Uto-Aztecan iconic practices are primarily conditioned by the consciousness of the snake as a death-dealing power, and as such, an animal that displays the deepest fears and anxieties of the individual. The attempt to study a snake simulacrum thus constitutes the basic objective of this volume. A long, all-embracing iconicity of snakes and related snake motifs are evident in different cultural expressions ranging from rock art templates to other cultural artifacts like basketry, pottery, temple architecture and sculptural motifs. Uto-Aztecan iconography demonstrates a symbolic memorial order of emotional valences, as well as the negotiations with death and a belief in rebirth, just as the skin-shedding snake reptile manifests in its life cycle.

Alan Philip Garfinkel is a senior investigator in an environmental compliance firm UltraSystems, headquartered in Irvine, California. Garfinkel has taught at California State University, Bakersfield and published extensively on California and Great Basin archaeology. He is the President and founder of California Rock Art Foundation and featured in the documentary Talking Stone sponsored by the Bradshaw Foundation.

Introduction

Chapter 1. Inmigrations of the First Uto-Aztecans
Chapter 2. The Uto-Aztecan Homeland
Chapter 3. The Primordial Snake Religion
Chapter 4. How Does Prehistoric Iconicity Emerge and Function?
Chapter 5. Anthropomorphism of the Uto-Aztecans, Animism, and Animalism
Chapter 6. Temporal Horizons of Uto-Aztecan Iconography
Chapter 7. Hunting Tool Iconography
Chapter 8. The Coso Anthropomorph and its Untold Secrets and Mysteries
Chapter 9. The Circular Snake of Time
Chapter 10. Outlier Indices in Aztec Icons
Chapter 11. Iconicity of Tlaloc in the Rain Praying Cultures ofdel Bajio
Chapter 12. The Binding Liberating Chain of Chupicuaro Pottery
Chapter 13. Mother Earth Snakes

Conclusion