Iconicity of the Uto-Aztecans

Snake Anthropomorphy in the Great Basin, the American Southwest and Mesoamerica

Tirtha Prasad Mukhopadhyay, Alan Philip Garfinkel

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781836950837
  9781800739727
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781800739734
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Art General
• Index: Social Sciences

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Preface
• List of Abbreviations
• Chronology
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. In-migrations 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. Anthropomorphy 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 Bajío
• Chapter 12. The Binding Liberating Chain of Chupícuaro Pottery
• Chapter 13. Mother-Earth Snakes
• Conclusion
• References
• Index