WHAT WERE THE ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE OLMECS? - HISTORY - 2024

The economic activities of the Olmecs were based on the exchange of products mainly resulting from agriculture, fishing, hunting and crafts. It was therefore an economy based on barter.

The economic system implemented by the Olmec civilization can be considered as an example of evolution and development as society expands. In Preclassic Mesoamerica, the Olmec economy develops through the exchange of goods as the main activity.

Olmec room. National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico)

It is considered a livelihood economy, which uses locally produced and cultivated items to acquire others, more exotic or useful, with agricultural qualities, due to the predominance of cultivation as a practice over fishing and hunting.

The trade and exchange of goods can be considered essential for the continuous architectural development of the Olmec civilization.

Different types of stones and materials were imported from other regions to erect the temples and ceremony centers, continuously decorated with the most exotic material; sculptures and crafts.

The natural difficulties presented by the Olmec settlements and populations give greater merit to this enterprise.

The Olmec civilization is also credited with having developed the first long-distance exchange routes, with which they allowed not only access to new materials and resources, but also to establish organizational changes at the social level.

Products of the Olmec economy for exchange and trade

Olmec head.

At first, Olmec commercial activities could be seen as part of a mixed economy that included the exchange of domesticated crops (corn, beans, squash, etc.), dogs, and wild plants; later fishing.

The small variations of some products between the Olmec subregions began to stimulate short-distance exchange, allowing the peoples to have resources outside their locality.

With the passage of time, the Olmecs began to export their manufactured goods; Hence, Olmec artifacts and sculptures have been found in distant places.

It has been determined that there is no direct evidence that evidences the exchange of food between Olmecs and distant civilizations, but this technique is considered to be the only justification for the Olmecs having had access to inputs such as salt, for example.

Beyond basic resources and manufactured utilities or tools, much of the Olmec trade was focused on the exchange of exotic and ornamental objects, of higher quality than those obtained locally.

A characteristic of the commerce between Mesoamerican civilizations was that what for one region was considered a resource a common object, another considered it a resource worthy of necessity.

Exotic and ornamental objects

Olmec sculpture exhibition: "The Twins". Photo recovered from "The Olmec Civilization and Background"

Trade between regions opened the possibility of new raw materials for construction and precious materials for the manufacture of ceremonial ornaments.

Obsidian was one of the first rocks that reached the Olmec civilization through exchange, since its presence was scarce in the regions they inhabited.

This was used in the manufacture of tools that later the Olmecs marketed as finished products.

The expansion of exchange routes and the possibility of traveling greater distances allowed the Olmecs to have contact and make use of jade, serpentine, cinnabar, andesite, schist, chromite, etc.

In this same way they made the stones necessary for the construction and expansion of their temples and ceremony centers.

Notably, as the Olmecs had more access to new, exotic and precious materials as commercial development increased, ceremonies and rituals began to become much larger and more spectacular.

Evolution of the exchange system

Olmec agriculture

It has been considered that the Olmec economic system could go through two great market stages during the period of existence of this civilization.

A first stage of isolated trade with little traffic and exchange, where the main products were for sustenance and materials for construction.

Some Olmec peoples had "commercial consulates" in certain regions; small camps with soldiers who guarded the products and merchandise that were far from the main settlements.

The rise and expansion of agriculture had a significant impact on the Olmec economy, promoting what would be the beginning of its second stage: the invention and development of long-distance exchange routes.

Those first routes extended from the Gulf of Mexico, where the main towns and cities were located, to higher territories within what is now Mexico and part of Guatemala. This commercial expansion began in approximately 1400 BC.

Exchange with other civilizations

Olmec dress drawing

Olmec commercial expansion allowed them to make contact with civilizations settled in other regions, such as the Mocaya, the Tlatilco and the city of Chalcatzingo.

This contact not only allowed fruitful trade routes to be opened but also generated a cultural transfer between the groups, where Olmec sculptures and pieces of art arrived to influence the crafts and manufacturing of other regions.

Among the products traded with these civilizations, the Olmecs could have a first contact with items such as cocoa, salt, animal skins, ornamental feathers and some precious stones such as jade and serpentine.

As specialists in the export of manufactures, the Olmec influence in these civilizations was mainly artistic, artisanal and cultural.

Importance of economic development

Olmec dance

The most developed stage of the Olmec economy was not only that of a civilization much larger than centuries before, but it also constituted the beginning of new forms of organization that would guarantee that commercial activities were not truncated.

The chains of command multiplied, generating new functions within the citizens, even coming to exist in charge, not only of the safeguarding of goods, but of their redistribution between regions.

Olmec society began to stratify itself socially, by classes, determined according to the exotic nature of the objects and materials possessed.

Among the considered lower classes, specialized practices and trades proliferated, so that the production of manufactured objects and handicrafts for later trade multiplied.

The economic legacy of the Olmec civilization can be noted as the continuity and effectiveness that was given to long-distance exchange routes, along with the innovations that later Mesoamerican cultures were able to develop.

References

1. Bernal, I. (1969). The Olmec World. Berkeley: University of California Press.
2. Drucker, P. (1981). On The Nature of Olmec Polity. In The Olmec & Their Neighbors: Essays in Memory of Matthew W. Stirling (pp. 29-48). Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections.
3. Hirth, KG (1978). Interregional Trade and the Formation of Prehistoric Gateway Communities. American Antiquity, 35-45.
4. Minster, C. (March 6, 2017). ThoughtCo. Retrieved from
5. Pool, C. (2007). Olmec Archeology and Early Mesoamerica. Cambridge University Press.
6. Vanderwarker, AM (2006). Farming, Hunting, and Fishing in the Olmec World. Austin: University of Texas Press.