Cosmos and Rulership: The Function of Olmec-style Symbols in Formative Period Mesoamerica

Abstract

Iconographic investigations of works of art executed in the Olmec style have produced convincing evidence that rulership during the Early and Middle Formative Period of Mesoamerican prehistory was publicly legitimized by a visual charter. This charter consisted of symbols derived from the natural environment. These naturally derived symbols functioned within a symbol system which stressed the human ruler’s access to supernatural power. The same symbol system also described the cosmic stage on which the rituals of rulership were enacted.