Walking around the cathedrals of consumption we call malls, I’m struck by the longevity and omnipresence of leopard print. Adorning bags, shoes, even abayas! The iconic markings of this predatory feline are everywhere. What is it about the leopard that has made it so cross-culturally appealing? Why has this creature, the smallest of all the big cats, become so iconic? Its spotted pelt associated with divinity, royalty and military prowess throughout the ages. Today, this elegant predator’s distinctive markings bestride the catwalks of the big four fashion capitals, and adorn the wardrobes of millions people around the globe.
For the earliest evidence of leopard-skin garments we have to travel to prehistoric France (where else for fashion?). Here in the 1960s, at a Neanderthal cave site, archeologists unearthed the remnants of a leopard-skin garment thought to have been worn more than 60,000 years ago. Similarly, in central Turkey an archeological cite known as Catalhoyuk is totally dominated by leopards. One of the more famous artifacts from this ancient site is the iconic figurine of an enthroned woman with her hands resting on the heads of two leopards. Each year, coach loads of visitors descend on the Catalhoyuk site from all over the world. Many of these visitors are women from the “Goddess community”. For these intrepid pilgrims, some from as far away as California, the leopard represents female power, sovereignty and divinity. If the lion is king, then the leopard is queen.
Catalhoyuk isn’t alone in its love for the little-big-cat; we find symbolic representations of the leopard throughout the ancient world. In Egypt we see leopard-skin clad high-priests performing sacred rituals. In Greece the leopard was associated with Cybele, Dionysus and Eros amongst others. In China it carried lunar and imperial connotations, and was said to be worn by Fu Hsi, a Chinese hero figure associated with the advent of writing. Similarly in India and Africa the leopard is repeatedly associated with military power, magic, royalty and divinity.
Not all commentators give the leopard high praise; the animal is often cast as the slyest of hunters. Leopards are undoubtedly first rate predators, and there are a few isolated cases of injured leopards actually turning to the easy pickings of human flesh. One particularly bad-kitty, referred to as the ‘Spotted Devil of Gummalapur’, is reported to have killed at least 42 people before being thoroughly exorcized by three shots from a hunter’s trusty Winchester.
This less than complimentary view of the leopard as a stealthy man eater is perhaps reflected in the association between leopard-skin clothing and the idea of the predatory seductress. This connection may partly be based on the leopard’s actual mating habits. Female leopards generally engage in ‘overlap promiscuity’, which basically means, the female will mate with any older male she encounters (any male whose territory overlaps with hers). This may be a succession of males. The female leopard will give birth and raise her cubs alone; she requires no male protection or resources. Perhaps this female independence is another of the leopard’s celebrated symbolic attributes.
By Justin Thomas
