Blog #2 Olmec video and article comparison
In this blog post I will be going over the article by Rebecca Gonzalez Lauck "La Venta" from Archaelogy of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia and video "Lost Kingdoms of Central America one out of four Kingdom of the Jaguar The Olmecs" by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The main idea of the article was about how the environment s where the Olmecs where located played a huge part on their civilization. For example how sophisticated and complex their civilization actually was. On (Gonzalez Lauck 17) it goes over how the Palma River that was about one kilometer north from La Venta had a few probable uses by the Olmecs. Which is just some of the ways that they used the environment around them to their advantage. One thing they did was use water for farming. For the main idea was also about the Olmecs environment but it focused more on the art work and the meanings behind it culture ,beliefs, and lifestyles. In (Lost 13:58 - 14:05) we learned about how the jaguar was praised by the Olmecs. how important the animal was to them and the meaning of the artwork where we see a person turning into a Jaguar. The Olmecs believed they could turn into a jaguar not literally but they could be fierce just like one.
Caption: A stone Olmec Were-Jaguar ,with a downturn mouth, almond shaped eyes ,pleated ear bars and headband, and a crossed bars symbol on his chest
Throughout the video and article we come across with some similarities and differences between the two. In both of the sources both the author from the article and speaker from the video they talk about the three most common crops used by the Olmecs. Three plants were maize, beans, and squash and they were complimentary to each other. The three help each other grow and when they are all eaten together they provide all of sustenance people need in their daily diet. In (Lost 7:22 - 7:29) the speaker tells us about how important the three of them are in modern day. On (Gonzalez Lauck 18) the three crops are also brought up. One difference of the two sources would be how in the video it talked about the Mesoamerican ball game and It's legacy. In the article the aspect of sport was not brought up. Overall I believe the video was a bit more diverse.
Prior to going through the two sources of this assignment I was familiar with a few things. However the majority of what I went over in these sources was new information to me. I knew about the Olmecs having a lot of respect for the jaguar. Also about the culture of the MesoAmerican ball game.The Ball Game of Mesoamerica - World History Encyclopedia .The rest was completely new and one thing that stood out to me was how complex the Olmec art was considering that it was being made 3000 years ago. On (Lost 30:40 - 30:49) it goes over how innovative the Olmecs were. In conclusion Olmecs and their civilization was very interesting.
Caption:In the picture we can see Olmec people going through the river on rafts and small boats. The Olmec civilization (mexicanroutes.com)
Works cited
(9) BBC.Lost.Kingdoms.Of.Central.America.1of4.Kingdom.Of.The.Jaguar.The.Olmecs.2014.58Min - YouTube
Comments
Post a Comment