Iconicity of the Uto-Aztecans

Tirtha Prasad Mukhopadhyay is Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico. He has taught at the University of Calcutta and Presidency College, India, and also briefly at the University of Texas at Dallas prior to his appointment in Mexico. An interdisciplinary scholar and former Fulbright Fellow, he travelled extensively across the American Southwest and Mexico to develop an interpretative view of Native American iconography.

“The authors’ approach is wide ranging and multidisciplinary. The methodology is based on a deep understanding of the subject and exceptional in its scholarship. The authors’ make many interesting links by drawing diverse data together to provide new ways of understanding rock art, the art of Southwest America/Mesoamerica, and how it relates to socio-cultural behavior.” • Derek Hodgson“The authors present an interesting hypothesis (more a series of hypotheses) for the antiquity of Uto-Aztecan iconography based on possible, probable, and “if we accept” observations of rock art in the American West through central Mexico. They rely on a unique blend of linguistic analyses, archaeological data, and comparative similarities in iconography.” • William D. Hyder, University of California Santa Cruz

• IntroductionChapter 1. Inmigrations of the First Uto-AztecansChapter 2. The Uto-Aztecan HomelandChapter 3. The Primordial Snake ReligionChapter 4. How Does Prehistoric Iconicity Emerge and Function?Chapter 5. Anthropomorphism of the Uto-Aztecans, Animism, and AnimalismChapter 6. Temporal Horizons of Uto-Aztecan IconographyChapter 7. Hunting Tool IconographyChapter 8. The Coso Anthropomorph and its Untold Secrets and MysteriesChapter 9. The Circular Snake of TimeChapter 10. Outlier Indices in Aztec IconsChapter 11. Iconicity of Tlaloc in the Rain Praying Cultures of del BajioChapter 12. The Binding Liberating Chain of Chupicuaro PotteryChapter 13. Mother Earth SnakesConclusion