Mesoamerica Formative Period Avian Serpent
There are many reasons why investigations offer relatively little information with respect to the Olmec. For instance, archaeologists working at the Gulf Coast seldom encounter organic materials such as food remains, textiles, wood, and intact skeletons in their excavations. The type of evidence that archaeologists working in other periods and regions are accustomed to finding, quickly break down under the continuously wet and acid conditions of the Gulf Coast soil (Coe and Diehl 1980:130-133).
Formative scholars also do not have as a source of information ancient written documents (codices), specific to the Formative period that could provide clues of Formative society. Only recently have archaeologists considered the mundane but important aspects of commoner life (see Wendt 2010).
Despite not having a clear picture of what life was like during the Formative period, some basic questions have been answered. It is certain that on the Gulf Coast, the Olmec built a stratified society (Clark 1997; Coe and Diehl 1980; Cyphers 1996). They had a political structure in place, strong enough to command the extraction and transport of ton-heavy basalt from the Tuxtla Mountains to the site of San Lorenzo, forty miles away. There artisans carved the stone into architectural features, human body forms, and supernatural creatures (i.e., serpents and jaguars) (Cyphers 1996).
In other cases for example, like at the site of San José Mogote (see Figure 3), outside of the Gulf Coast in the Valley of Oaxaca, archaeologists know what type of structures people lived in, their diet, craft activities, and the types of objects they received from far away places in exchange for goods made locally (Flannery 1968). Researchers can also presume a great deal of information regarding the cultural identities of people buried at the site of Tlatilco, in Central Mexico, where the examination of group burials revealed a wealth of craft items, such as finely produced and decorated pottery,
associated with gender and status (Joyce 1999; Tolstoy 1989).
Current trends in the study of Formative societies
A steady flow of new research is beginning to shed light on the interregional interaction between Early and Middle Formative period societies. Scholars are certain groups from different regions were trading, sharing ideas, and linked through social and political networks. Moreover, archaeological studies that focus on the commoner (or household archaeology), promise to reveal what day-to-day society might have been like during the Formative period.
Approaches dealing with the individual actions, or agency of people (see Bourdieu 1977), reflect an area long-championed in the study of Mesoamerica. However, this has only recently been emphasized by Jeffrey P. Blomster (2010:146) as a
way to approach the study of Formative societies (e.g., Pool 2009:250-251; Wendt 2010:120) mainly in the arena of interregional interaction, where, according to Blomster (2010:141, 146), agency perspectives consider negotiations of status and power between individuals or groups. To continue with a study area, focused on individual and group
contributions, this thesis will focus on a small but unique set of data: early representations of Mesoamerica’s Feathered Serpent (or Avian Serpent) (Figure 2).
Specifically, of how people, in their attempts to differentiate themselves and further legitimize their identities, may have used a serpent with avian-like features (i.e., small wings, feathers, and feathered tufts) carved on pottery and stone monuments.