Chapter 8 – The Olmec: The Foundation Culture of Central America
We learn more about the Olmec civilisation, and discover how the Maya, Zapotecs, Mazatecs and Toltecs copied and adapted Olmec culture, as well as their way of life, art and architecture, across the length and breadth of Central America. Olmec sites, from about 1200 BC, were based on a formalised layout embracing a great pyramid, a central plaza, religious area, burial tombs, a domestic quarter, statues and art. Politically, they were highly advanced, and this structure was adopted by the Maya. Property was communally owned. At the top were the priests, headed by a kind or leader who led or coerced the people to build the gigantic structures over the centuries. The common people toiled away, relatively safe and secure, well fed and reasonably healthy, but they lived outside the ceremonial centres. Extensive trade networks were also developed. The Olmec formed a system of writing which was adapted at Monte Alban and Mitla and subsequent Mayan sites, and a system of counting and mathematics which may also be seen at Monte Alban and later Mayan sites.
Research by Dr. Mike Xu, a Chinese born scholar and Professor at Texas Christian University, in his book “Origins of the Olmec Civilisation” gives examples of Shang era Chinese written characters which are inscribed on Olmec architecture and artefacts.
One way of testing Xu’s hypothesis is by comparing Chinese art of the Shang dynasty, with Olmec art of the same era. Colour photos in Who Discovered America? show that it can be frequently difficult to discern which is Olmec and which is Shang Chinese – they are so similar.
In the same way, a civilisation which received similar art, architecture and writing customs from another civilisation is likely to have received the same methods of medicine and curing illnesses. The book, “Wind in the blood: Mayan healing and Chinese Medicine” is a collective endeavour whose principle protagonists are the curanderos (native healers) of Campeche and Yucatan with whom the authors worked for several years. The book reveals that Maya and Chinese acupuncturists share thirty three identical points on the body, and a further sixteen on the head.
Further reading:
La Venta – http://anthropology.si.edu/olmec/english/sites/laVenta.htmXu, H. Mike. Origin of the Olmec Civilization. Oklahome: University of Central Oklahoma Press, 1996. See also: http://www.chinese.tcu.edu/www_chinese3_tcu_edu.htm
Wind in the Blood – http://amzn.to/19j4rquAveni, Anthony, and Owen Gingerich. Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980.
Coe, M. D. “Native Astronomy in Mesoamerica.” In A. F. Aveni, ed., Archaeoastronomy in Pre-Columbian America. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1975.
Gingerich, Owen. “Summary: Archaeoastronomy in the Tropics.” In Anthony F. Aveni and Garu Urton, ed., Ethnoastronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the Tropics, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 385. New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1982. See also many essays by Gingerich on related subjects.
Rands, Robert L. The Water Lily in Maya Art: A Complex of Alleged Asiatic Origin. Smithsonian Bulletin 151 (1953).
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