Reconsidering Olmec visual culture : the unborn, women, and creation / by Carolyn E. Tate.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tate, Carolyn Elaine.

Series:

William & Bettye Nowlin series in art, history, and culture of the Western Hemisphere.

The William & Bettye Nowlin series in art, history, and culture of the Western Hemisphere

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fetus in art.

Indian women in art.

Olmec art--Themes, motives.

Olmec art.

Olmec mythology.

Olmec sculpture.

Pregnancy in art.

La Venta Site (Mexico).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (360 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Rediscovering Women and Gestation in Olmec Visual Culture

Chapter 2 The Tale of the Were-Jaguar

Chapter 3 The Sowing and Dawning of the Human-Maize Seed

Chapter 4 Tracking Gender, Gestation, and Narrativity Through the Early Formative

Chapter 5 La Venta’s Buried Offerings Women and Other Revelations

Chapter 6 Female Water and Earth Supernaturals The Massive Off erings, Mosaic Pavements, and Mixe “Work of the Earth”

Chapter 7 A Processional Visual Narrative at La Venta

Chapter 8 La Venta’s Creation and Origins Narrative

Chapter 9 A Scattering of Seeds

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

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-292-73549-9

OCLC:

774399224