Olmec Culture Essay

While his coworkers constructed his designs, what hobby did Bernini pursue? Answer Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Writing plays and designing stage sets Writing plays and designing stage sets

Misra (2017) perpetuates his nationalistic views and provides little literary evidence to support the parallels between Olmec statues and Hindu-Buddhist culture. Firstly, yoga had spread throughout Asia during the decline of the Olmec civilization. Moreover, Buddhism arrived in China long after the collapse of the Olmecs. Secondly, Misra’s association with an earlier dynasty which likely never existed brings further doubt to his claims. The closest representation of the supposed Xia dynasty, the Erlitou, lived in central Asia without access to the sea and were capable of forging bronze, unlike the Olmec. Lastly, archaeologists have found significant evidence of pre-Olmec artifacts indicating a long history of development in the region rather than a sudden appearance that migration would have caused, had it occurred. Altogether, Misra’s claim of Olmec yogis who migrated from China is highly unlikely. Needless to say, it is more likely that the development of the first great Mesoamerican civilization was purely Mesoamerican, and without influence from Asian

The Olmec religion was very influential on areas like the Mesoamerican, both in the mythological world and social development. For a lot of reasons, the Olmec culture is the mother of all Mesoamerican cultures. There is no direct proof of the Olmec religion, unlike the Aztecs or the Mayans. Archeologists used techniques to find out how the Olmec religion worked by comparing it with pre-Columbian cultures that were documented better. When the Archaeologist 's were using their techniques, they assumed the religion of the Olmecs was consistent and unbroken to the present Mesoamerican religions. Researchers were able to find a number of gods that had the features of many animals. The shamans, priests and rulers did all of the activities that were associated with the Olmec religion. Rulers were considered the relatives of supernatural beings and of the Olmec gods. Archaeologist 's also say that there is evidence of the existence of shamans in their culture. Specific details in the Olmec religion were not always found by the researchers. At first, historians thought that the Olmec religion was based around a Jaguar god. Joralemon Peter David

The Olmecs were farmers, traders, artists… innovators. The Olmec culture first emerged in the Isthmus region of Tehuantepec. The site of San Lorenzo, which sits on the Coatzacoalcos River, sheds the most light on this mysterious culture. During this time period, The Initail Formative, food surplus sparked an increase in population and career specialization. With the increase of specialization and sedentism came the environment for complex culture.

The Olmec’s lived along muddy riverbanks and the Gulf of Mexico around 1500 B.C. Rigorous agricultural practices characterized the Olmec civilization, enabling them to provide food and resources for their families and generate income by selling their food to others around them. They also used the land to their advantage, using the mud to create elaborate earthen pyramids. Along with the cultivation of land, trade contributed to the success of the Olmec’s. They had many widespread trade routes extending into the surrounding areas. Their trade routes further helped to expand agriculture and grow the economy within this society due to the selling of agricultural products along these routes. To grow spiritually, the Olmec’s created religious rituals and a system of hieroglyphics that allowed the peoples to communicate effectively while also uniting the Olmec people as a whole. The Olmec’s’ use of their surrounding geography, combined with the economic growth brought about from extended trade routes and the societal unity brought about from the implementation of religious rituals allowed the Olmec’s to thrive during their time.

The Olmecs were the earliest civilization to settle in Mexico around 1200 BCE to 400 BCE. The daily life of the Olmecs included farming, weaving, pottery, and games. The men would go out and farm squash, beans, sweet potatoes, and even tomatoes. Men also would fish. While the men were farming and fishing, the women would stay home and cook. They would also weave and make pottery. An important game the Olmecs would play is “pok-a-tok”. Another part of their daily life was trade. The Olmecs would trade all sorts of things such as, pottery, statues, figurines, obsidian, serpentine,etc. In return the Olmecs wanted things that were not normally native to their part of the world. Finally, the Olmecs believed that stone faces would help lookover and protect their society. Some technology that the Olmecs used that we still use today, includes compass, had a form of writing, used math, calendars, and cocoa. Those were just a few of the things they used back then that we still put to use today.

Aztec culture, also known as Mexica culture, was a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521, during the time in which a triple alliance of the Mexica, Texcoca and Tepaneca tribes established the Aztec empire. The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries. The Aztec have also referred to themselves as the Meshika or Mehika.

                The Olmec culture is found through Mexico City. The spread of their religion influenced a lot of what their art that was found. Symbolic traditions, as well as artistic and architectural complexes. Were found Chiapas were the civilizations was formed around 1500 BCE. During this period the first true Mesoamerican writing and language were developed right after the Mayan civilization was formed the Olmec had a huge influence in them. Writing they had a lot of adventures epic poems about the gods that were from religion that were the explanation of the nature they saw, the stars they saw. All the natural situation that happened they wrote it down creating poem influenced by their religion there's different kinds of gods.

The first Europeans arrived in North America in the fifteenth century CE. Native cultures included the Olmec, the Maya, the Aztecs, the Incas, the Mound Builders of the Mississippi region, and the Anasazi of the American Southwest. The first metropolis in Mesoamerica, was the city of Teotihuacan, capital of an early state about thirty miles northeast of Mexico City that arose around the third century B.C.E. and flourished for nearly a millennium until it collapsed under mysterious circumstances. Among the groups moving into the Valley of Mexico after the fall of Teotihuacan were the Mexica. Folk legend held that their original homeland was the island in the lake called Aztlan, from that is why today they are known as the Aztecs. The Aztecs were excellent warriors. They set out to bring the entire region under their domination. For the remainder of the fifteenth century, the Aztecs took control over much of which is known as modern Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and as far south as the Guatemalan border. The Chimor kingdom was eventually succeeded in the late fifteenth century by an invading force from the mountains far to the south. The Inka were a small community in the area of Cuzco, a city located at an altitude of ten thousand feet in the mountains of southern Peru. In the 1440s, under the leadership of their powerful ruler Pachakuti, the Inka launched a campaign of conquest that eventually brought the entire region under their authority. Under his

This is about a culture called Nacirema that is practiced in many different place and was brought to the attention of the Anthropologist attention by Professor Linton to talk about this culture that was poorly understood. The Nacirema is a type of culture that is summed up as that these people that believe in this culture that the human body is ugly and that the natural tendencies are meant to debilitate and cause disease. They are also big believes in rituals and ceremonies in the household to preform these ceremonies either as a family but in most cases it was privately. Where they would receive charms and other items form the medicine man of the community that would help with a certain problem. They would use these magic items to help with

and living in one area for many years, and so it was after a few years

Throughout the period of the 1st to 16th century, Mexico experienced the emergence and rise of powerful civilizations such as the Teotihuacan, Toltec and ultimately, the greatest empire, Aztec. Many cultural and economic practices of these Mexican civilizations were borrowed from the prior civilization, adapted, and then further developed upon and while many aspects of these practices stayed the same through this time, significant changes occurred as well.

Later when the city expanded, more trade popped up. Within the city and outwards. There were traces of a drug that the Olmec used for Shamanism. Shamanism is when a person, a priest for the Olmec, would go into an “altered state of consciousness to see and talk with spirits and “channel their energies. Basically, the drug made them see things. That could mean a few things. In the article mentioned in the above paragraph, they have inferred that this society traveled up higher to live and became what people thought was the Olmec, that some of the civilization broke off to create the Olmec and the rest of the civilization eventually moved South, that being the reason that the civilization disappeared, or, Norte Chico could have merely traded with the Olmec.

The Olmec are believed to be the first great Mesoamerican civilization. The city known as San Lorenzo existed around 1200BC and declined in 400 B.C. It is considered to be the first major city in ancient Mexico.

The ancient world of Mesoamerica entered a long period of change that soon led to the development a mammoth city that would serve as a regional center for more than 600 years. Beginning in about 1000 B.C. the majority of the people in the Valley of Mexico relocated to one of two primary sites, that of Cuicuilco in the southwest corner and Teotihuacan in the northeast. By about 300 B.C., Cuicuilco dominated the region, but its heyday would soon diminish. (Sabloff 2000, p 60)