ABSTRACT
Felines are one of the most frequently encountered images in Pre-Columbian art and mythology. Appearing in naturalistic, stylized, or anthropomorphic form, feline symbolism is usually identified as referring either to the jaguar (Panthera onca) or, less frequently, the puma (Felis concolor). Despite, or perhaps because of, the frequency of representation, discussions of feline imagery have often lacked analytical precision - the apparent ubiquity serving to obscure rather than clarify the need for a rigorous cross-cultural diachronic approach. Many accounts have arbitrarily identified certain kinds of animals, or their constituent parts, as feline (usually jaguar), and then asserted their 'obvious' symbolic importance, with little regard to how such symbols came into being or how their meanings may have changed over time (for example Bernal 1976:66; Krickeberg et al. 1968:11).
