The Olmecs Were Descendants From

A Brief History

On January 31, 2022, nosotros take a look at one of many persistent conspiracy theory type allegations that seem to permeate our society at the nowadays fourth dimension, this time going dorsum to the ancient origins of the Olmec civilization of what is now modern Mexico. Despite ample evidence to support the conventional academic view of Olmec origins, every bit well as other Native American peoples' origins, these wild theories include Nordic, African, Chinese, and Jaredite sources of the population that became the Olmecs.

Digging Deeper

Current serious academic scientists date the Olmec civilization from about 1500 BC and lasting until nigh 400 BC, the people of which are the descendants of E Asian people that migrated to Northward America and subsequently South America betwixt 15,000 and 20,000 years ago. These migrants from Asia may have crossed the Bering Land Bridge by simply walking to N America and eventually populated North and Southward America as the indigenous Native American peoples. Modern DNA analysis confirms the East Asian origin of Native American people.

I of the questionable self-appointed experts that freely opine about their theory of Olmec origins is a fellow named Graham Hancock. Hancock is a British/Scotsman with a bachelor'southward caste in sociology from Durham University that works every bit a announcer and writer, known for his seemingly outrageous conspiracy theories and wacky beliefs about ancient people and their origins, non just the Olmecs.

Regarding the Olmecs, in a 2019 interview with pod caster Joe Rogan, Hancock says he has little to say well-nigh the Olmec civilisation, and then goes on to say enough about them! Hancock refers to the "twenty to 25 ton" carved stone heads made by the Olmecs and offers the idea that the Olmecs were a "high" civilization, and although he admits that he is a heavy smoker of marijuana, past "high" he means an "avant-garde" civilization that left considerable construction evidence behind. Hancock claims that Native American racial types are based on Polynesian and African influence besides equally the standard explanation that Asians travelled to North America via a land span that existed from Northeast Asia to Northwest N America (Alaska) during the last Ice Age. Hancock cites the facial features of the rock heads as testify of African racial heritage, although he offers no detail explanation for the apparent helmets on those famous stone heads. Hancock seems less willing to make up other "facts" virtually the Olmecs and admits they are largely a mystery to modern science.

Another anarchistic statement well-nigh the origins of the Olmec civilization comes from the Book of Mormon (1830), a scriptural text that provides much of the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other branches of the Latter-day Saints Motion, more commonly known as Mormons. Within the Volume of Mormon in the Book of Ether is an account of a people known as "Jaredites" led past a human being named Jared who fled the ancient Middle Eastern region in the time of the Belfry of Babel and so traveled to N America along with 3 other groups that collectively provided the origins of the Native American people. The Jaredites were the grouping that became the Olmecs as well as other North American pre-Columbian civilizations. Of course, absolutely no archaeological or written bear witness of such an event has e'er been institute other than the business relationship in the Volume of Mormon.

American archeologist and anthropologist Michael D. Coe extensively studied and wrote upon the subject area of Meso-Americans, specially the Mayans, but also the Olmecs, and offers the opinion that one of the sources of these people was of Nordic origin. A major piece of work of Coe is Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (1962). Famed explorer and author Thor Heyerdahl of Kon-Tiki fame backs upwards Coe'southward claim. For "evidence," Coe cites a rock carving of a confront that is disguised and exhibits an "aquiline" nose giving the figure the appearance of what could be a person of Nordic origins. Again, Dna evidence fails to support this conclusion.

Another American, Betty Meggers, employed by the esteemed Smithsonian Establishment, has posited that the Olmecs are descended from Chinese immigrants (or refugees) that came to N America during the Second Millennium BC, maybe around 1200 BC. Other not-academically supported researchers concur with Meggers and further cite similarities between markings on Olmec pottery with ancient Chinese written characters. Mainstream academics do not concord with these assertions.

Our next theory of Olmec origins comes to u.s. from Poland, where Dr. Andrzej Wiercinski, a Catholic priest, philosopher and theologian that specializes in the interpretation of texts and other evidence, a specialty known every bit hermeneutics, claims that the Olmecs originated at least in part from sub-Saharan Black Africans that traveled to the Americas. Equally testify, Wierciński cites ancient skulls of Olmec descendants that allegedly deport "African" traits to claim that betwixt iv.5% and 14% of Olmecs were of Black African "Bushman" origin. Wierciński, born in 1961, also attributes Chinese, "Chill," and Pacific Islander ethnic heritage to the Olmecs. Maybe most startlingly, he also claims "Laponoid" ethnic influences of Olmecs, that being from people of the Baltic region of Europe. Apparently convinced the Olmecs were truly a melding pot of many races, Wierciński also includes Armenoid ethnic racial influence. (Delight note that the "Armenoid" subracial group of "Aryan" Europeans is not academically recognized today.)

The methodology of using only Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid skull types by Wiercinski is not approved by mainstream modern academics as this arroyo limits the researcher into an extremely confined set of criteria, forcing the conclusion of the Olmec skulls into ane or a combination of merely three categories. Other researchers take failed to ostend the analysis offered by Dr. Wiercinski.

On the one hand, we have the standard academic theory that all Native Americans, including the Olmecs, were descended from Eastward Asians that trekked to North America from Siberia around thirteen,000 years agone, and on the other hand nosotros have a potpourri of theories about exotic origins of Olmecs from Israel, Babylon, Mainland china, the Pacific Islands, Scandinavia, the Baltic region, and Sub-Saharan Africa. We are not surprised that people before the advent of modern research tools such as Deoxyribonucleic acid evidence would come upwardly with diverse outlandish ideas about the origins of Native American people, simply we accept to acknowledge that gimmicky researchers or shall nosotros say "pseudo-researchers" can come with such novel interpretations of ethnic origins is somewhat startling. What do you retrieve?

Question for students (and subscribers): Which theory of Olmec origins do you subscribe to? Why? Please permit us know in the comments department beneath this commodity.

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Historical Evidence

For more data, delight see…

Principal, AK. African Origin of Olmecs: Science and Myth. CreateSpace, 2014.

Xu, H. Mike. Origin of the Olmec civilisation. University of Central Oklahoma Press, 1996.

The featured prototype in this commodity, a photograph by Maribel Ponce Ixba (frida27ponce) of Olmec Head No. 3 from San Lorenzo-Tenochtitlán; 1200–900 BCE; basalt; height: one.eight m, length: one.28 m, width: 0.83 m; Xalapa Museum of Anthropology (Xalapa, Mexico), is licensed nether the Artistic Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Major Dan is a retired veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He served during the Cold War and has traveled to many countries around the earth. Prior to his armed services service, he graduated from Cleveland Country University, having majored in folklore. Following his military service, he worked as a police officer eventually earning the rank of captain prior to his retirement.