Olmec jade : a cross-cultural perspective
Date
1990
Authors
Orr, Heather Susan
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Abstract
In the ancient stone-age world, jade was the supreme material. Utilitarian tools and weapons , tediously rendered from the intractable stone, were strong, durable and maintained a sharp blade edge after much use. Some jade stones could be worked and polished to a vitreous, transluscent beauty surpassing the aesthetic allure of other available materials. Several deposits of jade ore are known throughout the world, almost all of which were exploited in antiquity, but jade was relatively rare and rather difficult to procure. As a practical and artistic resource jade was ideal. The rarity of the stone and the intensive labour required to work jade further predisposed the material to preciousness and status-identification among increasingly stratified Neolithic societies.
Jade was worked by several ancient cultures and was highly regarded by the early peoples of Siberia, China, Oceania, Mesoamerica and CentralĀ-South America. Ritual objects were carved from jade in these places. In some cases, jade was attributed with magical or curative powers. The prolonged, consistant production of ceremonial forms in jade and a complex of cultural traits related to a special esteem for this material, however, occurred only in China, Mesoamerica and New Zealand. Of these three, such jade-related traits show the greatest degree of similarity and protraction in China and Mesoamerica. Furthermore, jade use in China and Middle America was clearly a direct function of status and elite motivations in hierarchical societies.
The Olmec are the earliest known Mesoamerican civilization to archaeologically manifest a specialized and semi-religious pattern of jade use. This pattern appears on the record with a dearth of known precedents. The exigency of archaeological studies in the Olmec heartland region and in locations, such as Guerrero and Oaxaca, evincing strong trade connections based upon status goods, impedes conclusions about the origins of Olmec jadeĀ-working traditions and the events which led to the special prizing of jade by that group. Epigraphic and ethnohistorical data are absent for this period in Mesoamerica. Direct historical comparisons with later cultures have enabled some interpretations of Olmec jade. Inroads have also been made through continued excavations and through scientific investigations. Yet work remains to be done in the elucidation of form and function of Olmec jade and in the analysis of the possible universality, or distinctivity of Olmec jade-related cultural traits in relation to other groups which esteemed the material particularly China. A comparativeĀ analysis with observable parallel traits in the jade cultural complex of China may provide data for such considerations and concurrently address the recurring issue of diffusion as regards similarities in Chinese and Olmec jade traditions.