Chavín were also interested in binaries and manipulating them, such as showing men and women, the sun and moon, and the sky and water in the same image. Religious figures Religious figures played a role in the Chavín religious ritual. In general, individuals higher up in the societal hierarchy had control over the management of the ritual activities and brought the Chavín ritual into the society. Shamans are most commonly understood to be the primary religious figure. Leaders managed daily secular functioning, and it corresponded with authority figures leading from a small group, rather than having one individual as the head figure. They lived close to the temple in residential buildings. Leaders demonstrated skills in understanding the supernatural world with the ability to manipulate it, thus making them stand out to be a religious figure. Gallery See also History of South America – Chavín Caral References Sources Bennett, Wendell C. (1943) "The Position of Chavin in Andean Sequences", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 86(2, Symposium on Recent Advances in American Archeology), [323–327]. Burger, Richard L. and Nikolaas J. Van Der Merwe. "Maize and the Origin of Highland Chavin Civilization: An Isotopic Perspective", American Anthropologist 92, 1 (1990), [85–95]. Burger, Richard L. 1992 Chavin and the Origins of Andean Civilization. New York: Thames and Hudson. Burger, Richard L. 1992 "Sacred Center at Chavin de Huantar". In The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago. Art Institute of Chicago, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Burger, Richard L. 2008 "Chavin de Huantar and its Sphere of Influence", In Handbook of South American Archeology, edited by H. Silverman and W. Isbell. Springer, New York, [681–706]. Druc, Isabelle C. 2004 "Ceramic Diversity in Chavín De Huantar, Peru". Latin American Antiquity 15(3), [344–363]. Kanåo, Chiaki. 1979 The Origins of the Chavin Culture. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University. Kembel, Silvia Rodriquez and John W. Rick. 2004 Building Authority at Chavin de Huantar: Models of Social Organization and Development in the Initial Period and Early Horizon. In Andean Archaeology. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. Lothrop, S. K. "Gold Artifacts of Chavin Style" Society for American Anthropology 16, 3 (1951), [226–240]. Miller, George R. and Richard L. Burger. "Our Father the Cayman, Our Dinner the Llama: Animal Utilization at Chavin de Huantar, Peru", American Antiquity 60, 3 (1995). [421–458] Tello, Julio C. "Discovery of the Chavin Culture in Peru", American Antiquity