Olmec alternative origin speculations

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A jade Olmec mask. The eyes give an Asian cast to the features.
A jade Olmec mask. The eyes give an Asian cast to the features.

In part because the Olmecs developed the first Mesoamerican civilization and in part because so little is known of the Olmecs (relative, for example, to the Maya or Aztec), a wide number of Olmec alternative origin speculations have been put forth. Although several of these speculations, particularly "Olmec as Africans", have become well-known within popular culture, they are not considered credible by the vast majority of Mesoamerican researchers.

Contents

[edit] Olmec as Jaredites

Some members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) have suggested that the Olmecs may be the Jaredites recorded in the Book of Mormon because of alleged similarities in the Olmec archaeological record.[citation needed] However, the book mentions things that are known not to have been part of the Olmec culture, such as iron, silk and elephants. This speculation is not supported by any aspect of conventional Mesoamerican scholarship.

See also: Archaeology and the Book of Mormon

[edit] Olmec as Africans

See also: Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories

Some writers claim that the Olmec were related to peoples of Africa based on interpretation of a wide range of skeletal, linguistic, epigraphic, religious and anthropological data. Some researchers specifically identify the Olmecs with the Mandé people of West Africa.

The idea that the Olmecs are related to Africans is an old one. José Melgar, who discovered the first colossal head at Hueyapan (now Tres Zapotes) in 1862, subsequently published two papers that attributed this head to a "Negro race".[1]

[edit] Osteological evidence

Some researchers have seen evidence for African skeletons at prehistoric sites in Mexico. Constance Irwin and Dr. Wiercinski (1972b) have both reported that skeletal remains of Africans have been found in Mexico. Constance Irwin, in Fair Gods and Stone Faces, says that there are "distinct signs of Negroid ancestry in many a New World skull.". Dr. Wiercinski (1972b) claims that some of the Olmecs were of African origin [2]. He supports this claim with skeletal evidence from two Mesoamerican sites: Tlatilco and Cerro de las Mesas.

  • Tlatilco is a site in the Valley of Mexico. Although outside the Olmec heartland, Olmec influences appear in the architectural record. The skeletons were from the Pre-Classic period, contemporary with the Olmec.
  • Cerro de las Mesa is within the Olmec heartland, although according to Wiercinski, "the series . . . is dated on the Classic period."[3] The Classic period is generally defined to start around 300 AD, or 700 years after the demise of the Olmec.


Site Skeletons Time Period
Tlatilco 100 Pre-classic
Cerro de las Mesas 25 Classic


Wiercinski claimed, based on his comparisons, that 13.5% of the skeletons from Tlatilco and 4.5% of the skeletons from Cerro de las Mesas were of West Africans.

To determine the racial heritage of the skeletons, Dr. Wiercinski (1972b) used classic diagnostic traits, determined by craniometric and cranioscopic methods, as well as the Polish Comparative-Morphological School skeletal reference collection (SRC). These measurements were then compared against three crania sets from Poland, Mongolia and Uganda to represent three racial categories. The only European type recorded in this table is the Alpine group which represents only 1.9 percent of the crania from Tlatilco. The other alleged "white" crania from Wiercinski's typology of Olmec crania, represent the Dongolan (19.2 percent), Armenoid (7.7 percent), Armenoid-Bushman (3.9 percent) and Anatolian (3.9 percent). The Dongolan, Anatolian and Armenoid terms are euphemisms for the so-called "Brown Race", "Dynastic Race", "Hamitic Race", etc., which some claimed were the founders of civilization in Africa. [4] Carlson and Gerven (1979),[5]and MacGaffey (1970) [6]have claimed that these people were Africans or Negroes with so-called 'caucasian features' resulting from genetic drift and microevolution [7]. If supported, this would imply that the racial composition of 26.9 percent of the crania found at Tlatilco and 9.1 percent of crania from Cerro de las Mesas were of African origin. The races recorded by Wiercinski are based on the Polish Comparative-Morphological School (PCMS). The PCMS terms are misleading. As mentioned earlier the Dongolan, Armenoid, and Equatorial groups refer to African people with varying facial features which are all Blacks.

Wiercinski (1972b) compared the physiognomy of the skeletons to corresponding examples of Olmec sculptures and bas-reliefs on the stelas[1]. For example, Wiercinski states that the colossal Olmec heads represent the "Dongolan" type.[8] The empirical frequencies of the Dongolan type at Tlatilco calculated by Wiercinski was 0.231, more than twice as high as Wiercinski's theoretical figure of 0.101, for the presence of Dongolans at Tlatilco. The other possible African type found at Tlatilco and Cerro were the Laponoid group. The Laponoid group represents the Austroloid-Melanesian type of (Negro) Pacific Islander, not the Mongolian type.

Many of the 125 skulls show cranial deformations according to Pailles, yet Wiercinski (1972b) was able to determine the ethnic origins of the skulls. Marquez (1956, 179-80) made it clear that a common trait of the African skulls found in Mexico include marked prognathousness; prominent cheek bones are also mentioned [9].

Wiercinski's research is not accepted by the vast majority of Mesoamerican scholars.

Colossal head. The lips and nose give the 3 meter high sculpture an African cast.
Colossal head. The lips and nose give the 3 meter high sculpture an African cast.

[edit] Genetic evidence

According to some researchers, contemporary Maya and other Amerind groups show African characteristics and DNA. Underhill, et al. found that the Mayan people have an African Y chromosome [10]. Some researchers claim that as many as seventy-five percent of the Mexicans have an African heritage,[11] although "this gene flow is largely (but not necessarily exclusively) due to the effects of the Atlantic slave trade".[12]

James l. Gutherie (2000) in a study of the HLAs in indigenous American populations, found that the Vantigen of the Rhesus system, considered to be an indication of African ancestry, among Indians in Belize and Mexico centers of Mayan civilization. Dr. Gutherie also noted that A*28 common among Africans has high frequencies among Eastern Maya. It is interesting to note that the Otomi, a Mexican group identified as being of African origin and six Mayan groups show the B Allele of the ABO system that is considered to be of African origin [13]

Lisker et al, noted that “The variation of Indian ancestry among the studied Indians shows in general a higher proportion in the more isolated groups, except for the Cora, who are as isolated as the Huichol and have not only a lower frequency but also a certain degree of black admixture. The black admixture is difficult to explain because the Cora reside in a mountainous region away from the west coast”. Green et al (2000) also found indigenous natives with African genes in North Central Mexico, including the L1 and L2 clusters. Green et al (2000) observed that the "discovery of a proportion of African haplotypes roughly equivalent to the proportion of European haplotypes [among North Central Mexican Indians] cannot be explained by recent admixture of African Americans for the United States. This is especially the case for the Ojinaga area, which presently is, and historically has been, largely isolated from U.S. African Americans. In the Ojinaga sample set, the frequency of African haplotypes was higher that that of European hyplotypes”. In a discussion of the Mexican and African admixture in Mexico Lisker et al (1996) noted that the East Coast of Mexico had extensive admixture. The following percentages of African ancestry were found among East coast populations: Paraiso - 21.7%; El Carmen - 28.4% ;Veracruz - 25.6%; Saladero - 30.2%; and Tamiahua - 40.5%. Among Indian groups, Lisker et al (1996) found among the Chontal have 5% and the Cora .8% African admixture[14].The Chontal speak a Mayan language. According to Crawford et al. (1974), the mestizo population of Saltillo has 15.8% African ancestry, while Tlaxcala has 8% and Cuanalan 18.1%.[15] In the Olmec heartland region of the current states of Veracruz and Tabasco, Lisker[16] finds these percentages of African ancestry: Paraiso - 21.7%  ; El Carmen - 28.4% ; Veracruz - 25.6% ; Saladero - 30.2% ; Tamiahua - 40.5%. Paraiso is in Tabasco and Veracruz is, of course, in the state of Veracruz. Tamiahua is in northern Veracruz. These areas were the first places in Mexico settled by the Olmecs. I'm not sure about Saladero and El Carmen. Given the frequency of African admixture with the Mexicans a comparison of Olmec mask, statuettes and other artifacts show many resemblances to contemporary Mexican groups. But a comparison of Olmec figures with ancient Mayan figures, made before the importation of hundreds of thousands of slaves to Mexico during the Atlantic Slave Trade show no resemblance at all to the Olmec figures. This does not mean that the Maya had no contact with the Africans. This would explain the "puffy" faces of contemporary Amerinds, which are incongruent with the Mayan type associated with classic Mayan sculptures and stelas.

There is little support for this work among mainstream Mesoamerican researchers.

[edit] Epigraphic evidence

Dr. Leo Wiener, in Africa and the Discovery of America, suggested that the Olmec probably used a Mandé writing system. Dr. Wiener concluded that glyphs on the Tuxtla Statuette were analogous to Manding writing engraved on rocks in Mandeland and identical to the Manding (Malinke-Bambara) writing used in Africa. [17]

Dr. Clyde Winters compared the symbols on the Tuxtla Statuette and the celts in Offering 4 at La Venta to each other and found the symbols similar to those of the Vai script.

There are many inscriptions written in this script spreading from the Fezzan to the ancient Mande cities of Tichitt.[18] Mauny and others have identified the North African petroglyphs as writing connected to Vai, an African language, which Delaffose has noted was created in ancient times according to Vai informants [19]. The writing found among the Vai and along the Chariots routes leading to Tichitt is related to the Libyco-Berber writing. Many of these inscriptions like the inscription at Oued Mertoutek date back to Olmec times. Using the Vai characters, Dr. Clyde Winters claimed to have deciphered the Olmec script in 1979, claimed that Olmec symbols are a script that encodes a Mande language. [20][21] Dr. Winters claims that as a result of his decipherment the Olmec called themselves 'Xi" or "Si".

For many reasons, these assertions have found little support among Mesoamerican researchers. While scholars have made significant progress translating the Maya script, researchers have yet to translate Olmec glyphs.

[edit] Olmec as Chinese

It has also been argued that the Olmec civilization came into existence with the help of Chinese refugees at the end of the Shang dynasty [22], due to alleged similarities between Shang and Olmec artifacts.

[edit] Scientific consensus

Mainstream scholars remain unconvinced by these speculations. Others are more critical and regard the promotion of such unfounded theories as a form of ethnocentric racism at the expense of indigenous Americans. By an overwhelming margin the consensus view remains that the Olmec and their achievements are wholly indigenous to the region, founded entirely on a remarkable and ancient agriculture that was indigenous, and that they and neighbouring cultures, with whom they had contact, developed their own characters quite independently of any extra-hemispheric influences.[23]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Stirling, p. 2, who cites Melgar (1869) and Melgar (1871).
  2. ^ Rensberger, B. (September, 1988). "Black kings of ancient America", Science Digest, 74-77 and 122. See also Wiercinski, A. (1972a) "An anthropological study on the origin of "Olmecs", Swiatowit, 33, p. 143-174.
  3. ^ Copy of front page of Wiercinski (1972b) work at Afrocentric website.
  4. ^ Keita (1993,1996)Keita,S.O.Y. (1993). Studies and comments on ancient Egyptian biological relationships, History in Africa, 20, 129-131;Keita,S.O.Y.& Kittles,R.A. (1997). The persistence of racial thinking and the myth of racial divergence, American Anthropologist, 99 (3), 534-544.
  5. ^ Carlson,D. and Van Gerven,D.P. (1979). Diffussion, biological determinism and bioculdtural adaptation in the Nubian corridor,American Anthropologist, 81, 561-580.
  6. ^ MacGaffey,W.(1970). Comcepts of race in Northeast Africa. In J.D. Fage and R.A. Oliver, Papers in African Prehistory (pp.99-115), Camridge: Cambridge University Press.
  7. ^ Keita, 1996 and Poe, 1997
  8. ^ Wiercinski (1972b0, p.160
  9. ^ Marquez, C.(1956). Estudios arqueologicas y ethnograficas. Mexico.
  10. ^ Underhill, et al. (1996)
  11. ^ Green et al, 2000
  12. ^ Salas et al.
  13. ^ James L. Guthrie, Human lymphocyte antigens: Apparent Afro-Asiatic, southern Asian and European HLAs in indigenous American populations. Retrieved 3/3/2006 at: http://www.neara.org/Guthrie/lymphocyteantigens02.htm
  14. ^ R. Lisker et al.(1996). Genetic structure of autochthonous populations of Meso-america:Mexico. Am. J. Hum Biol 68:395-404.
  15. ^ M.H. Crawford et al (1974).Human biology in Mexico II. A comparison of blood group, serum, and red cell enzyme frequencies and genetic distances of the Indian population of Mexico. Am. Phys. Anthropol, 41: 251-268.
  16. ^ Lisker et al (1996)
  17. ^ [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/8919/Rtolmec2.htm The Decipherment of the Olmec Writing System]
  18. ^ Nicole Lambert, Medinet Sbat et la Protohistoire de Mauritanie Occidentale, Antiquites Africaines, 4(1970), pp.15-62; Nicole Lambert, L'apparition du cuivre dans les civilisations prehistoriques. In C.H. Perrot et al Le Sol, la Parole et 'Ecrit (Paris: Societe Francaise d'Histoire d'Outre Mer) pp.213-226;R. Mauny, Tableau Geographique de l'Ouest Afrique Noire. Histoire et Archeologie (Fayard); R.A. Kea, Expansion and Contractions: World-Historical Change and the Western Sudan World-System (1200/1000BC-1200/1250A.D.) Journal of World-Systems Research, 3(2004), pp.723-816
  19. ^ M. Delafosse, Vai leur langue et leur ysteme d'ecriture,L'Anthropologie, 10 (1910).
  20. ^ Argument in favor of Mande theory
  21. ^ Further promotion of the theory
  22. ^ Mysteries of Ancient High Cultures: The Olmecs and the Shang This theory is mentioned in the history book The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (1964) by William H. McNeill.
  23. ^ Taube, p. 17. "There simply is no material evidence of any Pre-Hispanic contact between the Old World and Mesoamerica before the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century."

[edit] References

  • Alchina-France,J. (1985). Los origenes de America, Madrid:Editorial Alhambra.
  • Bernal,I. (1969). The Olmec World. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
  • Clark, J.E. & Pye, M.E. (Ed.). (2000). Olmec Art and Archaeology in MesoAmerica. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art.
  • Cuevas, Marco P. Hernadez (2004). African Mexicans and the discourse on Modern Mexico. University Press, Oxford.
  • Diehl, R.A., (2004) The Olmecs: America’s First Civilization, New York: Thames & Hudson.
  • Green, L.D., (2000), "Mitochondrial DNA affinities of the people of North-Central Mexico", American Journal of Human Genetics, 66:989-998.
  • Gutherie, J. (1996). The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership. Princeton University: University of Princeton Press.
  • Marquez, C. (1956). Estudios arqueologicas y ethnograficas. Mexico.
  • Melgar, Jose (1869) "Antigüedades mexicanas, notable escultura antigua", in Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística, época 2, vol. 1, pp. 292-297, Mexico.
  • Melgar, Jose (1871) "Estudio sobre la antigüedad y el origen de la Cabeza Colosal de tipo etiópico que existe en Hueyapan del cantón de los Tuxtlas" in Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística, época 2, vol. 3, pp. 104-109; Mexico.
  • Rensberger, B. ( September, 1988). "Black kings of ancient America", Science Digest, 74-77 and 122.
  • Salas, Antonio; Richards, Martin; Lareu, María-Victoria; Scozzari, Rosaria; Coppa, Alfredo; Torroni, Antonio; Macaulay, Vincent; Carracedo, Ángel; (2004) "The African Diaspora: Mitochondrial DNA and the Atlantic Slave Trade", American Journal of Human Genetics; March 2004; 74(3): p. 454–465.
  • Stirling, Matthew (1967) "Early History of the Olmec Problem", in Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, E. Benson, ed., Dumbarton Oaks, Washingon, D.C.
  • Taube, Karl (2004), "The Origin and Development of Olmec Research", in Olmec Art at Dumbarton Oaks, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.
  • Underhill, P.A., Jin, L., Zemans, R., Oefner, J. and Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.(1996, January). "A pre-Columbian Y chromosome-specific transition and its implications for human evolutionary history", Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 93, p. 196-200.
  • Van Sertima. I. (1976). They came before Columbus. New York.
  • Wiercinski, A. (1969). Affinidades raciales de algunas poblaiones antiquas de Mexico, Anales de INAH, 7a epoca, tomo II, 123-143.
  • Wiercinski,A. (1972). "Inter- and Intrapopulational Racial Differentiation of Tlatilco, Cerro de Las Mesas, Teothuacan, Monte Alban and Yucatan Maya", XXXlX Congreso Intern. de Americanistas, Lima 1970, Vol. 1, p. 231-252.
  • Wiercinski,A. (1972b). "An anthropological study on the origin of 'Olmecs'", Swiatowit, 33:1972, pp. 143-174.
  • Wiercinski, A. & Jairazbhoy, R.A. (1975) "Comment", The New Diffusionist, 5 (18),5
  • Wilford, John Noble; Mother Culture, or Only a Sister?, The New York Times, March 15, 2005.
  • Winters, C. (2005). Atlantis in Mexico. lulu.com.
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