All major Mesoamerican civilizations prominently featured a jaguar god, and for many, such as the Olmec , the jaguar was an important part of shamanism. The jaguar's formidable size, reputation as a predator, and its evolved capacities to survive in the jungle made it an animal to be revered. The Olmec and the Maya witnessed this animal's habits, adopting the jaguar as an authoritative and martial symbol, and incorporated the animal into their mythology. The jaguar stands today, as it did in the past, as an important symbol in the lives of those who coexist with this feline. The Olmec civilization was first defined as a distinctive art style at the turn of the nineteenth century.
The various sculpture, figurines, and celts from what now is recognized as the Olmec heartland on the southern Gulf Coast, reveal that these people knew their jungle companions well and incorporated them into their mythology. In the surviving Olmec archaeological record , jaguars are rarely portrayed naturalistically, but rather with a combination of feline and human characteristics.
These feline anthropomorphic figures may range from a human figure with slight jaguar characteristics to depictions of shamanistic transformations in the so-called transformative pose, kneeling with hands on knees, to figures that are nearly completely feline. One of the most prominent, distinctive, and enigmatic Olmec designs to appear in the archaeological record has been the " were -jaguar".
Seen not only in figurines, the motif also may be found carved into jade "votive axes" and celts, engraved onto various portable figurines of jade, and depicted on several "altars", such as those at La Venta. Were-jaguar babies are often held by a stoic, seated adult male. The were-jaguar figure is characterized by a distinctive down-turned mouth with fleshy lips, almond-shaped eyes, and a cleft head similar — it is said — to that of the male jaguar which has a cleft running vertically the length of its head.
It is not known what the were-jaguar represented to the Olmec, and it may well have represented different things at different times. The jaguar also is important for shamans who often associate the jaguar as a spirit companion or nagual , which will protect the shamans from evil spirits and while they move between the earth and the spirit realm. In order for the shamans to combat whatever evil forces may be threatening, or for those who rely on the shamans for protection, it is necessary for the shamans to transform and cross over to the spirit realm.
The jaguar is often as a nagual because of its strength, for it is necessary that the shamans "dominate the spirits, in the same way as a predator dominates its prey" Saunders The jaguar is said to possess the transient ability of moving between worlds because of its comfort both in the trees and the water, the ability to hunt as well in the nighttime as in the daytime, and the habit of sleeping in caves, places often associated with the deceased ancestors.
The concept of the transformation of the shaman is well documented in Mesoamerica and South America and is in particular demonstrated in the various Olmec jaguar transformation figures Diehl, p. Integration of the jaguar into the sacred and secular realms of the Maya is proven in the archaeological record. Often depicted on these artifacts are the gods the Maya revered and it is no coincidence that these gods often have jaguar attributes. As stated earlier, the jaguar is said to have the ability to cross between worlds, and for the Maya daytime and nighttime represented two different worlds.
The living and the earth are associated with the day, and the spirit world and the ancestors are associated with the night.
Jaguars in Mesoamerican cultures
As the jaguar is quite at home in the nighttime, the jaguar is believed to part of the underworld; thus, "Maya gods with jaguar attributes or garments are underworld gods" Benson One such god is Xbalanque , one of the Maya Hero Twins who descended to the underworld, and whose entire body is covered with patches of jaguar skin.
Another is God L , who is "the primary lord of the underworld" and often is shown with a jaguar ear or jaguar attire, and atop a jaguar throne Benson Not only is the underworld associated with the ancestors, but it also is understood as, where plants originate.
- ‘The Legend of the Bat’ 2: the history?
- Aztec Legend, Lord of the Jaguars.
- Jake and the Other Girl: A Tor.Com Original (Monument 14 Series)!
- Gift of Wisdom - FULL TEXT EDITION (CHRISTMAS INTANGIBLE GIFTS Book 4)!
- Maya jaguar gods.
- Transcatheter Embolization and Therapy (Techniques in Interventional Radiology).
- Maya jaguar gods - Wikipedia.
These associations with water and plants further reinforce the notion of the jaguar as a god of fertility. In pre-Columbian times, before the Spanish arrived, animal and human features were often combined to create what we regard as fantastical creatures possessing supernatural strength and magical powers. No surprise then that the kings and rulers of the Aztecs, the Maya, and earlier civilizations adorned themselves with jaguar skins, skulls, fangs and claws.
Carvings, paintings or statues of humans wearing jaguar clothing or appearing to be half-human, half-jaguar, are more than simple artistic images — they represent fundamental ideas and beliefs of the Aztecs and their predecessors. In Mexico, images of great cats almost certainly jaguars first appear in the art of the Olmec civilization BC. They are carved as giant stone sculptures and as small delicate jade figurines from archaeological sites such as San Lorenzo, El Azuzul, and La Venta.
Some of these appear as naturalistic animals, while others blend the human with the jaguar and add a fearsome snarling mouth. Myths and stories gathered in indigenous Mexican villages in recent times suggest what these dramatic Olmec items may have been.
Navigation menu
It may be that they show powerful supernatural beings regarded as the children of Olmec rulers and mythical jaguar beasts. Some large Olmec sculptures and smaller figurines may be showing sorcerers transforming into spirit-jaguars, caught, as it were, half-way between the feline and the man.
- .
- La langue de lécole au Congo-Brazzaville (French Edition).
- ;
- Similar books.
- The Jaguar in Mexico!
- ‘The Legend of the Bat’ 2: the history.
- America Vs. America.
Possibly, of course, such startling artworks could simply be showing a sorcerer, priest, or ruler wearing a jaguar mask, or adopting a feline pose in a long-forgotten ritual. Whatever qualities of the jaguar inspired the Olmec, such strange images appear to have established a long and sacred tradition in ancient Mexican art and religion. As an emblem of rulership, hunting, war and sacrifice, the jaguar appeared in the art of many later civilizations.
Jaguars in Mesoamerican cultures - Wikipedia
In wall paintings at the remote site of Bonampak, jaguar and possibly ocelot clothing and equipment are a striking addition to scenes of warfare, victory, and torture. Images inspired by the jaguar appear alongside Maya hieroglyphic texts, associated with conflict, war captives, and human sacrifice. Even today, sorcerers and political leaders at the Maya town of Chamula possess a jaguar soul companion. Maya language and literature also tell stories of how the jaguar is related to the higher social classes in their society.
It appears that each Mexican civilization created its own ideas and beliefs of what the jaguar and sometimes the puma meant to them, and showed them in art according to their own style. It is Aztecs however who have left us some of the most detailed insights into the ancient Mexican tradition of jaguar symbols. In Nahuatl, the Aztec language, the jaguar was called ocelotl - a fact which has led to confusion with the different and smaller ocelot.
The jaguar was a favourite symbol in Aztec representations of war. Aztec names which included the term ocelotl were used to describe brave warriors — in this way, ocelopetlatl and oceloyotl described especially brave warriors, such as those of the high-status Jaguar Warrior Society. Aztec kings, like their Classic Maya predecessors, used the jaguar to enhance their social status. As the jaguar was lord of animals, so an Aztec emperor was ruler of men. The greatest of all Aztec gods, Tezcatlipoca, was the patron of royalty and inventor of human sacrifice.
The importance of the jaguar and also of other large felines in Aztec society was dramatically shown during the excavations of the Great Aztec Temple El Templo Mayor which took place in downtown Mexico City during the s. Archaeologists discovered complete feline skeletons that had been buried as sacred offerings with polished greenstone balls gripped between their fangs. So powerful were these beliefs concerning the jaguar and other felines that they did not disappear with the Spanish Conquest of When confronted with the new religion of Spanish Catholicism, the ancient jaguar simply changed its name, not its nature.
In years following the conquest, during the early colonial period, the ancient power of the jaguar was used by those who fought against the new world that the Spanish were creating in Mexico. During the sixteenth century, sorcerers known as nahuallis were accused by the Spanish of murder, insurrection, and, most interestingly, of changing into jaguars. He was denounced to the Holy Inquisition in and accused of devil worship, predicting the rains, and transforming himself into the great spotted cat. The jaguar replaced the lion at the feet of St Jerome.
Many traditional jaguar festivals have survived into the twenty-first century. Los Tlacoleros and the Danza de los Tecuanes are just two of the most popular dances that still take place in rural villages. One such community, Totoltepec in Guerrero, has dancers dressed in jaguar masks and yellow-spotted clothing who mix Catholic beliefs with pre-Columbian ideas concerning the protection of crops and livestock from predators.
Across Mexico, in pre-Columbian, colonial, and modern times, indigenous ideas about the jaguar were not concerned with worshipping the natural animal. Instead, the ideas and beliefs of what the jaguar meant and what it represented for human beings were part of native Mexican ways of seeing and understanding the world — and of how beliefs about the cycle of life and death could be made visible and relevant to ordinary people.
The Living Spirit of Ancient America.