Artes De Mexico: Jaguar

By Margarita de Orellana, Guilhem Olivier, Karl Taube, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, Nawa Sugiyama, Rafael Vargas, Manuel A. Hermann Lejarazu, Ethelia Ruiz Medrano

Jaguar. The jaguar is the largest felid on the American continent and its strength, ferociousness, agility, cleverness and beauty fed the imaginations and spirituality of Mesoamerican peoples in unsuspected ways. In spite of this animal’s unquestionable relevance in ancient Mexican religion, politics and everyday life, surprisingly little has been published about the jaguar’s rich cultural associations—a shortcoming that the writers in this issue attempt to remedy.