Question

What do the characteristics of the great enclosure say about how people of great zimbabwe viewed their rulers?

Answer 1

One interpretation of what was the great enclosure says that it was a place to accommodate a surplus population because of the similarities with the Hill Ruins. Another one suggests that the great enclosure worked as a site for religious events and rituals.

Symbols like the monolithic soapstone bird with pronounced muscularity on its breasts and well defined talon infers it is a bird of prey, which might be related to the power of the Shona kings and they were seen as benefactors of their people as many scholars suggest

Basically, all scholars that studied the ruins concluded that the enclosures were also meant to symbolize power and prestige.

If we gather all of this information, we might say that the rulers were seen as powerful benefactors who had some religious base to legitimize them.