Main expressions of totemic worship of the rain, the earth and the war between the ancient inhabitants of Teotihuacan

Abstract

Diverse societies that lived in what is regarded as Mesoamerica in modern-day Mexico and Central America developed a series of artistic expressions including sculpture, ceramics, and mural painting spanning 3000 years of history. Mural painting allowed indigenous painters to represent their religious, warrior, and political life through colors. What stand out from these cultural representations are specimens that survive in urban centers of major archaeological importance such as Teotihuacan, a city linked to myths and legends from before and after its fall around AD 650. Its prestige as a great metropolis continued in the awareness of its cultural heirs: the Toltecs and Mexicas. However, one of the most recurrent features in its art is its totemic character referring to plants and animals as part of its emphasis on the rhetoric of the veneration of natural phenomena.