Farming, Hunting, and Fishing in the Olmec World

Farming, Hunting, and Fishing in the Olmec World. By Amber VanDerwarker. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006. 256 pp., $45.00, hardback, ISBN 978-0-292-70980-5.

The Olmecs, the earliest Native American civilization in Mesoamerica, flourished in southeastern Mexico's fertile jungles, swamps, and river valleys. San Lorenzo (1300-900 BCE) and La Venta (1000-400 BCE), their two primary centers, served as capitals of small city-states, controlling entire river basins and extending their influence over southern Mexico and northern Central America. Their most famous works were magnificent colossal heads and other monuments weighing several tons that were sculpted from basalt. Most authorities consider them Mesoamerica's Mother Culture, the foundation for later Maya and Aztec civilizations. But what subsistence practices supported this brilliant early civilization? Until quite recently, the absence of any systematic data led to all sorts of speculation.

VanDerwarker's research at La Joya and Bezuapan, two small villages...