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

interpretations. Finally, I compare and contrast El Marquesillo, according to the
recovered evidence, to the Olmec paradigm. Suggestions are made for future
investigations that could produce evidence to support or refute the developed hypotheses
and expand the corpus of data relating to the Southern Gulf Olmec.
Background
Numerous attributes of the Formative period Gulf Olmec have been utilized by
theorists to develop and support a broad range of hypotheses regarding social patterns
and comprehensive social structures. Olmec economic and subsistence systems, ritual and
symbolic representations, sociopolitical organization, labor-intensive work projects,
warfare, migration, and diffusion are among the concepts that have been incorporated
into contemporary social theory. Many theorists have made definitive assertions about
Olmec origins, their rise to social complexity, and the homogeneity of their culture. This
portrayal of the Olmec and the significance placed on their role in the development of
social theory suggests a complete, well-documented, broad-based archaeological record
that has been tested and supported through repeated investigations. Is this assumption
valid? What evidence have these hypothetical models been based upon? Do they present
an accurate picture of the ancient inhabitants of the Southern Gulf Lowlands?
In contrast to the assuredness expressed by many social theorists (e.g., Harris
1979; Cioffi-Revilla 1996; or Bingham 1999), Mesoamerican scholars studying the
Formative period are not as confident. For example, Clark (2001:340) states that the
“Southern Gulf Coast region has the dual distinction of being widely acknowledged as
the central hearth of early Mesoamerican civilization and, ironically, as being virtually
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