Reconsidering Olmec Visual Culture
The Unborn, Women, and Creation
Will be published approx. on 1. January 2012
Book
Hardback
359 pages
978-0-292-72852-3 (ISBN)
Description
Recently, scholars of Olmec visual culture have identified symbols for umbilical cords, bundles, and cave-wombs, as well as a significant number of women portrayed on monuments and as figurines. In this groundbreaking study, Carolyn Tate demonstrates that these subjects were part of a major emphasis on gestational imagery in Formative Period Mesoamerica. In Reconsidering Olmec Visual Culture, she identifies the presence of women, human embryos, and fetuses in monuments and portable objects dating from 1400 to 400 BC and originating throughout much of Mesoamerica. This highly original study sheds new light on the prominent roles that women and gestational beings played in Early Formative societies, revealing female shamanic practices, the generative concepts that motivated caching and bundling, and the expression of feminine knowledge in the 260-day cycle and related divinatory and ritual activities.
Reconsidering Olmec Visual Culture is the first study that situates the unique hollow babies of Formative Mesoamerica within the context of prominent females and the prevalent imagery of gestation and birth. It is also the first major art historical study of La Venta and the first to identify Mesoamerica's earliest creation narrative. It provides a more nuanced understanding of how later societies, including Teotihuacan and West Mexico, as well as the Maya, either rejected certain Formative Period visual forms, rituals, social roles, and concepts or adopted and transformed them into the enduring themes of Mesoamerican symbol systems.
Reconsidering Olmec Visual Culture is the first study that situates the unique hollow babies of Formative Mesoamerica within the context of prominent females and the prevalent imagery of gestation and birth. It is also the first major art historical study of La Venta and the first to identify Mesoamerica's earliest creation narrative. It provides a more nuanced understanding of how later societies, including Teotihuacan and West Mexico, as well as the Maya, either rejected certain Formative Period visual forms, rituals, social roles, and concepts or adopted and transformed them into the enduring themes of Mesoamerican symbol systems.
Reviews / Votes
Tate demonstrates that the sustained investigation of ancient material and visual culture can indeed provide elusive glimpses of the complex, empirically based knowledge systems crafted by Mesoamericans. - CAA ReviewsMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 279 mm
Width: 216 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
1275 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-292-72852-3 (9780292728523)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Carolyn E. Tate is Professor of Art History at Texas Tech University and former Associate Curator of Pre-Columbian Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. She co-curated the exhibitions The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership at the Art Museum, Princeton University, and Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico at the National Gallery of Art.
Content
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Rediscovering Women and Gestation in Olmec Visual Culture
A Cradle of Civilization
Mesoamerica and Its Visual Culture
Early Interpretations of the First Known Olmec Sculptures
New Questions in Olmec Studies
Is Gender or Gestation the Compelling Issue?
How the Book Develops: Content and Methodologies
Chapter 2. The Tale of the Were-Jaguar
The Birth of the Were-Jaguar
One Were-Jaguar or Many Deities?
The First Attempt to Slay the Were-Jaguar
The Were-Jaguar as a Shamanic Alter Ego
Monstrous Congenital Anomalies
Pantheons of Deities or Symbols of Vital Forces?
Shamanism in an Ecological Context
The Rebirth of the Maize Deity
Signs of Life
Chapter 3. The Sowing and Dawning of the Human-Maize Seed
Images of the Unborn
The Formative Mesoamerican Embryo and Its Matrix of Associations
Ethnographic Analogies
Hollow Babies
A Contemporary Baby in a Boat: NiNopa
Conclusions about Embryos, Fetuses, and Babies
Chapter 4. Tracking Gender, Gestation, and Narrativity Through the Early Formative
The Archaic Period, 10,000 to 2000 BC: The Beginning of Visual Symbols
The Initial Formative, circa 1900 to 1400 BC
Maize Technology I: Fermentation
Maize Technology II: Nixtamalization
The Early Formative, 1400-900 BC
Fluctuations in Visual Culture During the Initial and Early Formative Periods
Chapter 5. La Venta's Buried Offerings: Women and Other Revelations
Topography and Sources of Stone
Discovery, Excavation, and Chronology of La Venta
Surveying La Venta's Visual Culture Through Time
Women and the Unborn Return to Prominence
Chapter 6. Female Water and Earth Supernaturals: The Massive Offerings, Mosaic Pavements, and Mixe "Work of the Earth"
Why Construct Massive Offerings?
Mixe Beliefs in Earth, Water, and Thunder Supernormal Entities
La Venta's Mosaic Pavements
Offerings Inseminating the Flowering Earth
Massive Offerings: Contained Water
Mixe Healers, Midwives, and Rituals, and Their Olmec Antecedents
Female Shamans
The Mosaic Pavements as Conventionalized Symbols
Politics, Protection, and Healing
Chapter 7. A Processional Visual Narrative at La Venta
Previous Investigations of Olmec Creation Narratives
Patterns for the Distribution of Monumental Sculptures
A Processional Visual Narrative
Chapter 8. La Venta's Creation and Origins Narrative
An Approach to Visual Narratives from Preliterate Societies
The Narrative Stations
Station One: A Womb with Three Fetuses
Station Two: A Quincunx of Thrones
Station Three: The Dawning of Human-Maize
Station Four: The Female Sources of Life: Earth and Water
Station Five: The Bodiless Heads
Station Six: The Phallic Column
Inserting Politics into the Creation and Origins Narrative
Alternative Reading Orders
Conclusions and Questions
Chapter 9. A Scattering of Seeds
Assessing Arguments for Some Major Points
Modes of Communication
Where Did Olmec Ideas Go?
Asking and Answering the Fundamental Questions
Appendix 1. La Venta Monuments by Format
Appendix 2. Comparison of Mesoamerican Creation and Origins Narratives
Appendix 3. Shape-Shifters and Werewolves to Were-Jaguars: A Brief Chronology
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Rediscovering Women and Gestation in Olmec Visual Culture
A Cradle of Civilization
Mesoamerica and Its Visual Culture
Early Interpretations of the First Known Olmec Sculptures
New Questions in Olmec Studies
Is Gender or Gestation the Compelling Issue?
How the Book Develops: Content and Methodologies
Chapter 2. The Tale of the Were-Jaguar
The Birth of the Were-Jaguar
One Were-Jaguar or Many Deities?
The First Attempt to Slay the Were-Jaguar
The Were-Jaguar as a Shamanic Alter Ego
Monstrous Congenital Anomalies
Pantheons of Deities or Symbols of Vital Forces?
Shamanism in an Ecological Context
The Rebirth of the Maize Deity
Signs of Life
Chapter 3. The Sowing and Dawning of the Human-Maize Seed
Images of the Unborn
The Formative Mesoamerican Embryo and Its Matrix of Associations
Ethnographic Analogies
Hollow Babies
A Contemporary Baby in a Boat: NiNopa
Conclusions about Embryos, Fetuses, and Babies
Chapter 4. Tracking Gender, Gestation, and Narrativity Through the Early Formative
The Archaic Period, 10,000 to 2000 BC: The Beginning of Visual Symbols
The Initial Formative, circa 1900 to 1400 BC
Maize Technology I: Fermentation
Maize Technology II: Nixtamalization
The Early Formative, 1400-900 BC
Fluctuations in Visual Culture During the Initial and Early Formative Periods
Chapter 5. La Venta's Buried Offerings: Women and Other Revelations
Topography and Sources of Stone
Discovery, Excavation, and Chronology of La Venta
Surveying La Venta's Visual Culture Through Time
Women and the Unborn Return to Prominence
Chapter 6. Female Water and Earth Supernaturals: The Massive Offerings, Mosaic Pavements, and Mixe "Work of the Earth"
Why Construct Massive Offerings?
Mixe Beliefs in Earth, Water, and Thunder Supernormal Entities
La Venta's Mosaic Pavements
Offerings Inseminating the Flowering Earth
Massive Offerings: Contained Water
Mixe Healers, Midwives, and Rituals, and Their Olmec Antecedents
Female Shamans
The Mosaic Pavements as Conventionalized Symbols
Politics, Protection, and Healing
Chapter 7. A Processional Visual Narrative at La Venta
Previous Investigations of Olmec Creation Narratives
Patterns for the Distribution of Monumental Sculptures
A Processional Visual Narrative
Chapter 8. La Venta's Creation and Origins Narrative
An Approach to Visual Narratives from Preliterate Societies
The Narrative Stations
Station One: A Womb with Three Fetuses
Station Two: A Quincunx of Thrones
Station Three: The Dawning of Human-Maize
Station Four: The Female Sources of Life: Earth and Water
Station Five: The Bodiless Heads
Station Six: The Phallic Column
Inserting Politics into the Creation and Origins Narrative
Alternative Reading Orders
Conclusions and Questions
Chapter 9. A Scattering of Seeds
Assessing Arguments for Some Major Points
Modes of Communication
Where Did Olmec Ideas Go?
Asking and Answering the Fundamental Questions
Appendix 1. La Venta Monuments by Format
Appendix 2. Comparison of Mesoamerican Creation and Origins Narratives
Appendix 3. Shape-Shifters and Werewolves to Were-Jaguars: A Brief Chronology
Notes
Bibliography
Index