Uto-Aztecan iconic practices are primarily conditioned by the consciousness of the snake as a death-dealing power, and as such, an animal that displays the deepest fears and anxieties of the individual. The attempt to study a snake simulacrum thus constitutes the basic objective of this volume. A long, all-embracing iconicity of snakes and related snake motifs are evident in different cultural expressions ranging from rock art templates to other cultural artifacts like basketry, pottery, temple architecture and sculptural motifs. Uto-Aztecan iconography demonstrates a symbolic memorial order of emotional valences, as well as the negotiations with death and a belief in rebirth, just as the skin-shedding snake reptile manifests in its life cycle.
Recenzijas
The authors approach is wide ranging and multidisciplinary. The methodology is based on a deep understanding of the subject and exceptional in its scholarship. The authors make many interesting links by drawing diverse data together to provide new ways of understanding rock art, the art of Southwest America/Mesoamerica, and how it relates to socio-cultural behavior. Derek Hodgson
The authors present an interesting hypothesis (more a series of hypotheses) for the antiquity of Uto-Aztecan iconography based on possible, probable, and if we accept observations of rock art in the American West through central Mexico. They rely on a unique blend of linguistic analyses, archaeological data, and comparative similarities in iconography. William D. Hyder, University of California Santa Cruz
Introduction
Chapter
1. Inmigrations of the First Uto-Aztecans
Chapter
2. The Uto-Aztecan Homeland
Chapter
3. The Primordial Snake Religion
Chapter
4. How Does Prehistoric Iconicity Emerge and Function?
Chapter
5. Anthropomorphism of the Uto-Aztecans, Animism, and Animalism
Chapter
6. Temporal Horizons of Uto-Aztecan Iconography
Chapter
7. Hunting Tool Iconography
Chapter
8. The Coso Anthropomorph and its Untold Secrets and Mysteries
Chapter
9. The Circular Snake of Time
Chapter
10. Outlier Indices in Aztec Icons
Chapter
11. Iconicity of Tlaloc in the Rain Praying Cultures of del Bajio
Chapter
12. The Binding Liberating Chain of Chupicuaro Pottery
Chapter
13. Mother Earth Snakes
Conclusion
Tirtha Prasad Mukhopadhyay is Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico. He has taught at the University of Calcutta and Presidency College, India, and also briefly at the University of Texas at Dallas prior to his appointment in Mexico. An interdisciplinary scholar and former Fulbright Fellow, he travelled extensively across the American Southwest and Mexico to develop an interpretative view of Native American iconography.
