Human Influences In Olmec Culture

A fetus obtains power beyond belief. It can manipulate the body and physiology of its mother, doing anything to maximize the transfer of nutrients from mother to self. Six percent of pregnant women even undergo gestational diabetes, unable to withstand the manipulation of their offspring. By the same token, however, a fetus embodies vitality. In any society, vitality and power persist as two of the most significant traits. In Olmec society, as reflected through its iconography present in its art and architecture, the human embryo can be compared to the maize seed, both possessing great influence as well as serving as important life forces. This can be seen in the iconography of Olmec art. As depicted by the Kunz Axe, Olmec art heavily emphasized the human embryo/fetus as a powerful life force, symbolizing the maize seed and its influence on Olmec society.
Many art historians believe that Olmec civilization was centralized on the idea that chiefs could access nature, contacting creatures in the natural environment through the transformation into “were-jaguars” in an effort to form a connection between
Many hollowed out ceramic sculptures of babies have been found in numerous Olmec regions, which supports the theory that infancy is central to Olmec culture. For example, the figurine in figure 2 seems to depict a seated baby with its thumb in its mouth. The Olmecs may have used these figurines in the hopes that they would emit some sort of gestational life force. There are also many Olmec works of art where chiefs appear to be cradling babies, as shown in figure 3. There is a possibility that these babies were thought to have their own transformational powers, serving as an intermediary between humans and the supernatural (Blomster 1998). Certainly, infancy is important to Olmec society. Otherwise, they would not have made dozens of ceramic babies as well as other art forms that illustrate