Survey question #1: Olmec art?

Finally our first general survey question here at the blog is up and running! We hope this will be the first of a series of questions intended to spark discourse as well as allow scholars to obtain peer feedback and opinions on their research or topics of interest. Now all we need is your reponse! Please reply in brief or at length:

Olmec art is a tricky topic at best of times, in part because unlike other central themes in Formative studies the term "olmec" continues to be readily applied across the geographic board as a stylistic label, rather than a cultural designation. Moreover, the field has long been dominated by iconographically-based studies, and less inclined to methodological and terminological re-tooling than other areas of Foramtive study. With this is mind, what new questions and issues might be, or should be brought to bear in the study of Formative artistic production? What new directions of inquiry should be taken? What present or previous practices should be redressed? What new goals should be established in the study of Olmec artworks and artistic practices?

Feel free and encouraged to submit your own questions! E-mail Natalia or Jill to have them posted @ foramtivefreaks@gmail.com.

Brief Authors Introduction - Breve presentación de las autoras

Natalia Donner
Mi relación con el Formativo comenzó hace apenas unos cuatro años.
Siempre imbuida en cuestiones teóricas (de esas que aburren y que
a casi nadie le interesan en Arqueología :) me llamó mucho la atención el calificativo de "Cultura Madre" atribuido a los Olmecas en Mesoamérica.
Escribí un pequeño trabajo al respecto, al que ahora, como suele suceder, encuentro muy pobre. Un año después, en 2006, retomé el tema para utilizarlo como ejemplo en mi tesina de licenciatura. El ejercicio metodológico fue mucho más satisfactorio que el anterior, y me abrió interrogantes aún más amplios y profundos, queriendo extender el tema para realizar una tesis de maestría exclusivamente acerca de ello.
Al comenzar a estudiar a los Olmecas con más profundidad, tuve también que concentrarme en el Formativo en general, así como en los diferentes enfoques teóricos que han utilizado arqueólogos, historiadores, antropólogos, historiadores del arte y políticos para apropiarse, en sus particulares formas, de aquello que llamamos Olmeca. Este blog es el esfuerzo conjunto de dos estudiantes que por
casualidad se encontraron un día de abril de 2008 en el Sur de Veracruz,
en lo que conocemos como San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan. Ese encuentro
fortuito esperamos genere un grupo de discusión acerca de los temas
que nos interesan y finalmente surjan más preguntas para hacer este
camino aún más apasionante.

My relationship with the Formative started only four years ago.Always imbued with theoretical issues (of the ones almost anyone in Archaeology is interested in :), my attention was driven to the "Mother Culture" expression, ascribed to the Olmec in
Mesoamerica. I wrote a brief undergrad paper on the subject, which, as it usually happens, I find of very poor and naive arguments. A year later, in 2006, I re-thought the topic to use it as an example for my thesis. The methodological exercise was much more satisfactory than the previous one, and it opened broader and
deeper questions. Thus, I decided to write a masters thesis on this. When I started studying the Olmec more thoroughly, I had to turn over to the Formative in general as well. Also, the different theoretical approaches that archaeologists, historians,
anthropologists, art historians and polititians have used to appropiate, in their
own ways, of that which we call Olmec.This blog is the collaboration of two students that met by chance one April 2008 day in San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Southern Veracruz.
We hope that fortuitous encounter generates a discussion group on the issues we are interested in and that finally more questions are aroused through this fascinating path.

Jill Mollenhauer

Al igual que Natalia, mi intereés en el Formativo
comenzó hace poco más de cuatro años, en el primer semestre de Posgrado. A partir de entonces, he incursionado en el Formativo en varias ocasiones, para finalmente tomar la decisión de dedicarme totalmente a mi tesis acerca de monumentos en piedra Olmecas. El arte del Formativo expresa idiosioncrasias y variaciones que me cautivan. Cuando comencé mis investigaciones, las representaciones del cuerpo humano constituían el centro de mi trabajo. Recientemente me he volcado al análisis de las relaciones entre el arte y el paisaje, así como cuestiones de la memoria y la historia. Como Natalia, creo que el discurso multi-disciplinario es esencial para el avance de los estudios del Formativo. Por esta razón, he decidido formar parte de este blog. Esperamos que sea utilizado como una herramienta para generar discusiones abiertas y libres sobre la variedad de temas relacionados al Formativo en Mesoamérica.


Like, Natalia, my interest in the Formative began a little more than four years ago with the first semester of graduate school. Since then I've moved away and come back to the Formative several times and finally decided to commit to it whole heartedly with my dissertation on Olmec stone monuments. I'm continually mesmerized and excited by the idiosyncrasies and variations found in Formative art. Representations of the human body were at the forefront of my explorations when I first began researching. More recently I've turned to an examination of the relationships between art and landscape as well as issues of memory and history. Like Natalia, I feel that a multi-disciplinary discourse is essential to the advancement of Formative studies, which is part of the reason we decided to begin the blog. It is our hope that it will be used as a tool to generate free and open discussion about a variety of topics concerning the Formative in Mesoamerica.