ABSTRACT
This paper examines the jaguar from the viewpoint of two widely separated and highly contrasting societies, the Shipibo and the Waiwai. In addition, it explores this feline's dualism in both material and verbal culture, and analyzes the animal's symbolism within the framework of 'Dual Triadic Dualism' (DTD), a construct I evolved to deal with further analyses of the genres of Shipibo tales (Roe 1988) and the Waiwai and Shipibo mythic origins of designs (Roe 1989, 1995a). Moreover, it incorporates specific research into the complex ethnotaxonomies of 'jaguars', real and supernatural, that the Shipibo 1 and the Waiwai 2 possess, as a necessary background to understanding the functioning of the big cats as mythic natural symbols.
