Parsons Nora Fisher Esther Pasztory Kent V. Flannery Peter G. Roe Beatriz de la Fuente Richard W. Rose Dee Furst John F. Scott Peter Furst Marion Stirling Alberto Rex González Matthew W. Stirling David C. Grove Stephen Williams Terence Grieder Hasso von Winning Gillett G. Griffin vii Contents MICHAEL D. COE Olmec Jaguars and Olmec Kings 1 Discussion 13 GEORGE KUBLER Jaguars in the Valley of Mexico 19 Discussion 45 GERARDO REICHEL-DOLMATOFF The Feline Motif in Prehistoric San Agustín Sculpture 51 Discussion 65 MICHAEL KAN The Feline Motif in Northern Peru 69 Discussion 86 ALAN R. SAWYER The Feline in Paracas Art 91 Discussion 113 ALBERTO REX GONZÁLEZ The Felinic Complex in Northwest Argentina CHIAKI KANO Pre-Chavín Cultures in the Central Highlands of Peru: New Evidence from Shillacoto, Huánuco 139 DAVID C. GROVE Olmec Felines in Highland Central Mexico 153 GEOFFREY H. S. BUSHNELL Concluding Remarks 165 Fig. 1 Jaguar. Painting by Walter Weber, © National Geographic Society. Olmec Jaguars and Olmec Kings MICHAEL D. COE YALE UNIVERSITY his is the second version of a paper which I have prepared on the feline motif in Olmec art. I tore up the first and began again after hearing a fascinating Ttalk by Eric Thompson at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in which he demonstrated the close connection between the supreme god of the Maya—Itzamná— and the cult of the Maya kings, While initially somewhat skeptical, I have become convinced that just such a relationship, involving the very same god-complex, exists between the jaguar and the royal house of the Olmec. While some of my paper may seem farfetched to those unfamiliar with the unbelievably tortuous details of Meso- american religion, it should be pointed out that this study is only part of a much larger structural investigation of all known Mesoamerican theogonies, which I strongly feel comprise a single great system of tremendous antiquity. There are four possible sources of information available for the interpretation of Olmec iconography, the religious imagery of a civilization which began over three thousand years ago and thus is the earliest known in Mesoamerica. The first is Olmec art itself, which can be viewed from a purely formal standpoint; such an iconologic study has been carried out by David Joralemon (1971) of Yale University. The second is the natural history of those animals—including man—which play a major role in Olmec iconography. The third comprises the rich data from native New World cul- tures on the relationships between man and those groups of animals which seem to have been of overriding importance to the Olmec; here I call attention to Peter Furst’s (1968) excellent examination of man-jaguar transformations in the tropical lowlands of South America. Fourthly and lastly, there is the possibility of a genetic analysis which would detect the homologies between Maya and Mexican religious iconog- raphies; after relatively late items of diffusion between the two have been screened out, it is quite obvious that those images which are cognate should stem from their com- mon origin, an origin which can only be Olmec. Olmec art focuses most obviously upon felines and men, and upon combinations of these. What was this feline, what was its meaning to the Olmec, and how can we analyze the symbolism in back of the bewildering variety of combinational forms which have been termed“were-jaguars”? There are a total of five cat species in the 1 Michael D. Coe Olmec “heartland” of southern Veracruz and Tabasco. These are 1) the jaguar, Felis onca, 2) the puma, Felis concolor, 3) the ocelot, Felis pardalis, 4) the margay, Felis wiedii, 5) the jaguarundi, Felis jaguarundi. While all are closely related and are adapted, like all cats, to the carnivorous life of nocturnal hunters, only two, the jaguar and the puma, play any great role in the lives and thinking of Mesoamerican natives. The others, being of no greater size than large house cats, are of slight importance; in addi- tion, the margay is of such rarity that most lowlanders have never seen one. A more-than-casual review of Maya and Mexican art styles will show that the feline depicted is almost exclusively the jaguar, with only a few possible representations of the puma; the same is true of Olmec art. Similarly, a survey of Mesoamerican verbal imagery indicates that it is the jaguar which is of overwhelming concern, receiving the name balam among the Maya and océlotl among the Aztec (the ocelot itself being separately and derivatively termed tlacoocélotl and thus not to be confused with its larger relative). Just what sort of animal is the jaguar? Unfortunately, there are no studies of its be- havior in the wild or in captivity, and certainly nothing as illuminating as Schaller’s field study of the Indian tiger. The jaguar (Fig. 1) is the third largest cat in the world, and the largest spotted cat. As with all felines, its massive head is perfectly adapted to its role of catching prey at night: since it detects game largely through sight, touch, and hearing, the jaguar’s face is rounded, with large eyes capable of binocular vision and with well-developed earflaps. Whiskers are long and sensitive, enabling the crea- ture to find its way through brush in total darkness. A peculiar feature, perhaps present in all the large cats, is a furrow running longitudinally along the top of the head, formed by the folds of the loose scalp. The jaguar pelage has unique coloration. The kittens have a pale, buffy ground color, heavily marked with rounded, solid black spots. When the animal matures, these tend to form rosettes with interior spots (which differentiate it from the ocelot, which has only streaks). Black coloration along the tail is irregular, but the tip is usually black, again distinguishing it from the superficially similar ocelot. Thus, any Olmec feline with rosette spots and black-tipped tail is likely to be the jaguar and none other. The jaguar is typically feline in that its claws, unlike the dog’s, are retractable into the pads on which it walks. This animal is notably solitary, and it stalks its prey alone and at night. The victim is brought to the ground by the awesome feet, claws, and mighty forearms, and is dispatched by a bite from the extremely well developed ca- nines on the neck or throat.