Reconsidering Olmec Visual Culture : The Unborn, Women, and Creation.

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 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 -- 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 -- 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: Niñopa -- Conclusions about Embryos, Fetuses, and Babies -- 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 -- The Early Formative, circa 1400-900 BC -- Fluctuations in Visual Culture During the Initial and Early Formative Periods -- Discussion: Maize Technology I: Fermentation -- Discussion: Maize Technology II: Nixtamalization -- 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 -- 6. Female Water and Earth Supernaturals: The Massive Offerings, Mosaic Pavements, and Mixe "Work of the Earth" -- Why Construct the 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 -- 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 -- 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 3: The Dawning of Human-Maize -- Station 4: The Female Sources of Life: Earth and Water -- Station 5: The Bodiless Heads -- Station 6: The Phallic Column -- Inserting Politics into the Creation and Origins Narrative -- Alternative Reading Orders -- Conclusions and Questions -- 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.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.