THE OLMECS AND MESOAMERICA

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SOCIAL

• Classes- elites and peasants
• Gender roles- women allowed some jobs but not others
• Gender relations- men were superior
• Women were respected
• Both men and women played their part and had their own jobs

POLITICAL

• Small communal/familial villages
• Rulers descendants of families who increased wealth
• Political buildings- pyramids, altars, tombs, temples
• Shaman-Kings or Priest-Kings rulers or religious figures
• Civil peace and tranquility

INTERACTION WITH ENVIRONMENT

• Early villages were non-agricultural
• Rich soil- could experiment with crops
• Lack of domesticated animals- maize, beans, squash
• Used waterways for travel
• Grew maize and was Norte Chico's only import

CULTURAL

• Ritual sacrifices, bloodletting by rulers
• Ceremonial centers-temples, altars, pyramids, and tombs
• Game played with rubber ball
• Artistic legacy- colossal basalt heads
• Mound building- early way of burying dead

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ECONOMY

• Agriculturally based- came from competing chiefdoms
• Traded across Mezoamerica
• Pioneers of the rubber tapping
• Peasants did most of the work
• Trade partners- Teotihuacan, Monte Alban, La Venta