The Olmecs in Global Context

Abstract The dynamics of social change in the San Lorenzo Olmec region, and probably at La Venta as well, epitomize the chiefdomization process in ritual-based-prestige trajectories—one of several bundles of highly similar trajectories that emerge from comparative analysis. These trajectories are consistently associated with dispersed residence patterns that arise in several ways but regularly create friction that impedes local interaction and thus economic interdependence. Productive differentiation tends to be low in these trajectories, resulting in poorly integrated local economies that offer limited opportunities for wealth accumulation. Hierarchical organization revolves around prestige differentiation based on ritual. These systems are prone to dramatic disintegration and dispersal, as seen at San Lorenzo and then La Venta. The trajectories from this bundle that persist and continue to grow and develop do so by way of a reorganization that increases residential density, strengthens productive differentiation, improves the integration of local economies, and usually facilitates wealth accumulation. Tres Zapotes appears to exemplify continued growth following such a reorganization.