At the confluence of the trade routes linking the coastal regions to the highlands and the Amazonian bassin, the symbols naturally grew out of the familiar animals found in each of those biotopes. The recognition of their totemic animals by the various tribes would have then accelerated the process of integration and transmission of essential values which in turn created the backbone of social order, regional stability and the religious hegemony of the conquerors. The pictographic legacy of Chavin incorporates the main elements that will be reproduced in various guises by all the other Andean cultures. The snarling Jaguar God, the Bird God (variously Hawk, Eagle and Condor), the Caiman Gods (variously Serpents, Staffs), trophy heads, composite images of the previously cited, stylised anthropomorphs, ritual and life sustaining plants to name but the main ones.