Olmec Greenstone figure with a Supernatural Mask Middle Preclassic, circa 900 - 300 BC

One of the main tenets for maintaining rulership and power in ancient Mesoamerica was the ability to achieve a transformative state to access the supernatural powers. The “transformation of the shaman or ruler into his nagual, the animal spirit companion, was a means of entrance to the otherworld.” (Michael D. Coe, et al., The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership, Princeton, 1995, p. 163). Body postures of standing mediation and kneeling signified the preparation of the shamanic journey, but the wearing of masks was the “quintessential icon of transformation in Olmec ritual.” (ibid., p. 264).

This figure wears a large mask of the supernatural Bird Monster, identified as a composite creature of primarily raptorial form with elements of mammals or reptiles; he was considered one of the primary Olmec deities as identified by Joralemon in 1976. The mask is of massive rounded form with the lowered lids of deeply rounded shape forming crescents, and a large mouth with two large teeth curving upward at each corner. A thick feather rises up from the nose and curls at the tip. The mask is held by a thin strap incised around the back of the head against the finely striated coiffure. The figure is of robust and sturdy form and stands on the bent legs of the meditative posture accompanying the shamanic journey.

For one of the most dramatic portrayals of the Bird Monster as a life-size mask, see ibid., p. 283, cat. no. 194. For small portable stone figures similar to the subject figure, see ibid., p. 265, cat. no. 179; also see Leo Rosshandler, Man-Eaters and Pretty Ladies, Early Art in Central Mexico, from the Gulf to the Pacific 1500 BC-500 AD, Montreal, 1971, p. 51, cat. no. 60; and Peter David Joralemon, "The Olmec Dragon: A study in Pre-Columbian Iconography”, in H. B. Nicholson, ed., Origins of Religious Art and Iconography in Preclassic Mesoamerica, Los Angeles, 1976, p. 56, Fig. 20d, for the drawing of the figure in the Museum am Rothenbaum – Kulturen und Künste der Welt, Hamburg.