Formerly known as "swimmers," figures like this one more likely represent trance states in which the figure appears to float or to be in a position of supernatural flight (Taube 2000, 306-7). The nature of religion in the Americas focuses on the importance of reciprocal actions in which sacrifice and ritual are performed to nourish the gods and ensure their beneficence. The sacrificial rite of bloodletting was the method by which a ruler provided sustenance to the gods, because blood represented the most precious form of reciprocity. It was also a way to enter a trance state.