Shamans, Supernaturals & Animal Spirits: Mythic Figures From the Ancient Andes

225
Panel or Border
Standing Iguana
Chimú culture
AD 1000-1476
Cotton, camelid wool; interlocking
and slit tapestry weave
6½" x 23½"
The Chimú textile archive reveals that the mythical seated,
crowned, iguana-featured deity is generally paired with
another version of the same magical creature (see cat. 224).
The striking contrast between the naturalistic style of the
standing, elongated figure and the exalted, anthropomorphized
form of the other suggests a visual metaphor. Perhaps it reflects
cultural notions about supernatural transformation, hierarchy
or realm. It may even refer to a myth with animal protagonists.
This panel depicts the character in its most reptilian form.
However, even this incarnation does not resolve the ambiguity
as to whether the figure derives from an iguana or a caiman.
Perhaps it is a conflation of the two (although the spinal crest
and sawtooth teeth strongly indicate the former).
In any case, neither species is found in the region where textiles
with this iconography were woven and displayed. As with the
monkey, parrot and other tropical forest species, iguanas may
well have been imported into the Chimú realm as exotic
specimens. The idea of a mythical caiman, on the other hand,
was ingrained in Andean art and consciousness (and surely oral
traditions as well) as a result of Chavín influence on the early
coastal cultures.
196