The Olmecs: A History from Beginning to End (Mesoamerican History Book 1) by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hourly History
Published: 2019-06-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Were-Jaguars and Feathered Serpents

“Many later Mesoamerican civilizations trace their ultimate ancestry to the Olmec.”

—John S. Henderson

What we know of Olmec religion comes entirely from archaeological excavation. Many figures and statues have been recovered as well as decorated pottery which seem to show supernatural beings, and these have been assumed to be some kind of deities which were important to the Olmecs. It appears that the Olmecs had many gods, though their religion has been described as simplistic by some scholars because they seem to have had relatively few deities compared to the later Maya (who worshipped more than 250 different gods) and the Aztecs (who believed in a pantheon of more than 1,000 gods).

One of the most often repeated deities in Olmec art is a being which shows a combination of both human and jaguar features, often depicted as having a human body and a jaguar head. This being is often called the “were-jaguar,” and scholars have speculated that the Olmec were fascinated by the power and strength of the jaguar and believed that some people could physically transform themselves (at least partly) into jaguars. Alternatively, it could be an allegorical attempt to suggest that some people could take on certain aspects of the jaguar, perhaps including its courage, cunning, and ability to see in the dark.

Some people have suggested that the were-jaguar figures represent Olmec shamans who perhaps wore jaguar skins and heads as part of their ceremonial costume or who were believed to be able to transform themselves into jaguars. The motif of the were-jaguar is present in many forms of Olmec art, and its presentation is generally very consistent—a human body is attached to a head which has an elongated, cat-like snout and almond-shaped cat-like eyes. However, there are exceptions. For example, most of the colossal stone heads recovered from Olmec sites are presumed to be portraits of actual people, most likely Olmec rulers. But one of the basalt heads shows what seems to be the head of a man with the mouth of a jaguar. This head also features a strange cross over the right eye—the cross is a common glyph in Olmec art, but its meaning here is unknown. At least one Olmec statue shows a keeling person holding the body of what seems to be a were-jaguar child (which also incorporates a large cross glyph on its chest). There has been speculation that this depiction of a jaguar-human hybrid is a representation of some royal lineage, where a particular family was either presumed to have descended from a jaguar god, or who perhaps were said to embody characteristics of the jaguar.

There are different versions of the were-jaguar in Olmec art—some show a human body attached to an almost fully represented jaguar head while others show a human form which incorporates the mouth and ears of a jaguar. Notably, Olmec art which shows the were-jaguar does not include sexual characteristics—the human part of these figures could be either male or female, a feature of many Olmec creations which seem to show supernatural beings.

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