The History and Culture of Olmec Civilization

The Olmec civilization, located in ancient Mexico, prospered in Pre-Classical (Formative) Mesoamerica from c. 1200 BCE to c. 400 BCE. Monumental sacred complexes, massive stone sculptures, ball games, the drinking of chocolate, and animal gods were all features of Olmec culture passed on to those peoples who followed this first great Mesoamerican civilization.

With their heartlands in the Gulf of Mexico (now the states of Veracruz and Tabasco), Olmec influence and trade activity spread from 1200 BCE, even reaching as far south as present-day Nicaragua. Many Olmec sites suffered systematic and deliberate destruction of their monuments sometime between 400 and 300 BCE.

The Olmec civilization presents something of a mystery, indeed, we do not even know what they called themselves, as Olmec was their Aztec name and meant 'rubber people'. Due to a lack of archaeological evidence their ethnic origins and the location and extent of many of their settlements are not known. The Olmecs did, however, codify and record their gods and religious practices using symbols. The precise significance of this record is much debated but, at the very least, its complexity does suggest some sort of organised religion involving a priesthood. The Olmec religious practices of sacrifice, cave rituals, pilgrimages, offerings, ball-courts, pyramids and a seeming awe of mirrors, was also passed on to all subsequent civilizations in Mesoamerica until the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century CE.

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Link to original article titled Olmec Civilization by Mark Cartwright

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Various Olmec footage is attributed to Brien Foerster

Map Video Ollie Bye.

[cesardaz]

I’m from the heart of the Olmec sites in Veracruz we all have full lips wide noses and defined skull structure aka “big heads”. Yet there is not one black person in our villages. Nothing against the African culture but this was definitely a separate civilization. The kids in our villages still make toys out of natural rubber and the heads are still in our village.

[TheLacedaemonian]

Of all the cultures of the ancient Americas, the Olmec civilization was truly the most brilliant in all its artistic renderings.
As the Bronze Age collapse was occurring around the Mediterranean, the Olmecs were forging a new civilization unlike anything ever seen to that point, all the way on the other side of the world. Oh to have a time machine!

[C_courtney]

I can’t imagine the excitement those men and women felt discovering and uncovering these monuments!

[pabloalvez]

Excellent video! I've always been fascinated by the Mesoamerican cultures.

[Jason-msbv]

I imagine there's so much we'll never know about this mysterious civilization, but what we do know is spectacular! Another fabulous presentation SAMA, I love how you keep covering the little known, under represented and the tough subjects.

[elvirasilva]

A lot of ignorants want todo tell as that we are blacks most of our people are from Veracruz my grandpa have dose feature not that i have any think against blacks but let’s look at the true 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽

[ironsharkz]

Stepped into this for an assignment, expecting to be bored

i think i have my new favorite subject

[adolforuiz]

As of 2018, mitochondrial DNA study carried out on Olmec remains, one from San Lorenzo and the other from Loma del Zapote, resulted, in both cases, in the “unequivocal presence of the distinctive mutations of the “A” maternal lineage. That is, the origin of the Olmecs is not in Africa but in America, since they share the most abundant of the five mitochondrial haplogroups characteristic of the indigenous populations of our continent: A, B, C, D and X.”💯🧬🧬🧬🧬

[coquireport]

In 1997 academics in a Journal of Current Anthropology article criticised in detail many elements of They Came Before Columbus (1976).] Except for a brief mention, the book had not previously been reviewed in an academic journal. The researchers wrote a systematic rebuttal of Van Sertima's claims, stating that Van Sertima's "proposal was without foundation" in claiming African diffusion as responsible for prehistoric Olmec culture (in present-day Mexico). They noted that no "genuine African artifact had been found in a controlled archaeological excavation in the New World." They noted that Olmec stone heads were carved hundreds of years prior to the claimed contact and only superficially appear to be African; the Nubians whom Van Sertima had claimed as their originators do not resemble these "portraits".[5] They further noted that in the 1980s, Van Sertima had changed his timeline of African influence, suggesting that Africans made their way to the New World in the 10th century B.C., to account for more recent independent scholarship in the dating of Olmec culture

They further called "fallacious" his claims that Africans had diffused the practices of pyramid building and mummification, and noted the independent rise of these in the Americas. Additionally, they wrote that Van Sertima "diminishe[d] the real achievements of Native American culture" by his claims of African origin for them.

[p.pinchelette]

Amazing Olmec piece. Can you do one on the Tarascans/Purepecha people? I find they're usually ignored but their history is very rich.

[youngimperialistmkii]

Thx for this vid. I knew little of the Olmec civilization. I had no idea how influential it was on later cultures.

[josephconsoli]

The most fascinating thing to me is the sheer size of things that these ancient cultures made. They knew it had to last eons for some reason. It would've been so much easier to make simpler things that provided what they needed, but instead they toiled to make something that would outlive them by tremendous amounts of time. I think it's so easy to see that this planet has seen an endless morphing of beings for longer than we can imagine. Civilizations that rose to great levels and then wiped out, over and over again. Each time, that knowledge lost and everything starting from a primitive form. What we see is just what's left. I believe it goes back much, much further than we can imagine. It's like this earth is a playing field for life. They come and they go.

[UCMICU]

You really need to update this video. We have made huge archeological discoveries in 2019-2023 about the Olmec civilizations

[daya]

Great video, very well narrated and I loved the music and content. Thank you!

[papazataklaattiranimam]

One of the greatest civilisations in history 😍

[tobylanclos]

My favorite subject of meso america, they are never long enough nor have enough information. Outstanding, thank you.

[MrPurepecha]

The religion known today is Toltec wisdom, it has to do with a reflection which is a Mirror, also with actual dreams, basically the belief is that we all have a spirit animal, depending your date of birth & the animal you fall in line with, you may have heard of Huehueteotl, it is the old fire basically its The Lord Feminine and masculine that created four Cardinal directions which is known as the Tezcatlipoca’s the Smoking Mirror.

[nataliemanzo]

Love my Mexican culture. Specially my native side

[nosferatuoddz]

Afrocentrists coming out in full force in the comments section

[MilesBellas]

ETHNICITY
"in the 1940s, the artist/art historian Miguel Covarrubias published a series of photos of Olmec artworks and of the faces of modern Mexican Indians with very similar facial characteristics."