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

303
Fragment from a Checkerboard Tunic
Jaguar Motif
Inka culture
AD 1470–1532
Cotton, camelid wool; interlocking
tapestry weave
7" x 4½"
A
purple and red checkerboard supplies a vivid background for a dramatic jaguar
motif. The insignia decorated a tunic probably designated for an Inka official or
military leader. Evidently a royal emblem, the same figure is also represented among the
tokapu symbols carved on Inka ceremonial beakers.
Jaguars were synonymous with Antisuyo, the wild, unconquered tropical forest located
northeast of Cuzco. Indeed this graphic icon may well commemorate a mythicohistorical
event or personage associated with Inka conquest of those territories. The
colonial-era historian Huamán Poma (1613), an Andean native, recounts the tale of a
son of the sixth emperor, Inka Roca, who was said to have transformed himself into a
jaguar in order to defeat the Chuncho inhabitants of Antisuyo.
But while the ferocious mouth and hefty claws depicted here clearly connote power
and domination, the organic, rootlike shape of the paw, as well as the adjacent bud or
fruit (also seen in the butterfly image of cat. 302), imply something more organic and
life-sustaining.
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