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Specifics concerning Olmec religion are a matter of some conjecture. Early researchers found religious beliefs to be centered upon a jaguar god. [4] This view was challenged in the 1970s by Peter David Joralemon, whose Ph.D. paper [citation needed] and subsequent article posited what are now considered to be 8 different supernaturals.
Olmec arts are strongly tied to the Olmec religion, which prominently featured jaguars. [53] The Olmec people believed that in the distant past a race of werejaguars was made between the union of a jaguar and a woman. [53] One werejaguar quality that can be found is the sharp cleft in the forehead of many supernatural beings in Olmec art.
"Olmec-style" face mask in jade. The Olmec civilization developed in the lowlands of southeastern Mexico between 1500 and 400 BC. [3] The Olmec heartland lies on the Gulf Coast of Mexico within the states of Veracruz and Tabasco, an area measuring approximately 275 kilometres (171 mi) east to west and extending about 100 kilometres (62 mi) inland from the coast. [4]
Most of what is known about Olmec religion is speculative, but certain patterns do emerge at La Venta that are certainly symbolic and might have ritual meaning. For example, the crossed bands symbol, an X in a rectangular box, is often repeated in stone at La Venta, other Olmec sites, and continued to have significance to the cultures inspired ...
A Study of Olmec Iconography. Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, 7. Washington, D.C., 1971. Survey and analysis of Olmec iconography, in which the author identifies what he calls “God VII” as the Feathered Serpent. López Austin, Alfredo, Leonardo López Luján, and Saburo Sugiyama.
Through subsequent research, it became apparent that not every cleft head nor every downturned mouth represented a werejaguar. [9] Some researchers have therefore refined the werejaguar supernatural, specifically equating it with the Olmec rain deity, [10] a proposition that artist, archaeologist, and ethnographer Miguel Covarrubias had made as early as 1946 in Mexico South.
"Jaguar Baby or Toad Mother: A New Look at an Old Problem in Olmec Iconography", in The Olmec and Their Neighbors, edited by E.P. Benson, Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks: pp 149–162. Miller, Mary; Karl Taube (1993). The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. London: Thames & Hudson.
Olmec figurines were produced by the Preclassic inhabitants of Mesoamerica. Although not all were produced in the Olmec heartland , they bear the hallmarks and motifs of Olmec culture. Most are simple in design, often nude or with a minimum of clothing, and made of local terracotta .