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The Olmec And The Maya

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The term Mesoamerica refers to the regions of present Day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, the Pacific Coast, and El Salvador. Mesoamerica was the homeland of great pre-Columbian civilizations, the ones that flourished before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. This time marks the rise of elites and the first major works of art in the Americas. The Olmec and the Maya both had the concept of a vital force that separates the living matter from the unliving. Their belief in a supernatural being led to rituals of sacrifice which is widely presented in their art. Religion permeated the lives of ancient Olmec and Maya civilization where the worship of deities and human sacrifice appear on three dimensional art such as pottery, incensarios, …show more content…

They are labeled as the Mother Culture because they were the first known people in the Americas that influence upcoming civilizations with their religious, social, and artistic traditions. Before the Olmec became known as a civilization, it was just a style of art , but as historians kept analyzing the symbolism of the art they are more secure that it was not just a style but a society that helped shaped upcoming cultures. The Olmec indigenous people were located in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Mainly in what today is known as Veracruz and Tabasco. The Olmec civilization believed in Shamanism which was the belief in an unseen world of gods, demons, and ancestral spirits responsive only to the shamans. In this belief the shaman was able to transform into powerful preternatural animals such as the jaguar, eagles or caimans in order to prevail the dangers of the supernatural world. Through Shamanism is that they performed sacrifice, cave rituals, pilgrimages, offerings, and ball …show more content…

The sculpture displays the were-jaguar complex of human feline creatures and deities. The image has human ears, cranium, and hands and feet giving it the illusion of a human, but the face, the furrowed brow, and the muscles illustrate the figure of a jaguar. This show the transformation of an Olmec, preferably a shaman transforming to a jaguar. It's a transformation into the most powerful predator. The function of were-jaguar figures is suggested by Taube that they frequently deal with rain making

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