Olmec Religion

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OLMEC RELIGION

OLMEC RELIGION . The Olmec occupied southern Mexico's tropical lowlands in southeastern Veracruz and western Tabasco between 1200 and 600 bce. Like other Mesoamerican peoples of the period, they lived in villages, practiced agriculture based on maize cultivation, and produced pottery. However, they differed from their contemporaries in their more complex social and political institutions, in the construction of large centers with temples and other specialized buildings, and in their development of a distinctive style of art expressed in monumental stone sculptures and exquisite small portable objects. If they had a writing system, none of their texts has survived; everything known about the Olmec is based upon archaeological excavations at San Lorenzo, La Venta, Laguna de los Cerros, Tres Zapotes, and other major centers. Although religion is a most difficult aspect of prehistoric life for archaeologists to reconstruct, Olmec architecture, sculpture, and artifacts provide many useful insights into their religious beliefs and practices.

Study of Olmec Religion

Archaeological, historical, and ethnographic information provides the basic data for reconstructing ancient Mesoamerican religions. Archaeological data on prehistoric cultures must be interpreted in light of information about later, better documented cultures or studies of modern groups on approximately similar levels of development. For the Olmec, the archaeological data consist of sculptures, architecture, and artifacts. Researchers interpret these in terms of Spanish accounts of Aztec and Maya religions dating from the sixteenth century ce and of contemporary ethnographic studies of religious practices among modern Mesoamerican Indians and tropical forest groups living elsewhere in Latin America. The basic assumption underlying this approach is summarized in the assertion that "… there is a basic religious system common to all Mesoamerican peoples. This system took shape long before it was given monumental expression in Olmec art and survived long after the Spanish conquered the New World's major political and religious centers" (Joralemon, 1976, pp. 58–59).

Studies of Olmec religion rely heavily on iconographic analyses of the Olmec art style as expressed in over two hundred known stone monuments and hundreds of small portable objects. These studies have particularly emphasized the identification of deities while neglecting ritual and many other topics. Scholars tend to accept Joralemon's premise of continuity despite legitimate criticisms. And while this historical-ethnographic approach has been quite productive, it does have some serious weaknesses. For example, it cannot automatically be assumed that symbols and motifs retained the same basic meanings over several millennia and over long geographical distances. Furthermore, the much later Aztec religion, which is the primary model for comparison, may be an inappropriate model for the Olmec. The Aztec numbered in the millions whereas Olmec polities contained only a few thousand people at most. The tremendous disparity in social complexity implied by these differences may also indicate fundamental differences in their religious institutions and beliefs. Nevertheless, until archaeologists find ways to replace historical and ethnographic analogy as their primary interpretive tool, researchers will be forced to depend on such comparisons, and must try to employ them as judiciously as possible.

Characteristics of Olmec Religion

The fundamental pattern of Olmec belief seems to have centered on the worship of numerous high gods or supernatural forces that controlled the universe and sanctioned the human sociopolitical structure. Human interaction with them required complex rituals in temples and other sanctified places, and could be achieved only by religious specialists whose personal qualifications or social position qualified them for the task. The belief system they served included a pantheon, a cosmology that explained and structured the universe, and a set of ritual activities that expressed the cosmology.

The pantheon

The nature of the Olmec pantheon is a topic of some controversy. Some scholars argue that Olmec supernaturals were not gods in the Western sense of recognizably distinct personalities, while others accept the existence of deities but disagree on their identifications. For example, what in this article is called the Olmec Dragon has been variously identified as a were-jaguar combining human and feline traits, a caiman, a toad, or a manatee! The reason for the confusion is that researchers have difficulty comprehending the subject matter of Olmec art. The beings portrayed are frequently "creatures that are biologically impossible," things that "exist in the mind of man, not in the world of nature" (Joralemon, 1976, p. 33).

The most thorough research on the Olmec pantheon has been done by Peter D. Joralemon, who originally defined ten Olmec deities (Gods I–X) but later reduced these to six, conforming to three basic dyads (Joralemon, 1971, 1976). Olmec art portrays the deities as creatures combining an endless and bewildering array of human, reptilian, avian, and feline attributes. The most commonly depicted pair are the Olmec Dragon (God I) and the Olmec Bird Monster (God III). The Olmec Dragon, believed to be a crocodilian with eagle, jaguar, human, and serpent attributes, appears to signify earth, water, fire, and agricultural fertility, and may have served as the patron deity of the elite. The Olmec Bird Monster is a raptorial bird, tentatively identified as a harpy eagle, with mammalian and reptilian features. Joralemon associates it with maize, agricultural fertility, the heavens, and mind-altering psychotrophic substances.

Joralemon suggests that the Olmec Dragon was a predecessor of numerous later deities, specifically the Aztec gods Cipactli, Xiuhtecuhtli, Huehueteotl, Tonacatecuhtli, and Quetzalcoatl and the Maya god Itzamná. Some authorities dispute these proposed linkages with later deities, but unfortunately there is a lack of a coherent methodology for resolving the issues of continuity and change in deity concepts through time.

Gods II and IV form an agricultural-fertility complex. God II has maize cobs sprouting from a cleft in the top of its head, and may be an ancestor of later Aztec maize deities such as Centeotl. God IV is an infant or dwarf, probably associated with rain, whom Joralemon sees as an early form of later rain deities, such as the central Mexican tlalocs and Maya chacs.

The final Olmec dyad consists of Gods VI and VIII. God VI is a deity of springtime and renewal who symbolizes reborn vegetation, and is thought to be an analog to Xipe Totec, the Aztec god whose priests wore human skin, flayed from sacrificial victims, as a sign of rebirth. God VIII is the death god, called Mictlantecuhtli by the Aztec, and symbolized by a fleshless human jaw.

Although much remains to be learned about the Olmec pantheon, the importance of agricultural and fertility deities is evident. This is not surprising in view of the fact that farming was the most important subsistence activity among the Olmec, but it does mark the earliest clear formulation of such deity concepts in Mesoamerica and represents a major Olmec contribution to Mesoamerican culture.

Religious specialists

There is no evidence in Olmec society of an elaborate religious bureaucracy comparable to that reported for the Aztec. The small size of Olmec groups probably precluded this development. Some scholars have called Olmec society a theocracy, but there is no evidence to warrant such a conclusion, although priests were undoubtedly members of the elite. Peter T. Furst has persuasively argued that certain Olmec art objects portray the theme of a "jaguar-shaman transformation complex" in which human shamans assumed the guise of their jaguar alter egos (see Furst's article "The Olmec Were-Jaguar Motif in the Light of Ethnographic Reality," in Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, Washington, D.C., 1968, pp. 79–110). It is not clear whether Olmec shamans were also elite priests, but it does seem likely.

Cosmology

Although the lack of written accounts makes it difficult to reconstruct Olmec cosmology, the archaeological record contains some interesting clues. Two sculptured monuments from the San Lorenzo area form the basis of the so-called Stirling hypothesis, named after its formulator, Matthew W. Stirling. Stirling maintained that each monument shows a jaguar having sexual intercourse with a woman and that they portray the mythic origin of the were-jaguars so common in Olmec art. Unfortunately, both monuments were badly mutilated in antiquity, and their subject matter is not at all clear.

Another important insight into Olmec cosmology may be contained in depictions of caves. Sculptured scenes of people seated in caves or emerging from cavelike niches suggest an early occurrence of the pan-Mesoamerican belief that ethnic groups and deities emerged on to the surface world through caves, which served as doorways to and from the supernatural realm inside the earth. In some cases the Olmec depictions clearly represent the mouth of the Olmec Dragon. Well-preserved Olmec-style paintings deep within caves in the states of Guerrero and Morelos far from the Olmec Gulf Coast homeland reinforce this interpretation.

Ritual

One of the least understood aspects of Olmec religion is ritual. Research has yielded some knowledge about the architectural settings in which rituals were held and about the nonperishable objects that are assumed to have been used in ritual contexts, but Olmec dances, prayers, chants, feasts, and other behaviors are lost forever.

Pole-and-thatch temples on the summits of earth mounds are widely regarded as having been a focal point for elite rituals. These small structures most likely housed the most important cult images and served as sanctuaries where the priests and leaders gathered in seclusion to conduct the esoteric rites to which only they were privy. The open courtyards and plazas surrounding the mounds were well suited for more public celebrations attended by the general populace.

Archaeological excavations have revealed numerous unusual architectural features that were either used in ritual or had some specific sacred meaning. For example, the gigantic artificial ridges built onto the sides of the San Lorenzo plateau may represent an attempt to transform the entire community into a bird effigy similar to the much smaller effigy mounds constructed by later Indian cultures in what is now the midwestern United States. The twenty or so deep depressions in the surface of San Lorenzo probably originated as sources of soil for mound construction but were later converted into sacred water reservoirs by lining them with special materials. Flooding was prevented by elaborate drain systems constructed of hundreds of U-shaped stone troughs. These reservoirs may have provided water for domestic use, but the year-round availability of fresh water from nearby springs, the substantial labor invested in constructing the drain systems, and the water-deity symbolism on several associated monuments all suggest a ritual function. Two potential uses have been suggested: One is that they served as ritual bathing stations for priests, the other that they were holding tanks for sacred animals such as caimans or manatees.

The Olmec probably played a ritual ball game similar to those popular in later times, as evidenced by clay figurines depicting males dressed in ballplayer garb and who at times hold what appears to be a ball. A rectangular group of four mounds at San Lorenzo has been interpreted as a formal ball court; and although it lacks the rings and benches of later courts, residue of a rubber-like substance found at this site may be the remnants of a ball. Some authorities have suggested that the numerous colossal heads found at several Olmec sites depict ballplayers wearing helmets, but the most recent consensus is that these remarkable basalt human portraits represent individual Olmec rulers. The ball game played by later Mesoamericans did have secular aspects, but it is generally regarded as a primarily religious observance in which players represented supernaturals.

Evidence of a common yet perplexing aspect of Olmec ritual centered around the burial of precious objects in caches and offerings has been found at La Venta. Some caches contain only one or a few objects while others include enormous amounts of material. The small offerings include stone figurines and celts, pottery vessels, and a variety of personal ornaments, even though these are generally not associated with burials. Some offerings display ideologically significant patterns in the placement of objects, such as celts arranged in geometric patterns or stylized deity faces. One particularly interesting cache from La Venta contains jadeite human figurines placed to show a procession scene with four individuals filing past what appears to be an Olmec ruler and his retinue.

The most unusual buried features are the so-called Massive Offerings at La Venta. Huge steep-sided pits were dug into the subsoil and immediately filled with thousands of serpentine blocks laid in clay and topped with a mosaic of finely worked blocks forming a gigantic mask of the Olmec Dragon. Four Massive Offerings have been discovered at La Venta, and like many architectural features at the site they occur in bilaterally symmetrical positions vis-à-vis the site's centerline. It is possible that all the subsurface offerings at La Venta form a colossal pattern of unknown ritual significance, but enough pieces of the puzzle to be able to identify the pattern have not yet been found.

Just as Olmec constructions provide insights into the settings for ritual, their art objects and other artifacts alert scholars to the nature of some of the rituals. Museums and private collections contain hundreds of exotic objects to which can be reasonably assigned a ritual function even though their specific uses are not known. Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, masks, celts, "spoons," "stilettos," and a host of miscellaneous objects, frequently decorated with religious designs and symbols, indicate a well-developed set of ritual paraphernalia. The objects are often made from jadeite, serpentine, and other blue-green stones whose color obviously had some special significance. In most cases the functions of these objects are not known, but the stilettos may have served as bloodletters used in ritual autosacrifice and the "spoons" may have been used for the administration of hallucinogenic substances. Evidence for the use of mind-altering substances by the Olmecs is weak, but most scholars assume such practices were part of Olmec ritual.

Other ritual accoutrements include iron-ore mirrors, which are masterpieces of pre-Columbian lapidary work. Made from large rectangular pieces of magnetite, ilmenite, and hematite, the polished concave surfaces of these mirrors have such fine optical qualities that they can be used to ignite fires and project camera-lucida images on flat surfaces. An enigmatic grooved rectangular bar of magnetic hematite found at San Lorenzo has been shown to be a compass needle, probably used in geomantic ritual rather than as a utilitarian device.

Bibliography

Anthony F. C. Wallace's Religion: An Anthropological View (New York, 1966) provides the framework in which this article has been written. The most recent and thorough synthesis of Olmec culture is Jacques Soustelle's The Olmecs: The Oldest Civilization in Mexico, translated by Helen R. Lane (Garden City, N.Y., 1984). Older but still useful books include Michael D. Coe's America's First Civilization: Discovering the Olmec (New York, 1968), and Ignacio Bernal's The Olmec World, translated by Doris Heyden and Fernando Horcasitas (Berkeley, 1969). Michael D. Coe and my In the Land of the Olmec, 2 vols. (Austin, Tex., 1980) is the basic source of information on San Lorenzo. The basic data on La Venta are scattered through many works; the two most important are Philip Drucker's La Venta, Tabasco: A Study of Olmec Ceramics and Art (Washington, D.C., 1952), and Philip Drucker, Robert F. Heizer, and Robert J. Squier's Excavations at La Venta, Tabasco, 1955 (Washington, D.C., 1959). Karl W. Luckert's Olmec Religion: A Key to Middle America and Beyond (Norman, Okla., 1976) is the only book devoted exclusively to this topic, but its unorthodox methodology and assumptions lead to conclusions not supported by the data. Peter D. Joralemon's A Study of Olmec Iconography (Washington, D.C., 1971) contains his initial attempt to delineate the Olmec pantheon. Origins of Religious Art and Iconography in Preclassic Mesoamerica, edited by H. B. Nicholson (Los Angeles, 1976) contains Joralemon's definitive study of the Olmec Dragon and the Olmec Bird Monster in addition to many other useful articles. Elizabeth P. Benson's The Olmecs and Their Neighbors: Essays in Memory of Matthew W. Stirling (Washington, D.C., 1981) contains articles dealing with many aspects of Olmec culture, and a useful bibliography.