Building Bodies

It is important to note that these entities were not necessarily thought of as deities. That is a Eurocentric way of thinking that should be discarded in favor of less assuming terms. Modern scholarship confirms we don't actually know how Ancient Americans referred to these entities, so not assuming their nature as being divine is a good place to start.

Supernatural entities can be told apart from their human counterparts fairly easily due to a couple features they portray.  Often they will have animalistic aspects or be holding objects associated with the aspect of life they are involved in. In scenes where regular people appear, the supernatural beings are usually bigger or more decorated.  The piece on the left is holding an ear of maize, marking it as a maize being. The artifacton the right has a skull-like face, marking it as an being involved with death. The middle artifact shows several supernatural entities on either side of the image as being much taller than those in the center.