An Unexplored Realm in the Heartland of the Southern Gulf ... - Famsi

participants. It is especially critical to realize that the expressed ideology and materiality
experienced significant geographic and temporal transformations as well (see Clark
2005).
Primary data for this evaluation have been produced from the archaeological
investigation of El Marquesillo, a previously undocumented Formative period site on the
middle San Juan River in Southern Veracruz. The site was examined through a series of
integrated archaeological survey, prospection, documentation, and analytical techniques.
Additionally, ethnohistoric records and ethnographic accounts were used along with data
from previous and ongoing investigations of the Formative period Southern Gulf
Lowlands to observe El Marquesillo from different perspectives and varying scales of
analysis. The results suggest certain sociopolitical and settlement similarities to other
contemporary regional sites. At the same time, however, the evidence implies significant
site-specific traits and cultural adaptations that set El Marquesillo apart. These individual
characteristics illustrate that the Olmec paradigm should be recognized as an amalgam of
dynamic heterogeneous parts.
In the following section of this chapter, I provide background on some of the
difficulties and misunderstandings that have plagued studies of the Formative Southern
Gulf Lowlands from its inception. Then, I briefly review anthropological theory as it
pertains to the Olmec and how it has been used to build and support theoretical ideas of
social development. In Chapter 2, I examine individual Olmec-related sites along the
Southern Gulf Lowlands during the Formative period and what evidence has been
recovered that served as foundations for social theories. I also present a series of models
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