Crowning affairs: sacred sovereigns in the Pre-Columbian world

The theme of divinity and leadership has been a regular focus of archaeology, anthropology, and art history. We know of notable cases of ‘divine rulership’ in the ancient Americas, but broadly there has been scant synthesis. This essay introduces the aims, background and coverage of this special issue, dedicated to the theme of ‘Sacred Sovereigns: Art, Divinity and Rulership in the Ancient Americas.’ We revisit key thinking behind divine rulership and position the case studies and the Pre-Columbian record to more fully engage with current scholarship, including two recent works on leadership and religiosity. We postulate that most Amerindian cases of rulership have basis in cosmological hierarchies involving superhuman numina. We observe that cases of divine leadership in the ancient Americas often center on the physical record of mimesis, metaphor and monuments. These instantiate ‘sacred’ propositions and practices operating according to local systems of authority. The emphasis on materials is an obligatory method for studying most Pre-Columbian societies, where writing was limited. But it is also because the institution of divine leaders in the Americas relied on local understandings of cosmological difference which manifested often through physical objects and spaces.