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FANG and FEATHER: the Origin of Avian-Serpent Imagery at Teotihuacan and Symbolic Interaction with Jaguar Iconography in Mesoamerica

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FANG and FEATHER: the Origin of Avian-Serpent Imagery at Teotihuacan and Symbolic Interaction with Jaguar Iconography in Mesoamerica FANG AND FEATHER: The Origin of Avian-Serpent Imagery at Teotihuacan and Symbolic Interaction With Jaguar Iconography in Mesoamerica Student Author Mentors Kathryn Math is a graduating Richard Blanton received his PhD senior from the departments of in anthropology from the Universi- anthropology and art history. Her ty of Michigan in 1970 and joined focus is the intersection of mythol- the faculty at Purdue University in ogy, art, society, and identity. She 1976. He specializes in archaeology, will be continuing her graduate economic anthropology, regional studies in art history at Concordia analysis, political anthropology, University in Montreal, Canada. cross-cultural analysis, and theory. Erik Otárola-Castillo is an archaeologist, human evolutionary biologist, and biostatistician. His specialties include evolution, ecolo- gy, and diversity of behavior in prehistoric and modern popula- tions of hunter-gatherers, as well as the effects that climatic change, Photo Credit: Rose Lincoln/ Harvard Staff Photographer variation of food availability, and-distribution had on the diet of some of the first North American native populations. Dr. Otárola-Castillo directs the Laboratory for Compu- tational Anthropology and Anthroinformatics (LCA). 18 Journal of Purdue Undergradate Research: Volume 7, Fall 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.5703/1288284316393 INTRODUCTION Abstract From the fi rst indications of collective identity, The central Mexican city of Teotihuacan rose to the jaguar was the iconographic “king” of the prominence in the last century BC and lasted for Mesoamerican world. Its pelts were the symbol of six hundred years. The civic plan was arranged rulership, draped over the shoulders and hips of the around two main perpendicular avenues. This urban center lords. The Olmec claimed descendance north-south axis was lined with temples and from supernatural jaguars and based their claim to public monuments. By the third century AD, rulership on these lineages. There was nothing more population was housed in apartment compounds, noble, fi erce, or powerful than the feline predator. all precisely aligned with the overarching grid plan (Manzanilla, 1999). On the walls were And then, with the establishment of Teotihuacan, the murals depicting ornately dressed administrators, feathered serpent arrived to challenge the jaguar to armor-clad warriors, and fantastic creatures not that throne. found in nature. These murals were the birth- place of the feathered serpent, as a separate entity By all accounts, Teotihuacan, after the third century from avian-serpents depicted since the Terminal AD, became the antithesis of Pre-Classic Mesoamer- Formative period. My research proposes that the ica. Its primary center was planned according to a feathered serpent of Teotihuacan was a new deity careful grid system that required extensive urban serving as a symbol of the city—one conceived in renewal. The center boasted an unprecedented civic direct opposition to the jaguars used to symbolize layout composed of apartment compounds along- kingship in contemporary Mayan polities. Past side massive communal ritual spaces. Teotihuacan studies have treated the murals of Teotihuacan stood in direct opposition to previous Mesoamerican as either literal representation of supernatural polities, going out of its way to reinvent the city and deities—often equating it to Quetzalcoatl of the cosmology (Carrasco, 1982). Teotihuacan used art Aztec cosmos—or as a set of signs to be trans- to construct its identity. Contending with the regal lated like a language. This study concludes that jaguars of the lowland Olmec kings and Mayan there is an intermediate interpretation wherein ajaws (lord), Teotihuacan rallied behind the helm the feathered serpent is both a god and a symbol of the plumed serpent. The murals at Teotihuacan of identity. This is found in the representations presented the composite creature as dominant over of Teotihuacanos outside of Teotihuacan and jaguar imagery imported from contemporary states. outsiders within the barrios of Teotihuacan. Thus, The result of Teotihuacan’s iconographic rebellion Mesoamerican states not only foregrounded was a symbolic war played out in public monuments concepts of community identity, but also actively between jaguars and feathered serpents over four- recognized those of other polities they came into teen centuries. contact with. This project reviewed the Mesoamerican cannon in Math, K. (2017). Fang and feather: The origin order to interpret the appearance and role of feath- of avian-serpent imagery at Teotihuacan and ered serpents and jaguars in the minds of these symbolic interaction with jaguar iconogra- ancient civilizations. Typically, art historical analysis phy in Mesoamerica. Journal of Purdue Un- has been employed separately from anthropological dergraduate Research, 7, 18–26. https://doi. inquiry. Art historical analyses often focus solely org/10.5703/1288284316393 on form and style. Anthropological studies habitu- and Feather Fang ally see art as an inactive medium, inadequate for Keywords expounding upon social systems outside of trade or ceremony. Moreover, depictions of supernatu- Mesoamerica, art history, interpretive ral creatures are discussed in the literature only in anthropology, statistical methods, terms of religious beliefs and practices. While these symbolism, computational anthropology are not entirely inaccurate approaches, they tend to dominate alternative interpretations. Rather, art was a means for people to express who they were in their own terms of form, color, and narrative. One role of symbolic expression is to defi ne the community in relation to other communities—past or present. This game of identity is played through tactics of opposi- tion and assimilation. Therefore, the choices of what 19 is opposed and what is assimilated offers insight into An appendix containing 188 artifacts, which the the construction and preservation of group identity. author gathered from museum collections and litera- The melded art historical-anthropological analysis in ture review, was rendered through frequency tables. the thesis is the first of its kind to analyze art as an Each artifact was tagged as depicting jaguars (J), active agent in the creation of ideologies and actions. avian-serpents (S), composites of jaguars and serpents (C), or independent figures of jaguars and METHODS AND MATERIALS serpents in the same scene (J/S). Figure 1 compares cumulative frequencies of all categories. Humans have the impeccable ability to find patterns in just about anything. This fascinating talent can The results show a definitive lack of avian-serpent also lead us to see significance where there is none. imagery before 100 BC. After this time, feathered Art is especially liable to such false positives. That serpent iconography bursts onto the scene. The rela- is why statistical methods were employed alongside tive frequency is calculated by dividing the observed aesthetic interpretation. The purpose is twofold. count of artifacts of a specific century by the total First, to demonstrate statistically that there is signifi- observed across all centuries, resulting in the follow- cance in the appearance pattern of feathered serpents ing figure. Figure 2 shows the relative frequency of in the Mesoamerican canon. Second, to more thor- each category, to lend perspective on the previous oughly discern the relationship between symbolic figure. It is clear that avian-serpent imagery does meaning underlying these forms and the patterns of rise in popularity, as Teotihuacan becomes a major their appearance. player in Mesoamerican politics. Interestingly, there Figure 1. Cumulative iconographic frequency. Figure 3. Cumulative frequency of serpent and feathered-serpent. Figure 2. Relative frequency of S/J/C. Figure 4. Relative frequency of serpent and feathered-serpent images. 20 Journal of Purdue Undergradate Research: Volume 7, Fall 2017 Figure 5. Illustration of ATT traits. Mural fragment (feathered serpent and “flowering trees”), Teotihuacán, 6th century CE. Courtesy of the Harald J. Wagner collection. Edited by author. is a boom of artworks that host both jaguars and the standard form of avian-serpents across Middle avian-serpents, which coincides with a tumultuous America even after the city’s decline from influence. period in Teotihuacan’s history. The program R was utilized to conduct an attribute analysis through a series of multivariate analysis of A second appendix of 68 artifacts, drawn from variance (MANOVA) tests. the larger appendix, was gathered by isolating the serpent tag. These artifacts were then reclassified as The factor ATT is a matrix with binary levels—here either serpents (S) or feathered serpents (F). Figure 3 used to signal the presence or absence of a trait is a graph showing the cumulative frequency of ser- (feathered body, fanged maw, crested brow, and pent and feathered serpent imagery. Serpent imagery forked tongue, as illustrated in Figure 5). The various dominated until 200 BC, after which there is a boom vectors include GROUP (described as a serpent of feathered serpent imagery. This coincides with the or feathered serpent in the literature), DATE (the establishment and expansion of Teotihuacan and its average of the date range attributed to the artifact), influence on surrounding polities. We might interpret PER (dating to before, during, or after Teotihuacan), this as the result of Teotihuacan spreading its influ- and CULT (the attributed culture area). While it may ence through
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