Now that we are halfway through the summer session and have survived midterms the slate is clean right? Well it feels like we are starting over in more ways than one, I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to say that early American art seems eerily reminiscent of the Prehistoric art. I really mean no offense by that, but there are certain recurring motifs between the two. The hybrid human in particular seems to be prevalent between both art styles. It is not uncommon for civilizations to depict animals that were significant in their respective cultures, the bull being a common motif for divinity as we have seen so far. What is also interesting is that the animals applied to hybrid humans in both prehistoric and early American art have some parallels such as with birds. In Diquis culture, birds are associated with heaven whereas snakes are characteristic of the underworld; this sort of symbolism was not exclusive to the early Americans because other cultures similarly associate those animals with good and evil respectively.
The image above is a shaman with a snake and drum. Once again, the snake recurs as a representation of evil which the shaman has control over. Drums are used similarly in many cultures both ceremonially as well as means of inducing a trance like effect on those present. Where there is good there is evil and as such the heavenly bird motif in early American culture should be discussed. Below is a Mantle of Bird Impersonators. Portrayed are seemingly shamans dressed as birds that have a scepter in one hand and a small snake in the other. The scepter in this culture is unsurprisingly an indicator of power as well and the small snake in the other hand is a metaphor for the bird shamans triumph over evil. 
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