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

248
Textile Figurine
Man with Coatimundi
Central or North Coast culture (Chimú)
AD 1100-1476
Cotton, camelid wool; cross-knit looping, embroidery
6" high
This unique and appealing portrayal of a man with a pet coati clambering over his
shoulder is clearly related to the assemblage of figures shown in cat. 247. It is likely
that all these figurines were fabricated by the same hand (or workshop) or for the same
purpose.
The character’s physical features and attire (including the bright white zigzag around the
waist and headdress) are identical in style to those of the family group.
In the Tello tableau cited above, the personages are accompanied by dogs. Seemingly
that role is adapted here to refer to a more unusual animal, the ring-tailed coati (Nasua
nasua), which often appears in north coast iconography.
These small mammals were native to the jungle and higher cloud forest regions of
north central Peru. But coatis were clearly regarded as exotic, magical creatures by
coastal peoples. And as this image indicates, they may have been kept as pets, or for some
unknown role in divination or shamanic rituals. The Campa people of the Peruvian
montaña, for example, call coatis "the dogs of the jaguar shamans." 1
1 Nicholas Saunders, “Architecture of Symbolism: The Feline Image,” in Icons of Power: Feline Symbolism in the Americas
(1998): 200.
226