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

Carolyn E. Tate

Published by University of Texas Press 2012

Reconsidering Olmec Visual Culture

The Unborn, Women, and Creation

Carolyn E. Tate

In the series The William and Bettye Nowlin Series in Art, History, and Culture of the Western Hemisphere

https://doi.org/10.7560/728523

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

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.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Chapter 1 Rediscovering Women and Gestation in Olmec Visual Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 2 The Tale of the Were-Jaguar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
Chapter 3 The Sowing and Dawning of the Human-Maize Seed Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
Chapter 4 Tracking Gender, Gestation, and Narrativity Through the Early Formative Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
Chapter 5 La Venta’s Buried Offerings Women and Other Revelations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Chapter 6 Female Water and Earth Supernaturals The Massive Off erings, Mosaic Pavements, and Mixe “Work of the Earth” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
Chapter 7 A Processional Visual Narrative at La Venta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Chapter 8 La Venta’s Creation and Origins Narrative Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Chapter 9 A Scattering of Seeds Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Appendix 1 La Venta Monuments by Format Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Appendix 2 Comparison of Mesoamerican Creation and Origins Narratives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	286
Appendix 3 Shape-Shifters and Werewolves to Were-Jaguars: A Brief Chronology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	296
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	327

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 359

eBook

Published: January 18, 2012
ISBN: 9780292735491