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

demonstrates weaponry’s linkage to social development. He also admits empirical
evidence for these weapons in the Formative period is lacking but the idea should be
reinvestigated. In his continuing investigation of, and espousal for, the interaction
between warfare and political authority (pleogenic theory), Cioffi-Revilla (1996:13) finds
support in the Gulf Coast Olmec. He declares that San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres
Zapotes constituted a Protobellic Area, a “pristine region where war occurred by
spontaneous (undiffused) invention.” It was in these types of complex polities that Cioffi-
Revilla believes war initially arose and led directly to social complexity. There is no
direct evidence to support these theories, however. Coe and Diehl (1980:392) state that
San Lorenzo Olmec warfare can only be inferred, and the scant evidence can be
explained by other, equally valid interpretations.
Ehrich’s (1949) critique of the four fields of Anthropology presents possibly the
earliest example of the Olmec described as the basis for the development of the
Mesoamerican cultural tradition. His position was based on reports by Stirling (1943) of
an isolated cultural complex (Ehrich 1949:346). Peebles and Kus (1977:429) repeatedly
use comparisons with the Gulf Coast Olmec to provide analogies for levels of
sociopolitical organization and control within cultural systems. In his examination of
human evolution, Wright (1999:115) uses the Olmec, among numerous other cultures, to
demonstrate the long-term trends of social complexity. Kohl (1978:470) alludes to the
massive offerings of serpentine recovered at La Venta as a way to support social and
religious systems, but states that the investigations do not reveal how these actions satisfy
the needs apparent in this long-distance acquisition.
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