ABSTRACT
La Casa de las Golondrinas, so named by the Guatemalan archaeologist Ericastilla Godoy for the swallows that swoop in an out of the crevices of the painted rock cliff, is the subject of this chapter. It explores the relationship of rock art and social identity of the Late Postclassic Kaqchikel elite. At Golondrinas, religious artists painted at Golondrinas elements of an elite Postclassic international symbol set including the Plumed Serpent, Xiuhcoatl, and Flint to legitimatize the state society and warfare, and through these symbols made reference to sacred mountains, mythological weapons, and human sacrifice. Ethnic landscapes are the spatial and temporal constructs defined by communities whose members create and manipulate material culture and symbols to signify ethnic or cultural boundaries based on customs and shared modes of thought and expression that might have no other sanction than tradition'.
