The Macaw: a Symbol of Temporality and Fertility in Two Examples from Mural Painting

Abstract

In pre-Hispanic thought, Macaw (Ara macao and Ara militaris) occupy a place of hon­our, as witness its image captured in the murals created by different peoples, such as the Maya, the Zapotec, the ancient inhabitants of Teotihuacan and Cacaxtla. This is not a coin­cidence, which is why this study aims to analyze and recognize the taxonomic identity of recreated individuals, as well as argue their presence in the pictorial language as a mean of irrefutable graphic expression. To this end works with mural paintings from two archaeologi­cal sites are analyzed: the mural 1 “The birds” of the 86 structure at Xelhá, located in the northern part of Quintana Roo, and the wall East of the Red Temple in Cacaxtla, Tlaxcala, are studied. According to the modalities of graphic representation and under the criteria of the­matic integration addresses the reading of the scenes taking into acount other iconographic elements that make them up. The result is a proposal for a token participation of the macaws on the abstraction of time from the daily and seasonal behavior of this kind of noisy psitacid and suggestive and striking plumage and its association with the concept of life, movement and temporality, in addition to its association with the Sun and water as the primary element linked to fertility.