ABSTRACT
From the dynasties of Old Kingdom Egypt to the witch hunts of Salem and the Garfield and Kliban cat crazes of the 1980s, felines have awed, terrified, and enchanted human beings. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Native American and Pre-Columbian peoples also have incorporated the feline into their beliefs and art styles. In the Andean region of prehistoric South America the most represented and revered feline was the jaguar (Panther a onca). However, in areas outside the jaguar's habitat, other felines seem to have assumed the larger cat's prominence in art and belief. Zuidema (1983) has documented the role of the puma (Felis concolor) in highland Inca myth and ritual, and Lyon (1983:164, 167) has suggested that the gato monté (Felis colocolo), often played the jaguar's role in the coastal regions of Peru. However, precisely what the role of the jaguar and its smaller coastal cousins was in Pre-Columbian times still is open to discussion and speculation. None the less, the animal's very presence in a myriad of representations over more than two thousand years indicates that its role was significant and pervasive.
