ABSTRACT
From at least 2000 B.C., Mesoamerican religious traditions, like the region itself, began to evolve a distinctive identity. In fact, one of the strongest early expressions on the archaeological record that suggests incipient political and social integration above the level of village cultures occurs in the form of supernatural motifs in what is known as the Olmec Style. This is most clearly expressed in hundreds of objectsrendered in such diverse media as monumental sculpture, carved jade figurines, ceramics, and mosaic pavements-that depict a “baby-faced” human-jaguar motif (Figure 14.1).
