Farming, Hunting, and Fishing in the Olmec World (Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies) [Hardcover]

Amber M. VanDerwarker (Author)

Book Description

Series: Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies | Publication Date: April 1, 2006

The Olmec who anciently inhabited Mexico's southern Gulf Coast organized their once-egalitarian society into chiefdoms during the Formative period (1400 BC to AD 300). This increase in political complexity coincided with the development of village agriculture, which has led scholars to theorize that agricultural surpluses gave aspiring Olmec leaders control over vital resources and thus a power base on which to build authority and exact tribute. In this book, Amber VanDerwarker conducts the first multidisciplinary analysis of subsistence patterns at two Olmec settlements to offer a fuller understanding of how the development of political complexity was tied to both agricultural practices and environmental factors. She uses plant and animal remains, as well as isotopic data, to trace the intensification of maize agriculture during the Late Formative period. She also examines how volcanic eruptions in the region affected subsistence practices and settlement patterns. Through these multiple sets of data, VanDerwarker presents convincing evidence that Olmec and epi-Olmec lifeways of farming, hunting, and fishing were driven by both political and environmental pressures and that the rise of institutionalized leadership must be understood within the ecological context in which it occurred.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Amber M. Vanderwarker is Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292709803
• ISBN-13: 978-0292709805
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,038,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Achtung to the Title, February 6, 2011

By 

Roberto C. Kfouri "Rober C K" (Campinas, Brazil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Farming, Hunting, and Fishing in the Olmec World (Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies) (Hardcover)

If you consider carefully the title of the book, you will see that the author developed more or less what she said it would.It's a sort of a monography on the subject, and very condensed by the data from two sites that the author presents. But this is very positive in a sense: she gives a restricted but detailed explanation of the evolution of conditions and practices in the tuxtla area, without playing the "big explanation game" that less precise minds like to peer into, specially non professionals.In a few words: it's an extended scientific article on the subject. But I was also deceived by that last part of the title "..Olmec World..".Two archaeological sites will never be a "World".If the title were "Farming,Hunting,...at La Joya and Bezuapan sites" a nice 5 stars the book could also receive..as the author receives anyway.

3.0 out of 5 stars 'A' for imagination, 'B' for topic, 'C' for lack of research, November 22, 2009

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Kemet Scholar "Heru-Ka" (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Farming, Hunting, and Fishing in the Olmec World (Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies) (Hardcover)

I expected a different type of study on food in the Olmec world, however, the approach here was not totally beyond my needs. In general I found the research extremely limited in comparison to what might have been accomplished had other factors been considered at all, or considered thoroughly - e.g. stela and buildings, to glean information about the place of food in the public display (artifacts)- and of the labor capacity needed to build the various mounds and monuments to determine what food demands - labor and surplus - were placed on the villages. The work did not effectively, if at all, address the type of political makeup of the society besides looking for `elites' and their demands from the outside. That the people united to engage in intensive farming, build villages (including housing), engage in crafts, trade and purchases indicates some lever of social-organization for which some examination and analysis would have been helpful.

The author presented theories, hers and of others, that were ill-suited to understanding the Olmec - e.g. there was the presumption that control of the population meant there must have been `domination of the population' - a structure rooted in conflict. Yet, the presumption was contradicted by the author with evidence to show that the people were, and remained, `egalitarian'.

Having limited the scope of research to the Olmec society as completely indigenous marred almost to a fault the outcome of this study. For example, no qualitative answer as to why the people began `intensive farming' was provided, nor the mechanism for organizing a village, or united villages. The research would have been helped if there was at least a comparison or contrast of the two `hamlets' studied to one or more of the major centers - La Venta, San Lorenzo, or Tres Zapotes - to have some idea as to whether these smaller villages were consistent in their food focus of significantly different, etc.

The book in many ways is a disappointment having missed so many opportunities. Lastly, its clear that the author did not do her homework in some areas - especially in understanding social organization - and instead tried to fudge her way - and was rather poor at that.

The topic is worth a critic study and should be properly completed by the author.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars SUCKS To Be ME!!!!!!, January 21, 2011

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James - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Farming, Hunting, and Fishing in the Olmec World (Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies) (Hardcover)

ordered this book and i waited forever and still have not received the book. Don't buy from this person