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Olmec

Olmec. Loose group of decentralized villages, from the coast, to the highlands, in the river valleys, and along the shores of swampy lakes. P.

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Olmec

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  1. Olmec

  2. Loose group of decentralized villages, from the coast, to the highlands, in the river valleys, and along the shores of swampy lakes P

  3. Top chieftainships commanded villages scattered over larger areas; the larger the domain, the greater the ability to ship the produce of workshops and fields to the chief’s centers or priests’ capitals. P

  4. Subsistence farmers who cultivated most of the foodstuffs needed by their villages, such as maize, beans, squash, and cacao, while shipping lightweight products such as ceramics and precious goods (jade, obsidian, or quetzal feathers) to other villages E

  5. Villages traded with each other as part of local trade E

  6. Religious statues and icons blended human and animal subjects (snakes, jaguars, and crocodiles) R/A

  7. Precious goods (jade, obsidian, or quetzal feathers) used to create masks and ritual figurines for religious purposes R/A

  8. Worshipped the same gods and had devotional activities for the gods in all centers/cities R

  9. Shamans – humans who were believed to have special power to commune with the supernatural and the ability to transform themselves wholly or partly into beasts, such as the were-jaguar ( a being that was part man, part animal) R

  10. Major cities = athletic hubs with intricate ball courts for entertainment and devotion to the gods R/N

  11. Practiced human sacrifice, perhaps even with children R

  12. Priestly class, raised and trained in the palaces of the major cities, directed the exchanges of sacred rituals objects between farming communities. S

  13. Large peasant or farmer population S

  14. Developed in total isolation of other early civilizations and could not benefit from cultural diffusion and technology I

  15. Increasing evidence that the Olmec practiced warfare to supply rulers with humans whose death and torture meant to ensure that the soil would b e fertile and the rains would continue I

  16. Lacked a writing system A

  17. Colossal heads, some of which are 9 feet high and weigh up to 20 tons A

  18. Produced massive, pyramid-shaped religious monuments A

  19. Specialized buildings that featured massive earthen mounds, platforms, palaces, and capacious plazas as examples of urban planning A

  20. Central America between the highland plateaus of Central Mexico and the Gulf Coast around modern-day Veracruz N

  21. Primary cities (smaller in scale in comparison to other civilizations) were San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes and banded groups of Olmecs together N

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