ABSTRACT
Like most cultures, the native peoples of Mesoamerica believed in a host of beings of “unnatural” aspect-human-animal hybrids, composite animals, and humanoids of frightful appearance. Prehispanic Mixtec manuscripts from Oaxaca tell of epic battles between heroic ancestors and the spirits of dead warriors in the form of skeletons and animal-headed men.1 Aztec religion includes numerous deities of fearsome aspect such as Itzpapalotl, a star goddess also associated with slain warriors, who possesses a partly skeletal face, clawed limbs and joints, and bat wings sprouting obsidian blades.2 The ancient Mesoamerican proclivity for human-animal hybrid imagery is rooted in very ancient shamanistic religious concepts. From early times, the fusion of the human form with various symbolic animals-especially predators-served as a central metaphor for the ritual transformation of humans into powerful spirits.3 During the colonial period, these morally ambivalent figures were systematically suppressed and demoted to the status of demons or merged with the Devil, thereby complicating the study of their original Prehispanic significance.4
