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

power, and wealth through differential access to exotic elite items and raw materials
(Grove and Gillespie 1992:191). They created and maintained social distance through the
construction of ceremonial centers and monumental art and architecture. The
monumental sculpture (i.e., colossal heads, thrones, and individualized representations)
promoted the power of individual leaders. Its assemblage into highly observable
“tableaus” reinforced this power and made it visible to the community (Clark 2005:214;
Cyphers 2004).
It may also be possible to identify the status of an associated site or center within
the San Lorenzo socioeconomic system by the type and size of its stone sculpture.
Bornstein (2001) and Cyphers (2004) suggest that outlying centers may have been
acknowledged as part of the San Lorenzo political-economic system through the presence
of sculpted stone monuments. For example, specific types of monuments, which are
comparable in size, style, and iconography, are found at sites that may have acted as
control points for the regional ingress and egress of goods and materials.
The subsistence system at San Lorenzo has been identified as based on maize
agriculture. Coe and Diehl (1980a:16) conclude that maize agriculture was the primary
food source due to the appearance of numerous manos and metates. Cyphers (1997b)
reached a similar conclusion based on the presence of phytoliths and pollen residues.
Both studies assume that contemporary maize farming was equivalent to Formative
period practices (Coe and Diehl 1980a:16; Cyphers 1997b). These assumptions have led
social theorists to hypothesize that the increase in political complexity was directly
caused by a shift to year-round agriculture, which led to agricultural surpluses and, in
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