The “Heart of the Mountain” among the Postclassic Zapotec

Abstract

The iconography of Mesoamerican deities is usually studied from a comparative point of view, even though the materials favour a methodology based on the semiotics of natural religions. Images referring to the “Heart of the Mountain”, for example, go from the abstract to the concrete, although the relationship of Tepeyollotli with the natural forces could not be represented in a corporalized way. This paradox is solved when the deity’s attributions are considered in terms of Charles Peirce’s triadic conception of a sign.