Article
Collection Publications: The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership
Dwarfs
The physical characteristics of dwarfs and hunchbacks have been taken as signs of supernatural gifts and access to the otherworld in many Mesoamerican cultures. In the folklore of modern Mexico, dwarfs, or chaneques, are mischievous creatures who control the rain and maize. In Olmec art, dwarfs may be shown in the context of rulership as mediators between the natural and supernatural worlds, carrying sacks of maize, and identified through attributes of costume with the anthropomorphic supernatural, also represented as an infant or dwarflike creature. The image of the dwarf overlaps in symbolism with that of the infant.
The physical characteristics of dwarfs and hunchbacks have been taken as signs of supernatural gifts and access to the otherworld in many Mesoamerican cultures. In the folklore of modern Mexico, dwarfs, or chaneques, are mischievous creatures who control the rain and maize. In Olmec art, dwarfs may be shown in the context of rulership as mediators between the natural and supernatural worlds, carrying sacks of maize, and identified through attributes of costume with the anthropomorphic supernatural, also represented as an infant or dwarflike creature. The image of the dwarf overlaps in symbolism with that of the infant.
