User talk:Smorrow3
ANTH 506 Wikipedia Assignment
[edit]I am looking for your Wikipedia assignment but have not been able to identify it. Can you put a link to it in the line with your User name on my Talk page? Thanks! Hoopes (talk) 23:32, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
The idea that the Olmecs are thought of as a mother culture in Mesoamerica stems from years of archaeological research and findings. The origin of the idea stems from Alfonso Caso. He extensively studied Mesoamerican cultures including the Olmecs, and was the first to claim them as the mother culture in 1942. His idea became heavily criticized and debated.
The Olmecs are considered to be a mother culture in Mesoamerica because of several reasons and could have had direct influence on the societies around them. One of these reasons is that Olmec iconography and artwork uses imagery of animals such as the jaguar and the serpent, as well as large heads to depict their leaders. This same artwork and imagery can be seen in later civilization’s art and creations. Many Olmec artifacts have been found beyond their original territory. This means they could have had direct influence on the societies around them. Despite the evidence, this hypothesis of a mother culture is uncertain to be true as the diversity of cultures in Mesoamerica is diverse enough that the cultural strides made by the Olmec could have been made by other civilizations independently. Despite the evidence, this hypothesis of a mother culture is uncertain to be true as the diversity of cultures in Mesoamerica is diverse enough that the cultural strides made by the Olmec could have been made by other civilizations independently. In some cases, the strides seen in Olmec archaeology might have been adopted from even earlier civilizations. Examples of these civilizations include the site of Zohapilco, the center for Tlatilco culture, the Zapotecs, and San Jose Mogote. Discoveries of older agriculture, writing, and ceramic creation show that cultures surrounding the Olmecs were actually more advanced, meaning that the Olmecs are not the mother culture that has been hypothesized.
At the site of Zohapilco, some of the oldest ceramics in Mesoamerica have been found dating back to almost 5,000 years ago, with the area known to have had a high population and was a source for brickmaking in a clay rich area [1]. The ceramic figurines that have been found there represent pregnant women and could have influenced later Olmec civilization. Olmec art shows that they could have adopted very similar styles of art [2]. These connections show the complexity of Mesoamerican culture through the discovery of more and more ceramics throughout the region.
San Jose Mogote is another site that has elements of cultural strides that the Olmecs could have adopted as the site can be dated back to 1500-500 BCE. San Jose Mogote is a site that dates to the early Zapotecs [3], a civilization that Situated well outside the Olmec heartland, the site shows some of the earlier signs of a working irrigation system by diverting water from streams over cropland [4]. This irrigation system created by the Zapotecs existed well before the Olmecs existed as a society. The Olmecs also used various irrigation methods, but because of the difference in dating it is safe to infer that they most likely obtained some of these methods and ideas from the Zapotecs.
Despite evidence existing that at one time pointed in the direction that said the Olmecs could have been a “mother culture” in Mesoamerica, these new discoveries largely refute that idea. The older evidence of the Zapotecs and other civilizations show that what was once considered Olmec technological and social evolutions were in fact much more widespread throughout the region before the Olmecs had even arrived at their strongest point. Mesoamerica is filled with many different civilizations that all contributed to the overall development of the region as time went on.
- ^ Hepp, Guy David. “Interaction and Exchange in Early Formative Western and Central Mesoamerica: New Data from Coastal Oaxaca.” Interregional Interaction in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by Joshua D. Englehardt and Michael D. Carrasco, University Press of Colorado, 2019, pp. 51–82. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvkjb2qb.7. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.
- ^ Evans, Susan T. (2004). Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-28440-7., p. 122.
- ^ Evans, Susan T. (2004). Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-28440-7., p. 122.
- ^ Marcus, Joyce; Kent V. Flannery (1996). Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved in Mexico's Oaxaca Valley. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05078-3.