Importance and Symbolism of Jaguars in Mesoamerica

Jaguars. The most abundant species of large cats in the Americas and the third most abundant in the world. Jaguars are sleek and elegant, but they are also agile and powerful animals that sit on top of the food chain. With these characteristics it is easy to see why the people of Mesoamerica held the Jaguar to such high esteem. In this paper we will briefly look at how the Jaguar is portrayed in Mesoamerican art and artifacts, there influence throughout Mesoamerican culture, and the symbolism associated with these big cats that dominated as one the Americas of the apex predators.

The jaguar throughout Mesoamerican cultures has been held in high regards. From the Olmecs, to the Mayans, and the Aztecs, jaguars have been a central part in Mesoamerican culture. According to Margarita de Orellana, in the journal article titled JAGUAR, “this creature was widely worshipped for its strength, cunning, and majesty. It was also associated with darkness rain and destruction”.

Symbolism of the Jaguar in Maya and Aztec Civilizations

In the same article, Guilhem Oliver further stresses the importance of the symbol of the jaguar as one that commands fear and respect. “People would avoid calling it (the jaguar) by its real name since they believed this would summon it immediately. The same linguistic taboo applied to the god of death”. Along with this, Oliver also refers to the Mesoamerican beliefs and myths that jaguars are the harbingers of man's destruction. For example, in central Mexico, there are stories of how Tezcatlipoca after the end of the First Sun came down to earth in the form of a jaguar and ate the giants of that era. Other Maya accounts tell of how household clay objects transform into jaguars at the end of an era and destroy the people that mishandled them. Jaguars have also been associated throughout Mesoamerica with warriors, rulers, and shamans. The Olmecs on the other hand associated Jaguars with rain and agricultural fertility. The Olmec’s god of rain (which later influenced the rain gods of the Maya, Zapotec, and the Tlaloc’s) is said to have been based upon a jaguar prototypes.

The Mayans, one of the major societies of Mesoamerica, held the jaguar as a symbol of high praise. According to an article by Nicholas J. Saunders, the Mayans refer to the Jaguar as balam, which can also be used for the word ‘brave’. Along with this the Maya also used this term balam as a title for a ruler or a priest. And jaguar pelts were used on thrones. Also, the Maya viewed people with a strong and aggressive nature, as a person that had a balam as a spirit animal. In Mayan society, Jaguar imagery was also closely associated with war and warriors would wear jaguar insignia and clothing. Later on, in Maya language, warfare would be referred to as “spreading the jaguar skin”.

The Aztecs revered the jaguar in similar ways to the Maya. The Aztec referred to the jaguar as ocelotl and was also regarded as a brave, fierce, cautious, wise, and proud animal that was the ruler of the animal kingdom. The Aztecs even had an elite military order of ocelotl warriors that used jaguar costumes and were the bravest of warriors. Aztec royalty also adorned themselves in jaguar clothing made from the animal’s pelt and like the Mayans also used thrones with jaguar skin. The Jaguar has also been associated with the god of night Tezcatlipoca who’s alter-ego among the Aztecs is said to be a jaguar.

We cannot talk about Jaguars and their importance throughout Mesoamerica without also talking about were-jaguars. Were-jaguars are said to be jaguar-children based on artifacts and figurines found in an excavation site in Puebla, Mexico called Las Bocas, these baby/child-like figurines had some resemblance to jaguars due to their downturned mouths and are said to be deities of rain, thunder and lightning. This theory of were-jaguars is also believed to be seen in a sculpture Monument 3, Potrero Nuevo which supposedly depicts the copulation between humans and jaguars, however according to an article by Whitney Davis, there seems to be no evidence that this artifact or any other shows copulation between a human and a jaguar but rather depicts the conquering of one person over another.

In conclusion, this paper has briefly touched upon jaguar’s importance and symbolism throughout ancient Mesoamerica. It has looked at the jaguar in Mayan Society, the jaguar in Aztec Society, and the appearance of were-jaguars in art and pottery throughout Mesoamerica, especially in the Olmecs.

Bibliography

• Davis, W. (1978). So-Called Jaguar-Human Copulation Scenes in Olmec Art. American Antiquity, 43(3), 453-457. doi:10.2307/279403
• De Orellana, M., Olivier, G., Derais, J., Taube, K., Pope, Q., Chinchilla Mazariegos, O., . . . Ruiz Medrano, E. (2016). JAGUAR. Artes De México, (121), 64-80. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/24878528
• Jaguar. (2019). Retrieved 1 December 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar
• Robicsek, F. (1983). Of Olmec Babies and Were-Jaguars. Mexicon, 5(1), 7-19. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/23759045
• Saunders, N. (1994). Predators of Culture: Jaguar Symbolism and Mesoamerican Elites. World Archaeology, 26(1), 104-117. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/124867
• TURNER, A. (2017). The Roar of the Rain: A Late Preclassic Jaguar Pedestal Sculpture from Southern Mesoamerica. Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, 90-96. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/26378754