The Olmec agriculture Was the main activity of sustenance for the Olmec civilization, one of the most important of Mesoamerica during the preclásico.
Considered the mother of the Mesoamerican cultures , Olmec agriculture laid the foundations, not only practices, but organizational, for the societies that would extend from the preclassic to the pre-Hispanic period.
Located in southern Mexico, the Olmecs adapted the different terrain conditions to their advantage, inventing and developing different techniques for agricultural production throughout its period of existence (1500 BCE - 500 BCE).
The main region where the Olmec presence was known corresponds to the Gulf of Mexico, being the main regions of this culture San Lorenzo de Teotihuacán, La Venta and Tres Zapotes. A region that presented natural characteristics of thick jungle and fluvial bodies of great importance.
Olmec agriculture goes beyond cultivating or domesticating the environment; Served as the impetus for the first organizational structures of Mesoamerican societies in terms of the division of labor, the treatment of land and commercial activities when it came to inputs they could not produce.
Main products of Olmec agriculture
The basis of the Olmec diet was the product of its agriculture, together with a mixed practice of fishing and hunting. Maize, beans, squash, chili and tomato were the main crops.
More recent studies have shown the possibility of other agricultural items such as avocado, tomato and potato.
Other archaeological supports have dealt with the possibility that the Olmecs had contact, and even cultivated, inedible products such as cotton and tobacco, due to the knowledge demonstrated by nearby civilizations, and which leads to the conclusion that the Olmecs could set the precedent.
The earliest signs of cultivation and production of Olmec maize date back to 1400 BC; Although consumed, initially was not considered an element of weight in the Olmec diet, but quickly became more important culturally.
The Olmecs began to consume maize variants within their diet as the nixtamal, which consisted of a mixture of corn with ashes and sea shells.
Nixtamal
The importance of maize was such in the Olmec civilization that they had their own deity associated with agriculture: the feathered serpent.
In spite of the attributed qualities, it has been debated on the importance of this deity in front of others for Olmec agriculture.
Adaptability to the environment
The Olmecs settled near fluvial bodies, so hunting and fishing were other livelihood activities. Mollusks, fish and turtles were the main fish products, maintaining a high nutritional level in the Olmec diet, unlike other regions.
The thicket of the terrestrial environment did not provide the best conditions for hunting, although jaguars, wild boars, deer, tapirs, among others, are known to exist in the region. However, little is known about the importance they had on the Olmec diet.
Most of the products grown by the Olmec civilization continue to be produced today. The Olmecs also took advantage of the consumption of local plants and fungi of the region.
The regions occupied by the Olmecs presented totally different ecosystems in the preclassic.
This civilization had to generate an agriculture adapted to the dense jungle in which they were, with uneven terrain and fluvial difficulties that they had to overcome.
Cultivation techniques
The main technique used in Olmec crops was that of felling and burning, which consisted of burning an entire plant and brush over the soil, allowing the ash to settle, which functions as fertilizer, and then to seed the required product. Most of the Olmec lands have the qualities resulting from this technique.
Under this technique, the Olmecs traditionally worked two harvests a year: milpa of the year, corresponding to the main harvest and tonamil, corresponding to the winter.
The main harvest is the most difficult, since the virgin land must be cleaned for the first time.
According to the calendars studied, the land clearing was carried out during March; The vegetation was burned during May, the driest month, and cultivation began in June. Harvesting was usually done between mid-November and December.
As for the winter harvest (tonamil), the crop was started in January to harvest between May and June. It is known that the main crop provided a greater amount of food per hectare compared to the winter crop.
For studies on the Olmec civilization, the fact that two large harvests are carried out twice a year is synonymous with food abundance, not counting crops less in peripheral areas or focusing on river cultivation.
By the time the Olmecs had this method of work, maize had already acquired an almost divine importance, therefore most of the extensions of arable land were used for the cultivation of such an item.
Another agricultural technique claimed to have been used by the Olmecs, though to a lesser extent, was to allow flooding, through irrigation and using sediment from the rivers as fertilizer, over controlled land sectors to allow new crops.
However, this technique proved to be unfavorable in the long run, since it eroded the earth, leaving it eventually unusable.
Historical legacy of the Olmec civilization
The Olmecs used to locate their dwellings on high ground, with which they were safe from possible floods, allowing them to be near fertile lands.
The Olmec settlements were distributed throughout the territory of southern Mexico so that they could meet their needs both inland and inland.
The Olmecs, as a Mesoamerican base civilization, made tools that facilitated their survival, and some were implemented, among other things, in agriculture.
Stone, wood and bone were the main materials of the tools and were used on crops where they mown the vegetation.
Olmec agriculture allowed not only an effective subsistence method, through a relative control over the natural environment in the occupied regions, but also as a precedent that gave rise to the development of new technologies, new rituals and new organizational structures that continuously evolving.
References
- Bernal, I. (1969). The Olmec World. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Clark, J.E. (n.d.). Who were the Olmecs? 45-55.
- Clark, J.E. (1987). Politics, prismatic blades, and Mesoamerican civilization. In The Organization of Core Technology (pp. 259-284).
- Clark, J.E., Gibson, J.L., & Zeldier, J. (2010). First Towns in the Americas. In Becoming Villagers: Comparing Early Village Societies (pp. 205-245). Brigham Young University.
- Guillen, A.C. (n.d.). The Olmecs in Mesoamerica. Mexico D.F., Mexico.
- Minster, C. (2017, March 6). Thoughtco Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/olmec-culture-overview-2136299
- Vanderwarker, A.M. (2006). Farming, Hunting, and Fishing in the Olmec World. Austin: University of Texas Press.