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Chapter 1. Rediscovering Women and Gestation in Olmec Visual Culture
A Cradle of Civilization
Mesoamerica and Its Visual Culture
Early Interpretations of the First Known Olmec Sculptures
New Questions in Olmec Studies
Is Gender or Gestation the Compelling Issue?
How the Book Develops: Content and Methodologies
Chapter 2. The Tale of the Were-Jaguar
The Birth of the Were-Jaguar
One Were-Jaguar or Many Deities?
The First Attempt to Slay the Were-Jaguar
The Were-Jaguar as a Shamanic Alter Ego
Monstrous Congenital Anomalies
Pantheons of Deities or Symbols of Vital Forces?
Shamanism in an Ecological Context
The Rebirth of the Maize Deity
Signs of Life
Chapter 3. The Sowing and Dawning of the Human-Maize Seed
Images of the Unborn
The Formative Mesoamerican Embryo and Its Matrix of Associations
Ethnographic Analogies
Hollow Babies
A Contemporary Baby in a Boat: Niñopa
Conclusions about Embryos, Fetuses, and Babies
Chapter 4. Tracking Gender, Gestation, and Narrativity Through the Early Formative
The Archaic Period, 10,000 to 2000 BC: The Beginning of Visual Symbols
The Initial Formative, circa 1900 to 1400 BC
Maize Technology I: Fermentation
Maize Technology II: Nixtamalization
The Early Formative, 1400–900 BC
Fluctuations in Visual Culture During the Initial and Early Formative Periods
Chapter 5. La Venta’s Buried Offerings: Women and Other Revelations
Topography and Sources of Stone
Discovery, Excavation, and Chronology of La Venta
Surveying La Venta’s Visual Culture Through Time
Women and the Unborn Return to Prominence
Chapter 6. Female Water and Earth Supernaturals: The Massive Offerings, Mosaic Pavements, and Mixe “Work of the Earth”
Why Construct Massive Offerings?
Mixe Beliefs in Earth, Water, and Thunder Supernormal Entities
La Venta’s Mosaic Pavements
Offerings Inseminating the Flowering Earth
Massive Offerings: Contained Water
Mixe Healers, Midwives, and Rituals, and Their Olmec Antecedents
Female Shamans
The Mosaic Pavements as Conventionalized Symbols
Politics, Protection, and Healing
Chapter 7. A Processional Visual Narrative at La Venta
Previous Investigations of Olmec Creation Narratives
Patterns for the Distribution of Monumental Sculptures
A Processional Visual Narrative
Chapter 8. La Venta’s Creation and Origins Narrative
An Approach to Visual Narratives from Preliterate Societies
The Narrative Stations
Station One: A Womb with Three Fetuses
Station Two: A Quincunx of Thrones
Station Three: The Dawning of Human-Maize
Station Four: The Female Sources of Life: Earth and Water
Station Five: The Bodiless Heads
Station Six: The Phallic Column
Inserting Politics into the Creation and Origins Narrative
Alternative Reading Orders
Conclusions and Questions
Chapter 9. A Scattering of Seeds
Assessing Arguments for Some Major Points
Modes of Communication
Where Did Olmec Ideas Go?
Asking and Answering the Fundamental Questions
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
Overview