por The olmec agriculture It was the main livelihood activity for the Olmec civilization, one of the most important in Mesoamerica during the preclassic. Considered the mother of Mesoamerican cultures, Olmec agriculture laid the foundations, not only practical, but also organizational, for societies that would extend from the pre-classic to the pre-Hispanic periods.
Located in southern Mexico, the Olmecs adapted to their advantage the different conditions of the land, inventing and developing different techniques for agricultural production during their entire period of existence (1500 BC – 500 BC approximately).
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 cultivation or the domestication of the environment; It 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 that could not be produced.
Main products of Olmec agriculture
The basis of the Olmec diet was the product of their agriculture, together with a mixed practice of fishing and hunting. Corn, beans, squash, chili and tomato were the main products grown.
More recent studies have revealed the possibility of other agricultural items such as avocado, tomato and potato.
Other archaeological supports have handled the possibility that the Olmecs had contact with, and even cultivated, non-edible products such as cotton and tobacco, due to the knowledge that nearby civilizations demonstrated, and which allows us to deduce that the Olmecs could set the precedent.
The first indications of cultivation and production of Olmec maize date back to 1400 BC; Although consumed, at first it was not considered a significant element in the Olmec diet, but it quickly became more important at the cultural level.
The Olmecs began to consume variants with corn in their diet, such as nixtamal, which consisted of a mixture of corn with ashes and seashells.
The importance of corn was such in the Olmec civilization that they had their own deity associated with agriculture: the feathered serpent.
Despite the attributed qualities, there has been debate about the importance of this deity over others for Olmec agriculture.
Adaptability to the environment
The Olmecs settled near river 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 thickness of the terrestrial environment did not provide the best conditions for hunting, although it is known that jaguars, wild boars, deer, tapirs, among others, inhabited the region. However, little is known about the importance they had in the Olmec diet.
Most of the products cultivated by the Olmec civilization are still produced today. The Olmecs also took advantage of the consumption of local plants and fungi typical of the region.
The regions that the Olmecs occupied had totally different ecosystems in the Preclassic.
This civilization had to generate an agriculture adapted to the dense jungle in which they found themselves, with uneven terrain and river difficulties that they had to overcome.
cultivation techniques
The main technique used in Olmec cultivation was slash and burn, which consisted of burning an entire expanse of plants and weeds on the ground, leaving the ash to settle, which works as a fertilizer, and then sowing the required product. Most of the Olmec cultivated lands present the qualities resulting from this technique.
Using this technique, the Olmecs traditionally worked two crops a year: milpa of the year, which corresponds to the main harvest, and tonamil, corresponding to winter.
The main harvest is the most difficult, since the virgin land must be cleared for the first time.
According to the calendars studied, the land clearing took place during March; The vegetation was burned during May, the driest month, and cultivation began in June. The harvest used to take place between mid-November and December.
As for the winter harvest (tonamil), cultivation began in January to harvest between May and June. It is known that the main crop provided a higher amount of food per hectare compared to the winter crop.
For studies on the Olmec civilization, the fact that two large harvests were carried out twice a year is synonymous with food abundance, without counting the crops less in peripheral areas or areas centered on fluvial cultivation.
By the time the Olmecs had this working method, corn had already acquired an almost divine importance, therefore most of the extensions of arable land were used for the cultivation of such items.
Another agricultural technique claimed to have been used by the Olmec, albeit to a lesser degree, was to allow flooding, through irrigation and using river sediment as fertilizer, over controlled sections of land to allow for new crops.
However, this technique proved unfavorable in the long run, as it eroded the land, eventually rendering it unusable.
Historical legacy of the Olmec civilization
The Olmecs used to build their homes on high ground, with which they were safe from possible floods, allowing them to be close to fertile lands.
The Olmec settlements were distributed throughout the territory of southern Mexico in such a way that they could cover their needs with both inland and shore cultivation.
The Olmecs, as a Mesoamerican base civilization, made tools that facilitated their survival and some were applied, among other things, in agriculture.
Stone, wood and bone were the main materials of the tools and they were used on the crops where they reaped the vegetation.
Olmec agriculture allowed not only an effective method of subsistence, through 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 continually evolved.
References
Bernal, I. (1969). The Olmec World. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Clark, J.E. (nd). 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).