Very informative!

This was a very informative audiobook. It was also not one-sided and gave two perspectives on the Olmec. I certainly learned a lot of new facts, ideas, and theories.

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Good to have factual info.

Fantastic book, The captivating history team has always been the top authority in their subjects.

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Great read and wonderfully described.

Book does have flow smoothly from period to period. The author is obviously a knowledgeable person. It appears he wants his/her reader to be as knowledgeable as he is.

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A sort of appropriation of past cultures.

"Olmec" is a word coming from Spanish texts about the Aztecs, and seemingly meant people of the steamy plains. We have no idea what they called themselves; timetable is not yet set but in the current understanding their prime was around 1150 to 400 BCE. Their stone monuments are the oldest in Mexico and Mesoamerica.

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despite author bias still interesting history

the author spewed opinion as though it was fact specifically on the west African influence. he omitted details that sughest ties to the olmec civilization. Dr. Ivan van sertima wrote a book called they came before Columbus that touched on historical evidence he either missed or omitted

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2 people found this helpful

somethings uneeded, somethings appreciated

I have read a handful of these books so far about mesoamerican cultures and all have been from an anglo/European lens. there is a lot of uneeded speculation about things. it always seems the anthropologists try to fit everything into a box from an Anglo historical lense. like if they cannot find evidence of conquering, currency/wealth, violence, government they either speculate and try to fit the culture into that mold or just give up and say things like" we have no idea what happened/what this means" " it is a mystery "... the people of olmec decent still exist.. like just go and talk to them... they will tell you. Olmecs were for very social, peaceful, and in tune with nature. community mattered. It's like it would physically harm the anthropologist to paint a culture that isn't theirs in a positive light.

I do appreciate debunking the misinformation and harmful rumors about olmecs being African or Asian. They are not and there are many ways to debunk this. rumors like this are harmful to the people who still exist in that region today and have the same features of the statues they made. to add on to that their DNA does not even match with that of an African. they are truly indigenous to that region and have been for thousands of years.

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Lots of great information in a two hours audio.

If you are interested n knowing about the many indigenous peoples of Mexico and follow their development chronologically, this is this audible to have. It does not deal with the Major Ancient except as influences.

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A Great Introduction to the Olmecs

A concise introduction to the Olmec civilization. Topics include who they were, where they came from and where they went. Their art, trade, influence and military are included. Religion, daily life and lasting influence is also discussed. A great starting point for learning about this fascinating Mesoamerican culture.

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Interesting information

Wish had more information

This doesn’t really tell you a bit about the similarities between Sumerian and the Olmecs.
Wish it did. But listening I could hear the similarities. Religion , art and trade.

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OLMECS

I just called her on the music instruments and culture of my ancestral Mexico I have had to read many books and I find that most readers don’t realize that there are several problems in writing these kind of books. There are books that have facts, and there are books that have facts And opinions mixed in. The problem with Opinion is that they are usually when it comes with a case of native America which is the one that I know I don’t know other books out there or educational with methods the problem with opinions is that they can be positive but it’s still opinion. The ones that bother me are the ones that are Eurocentric another words compared to Europe or just plain ethnocentric there were a few comments in the book that were like that I didn’t appreciate those just give me the facts!
There’s a thing of never appreciate is to pronounce I need a word in the minds of most Americans and some Mexican scholars to Nagle oh it’s native Sol it’s just pronounce it “our way” and they wind of butchering it so bad that you might as well learn to say it the right way and promote the correct pronunciation rinses it was terrible maniacally feeble of that guy to say the word, Nahuatl like this: Nah-hah-til I mean any bonehead will know the basic vowels in Spanish which is the same Italian and Portuguese that you is pronounced like oooooh I mean if you’re going to say the way he said it was three syllable why not learn the correct way and three syllables I mean pronouncing the TL is a little difficult I know but you would be, and they told me they’ll direct or just yesterday, he would be much safer at saying it like this Nah-waht
, Jesus Christ that’s only two syllables it bothers me when people go on record going into a studio and pronouncing the words all messed up and then someone saying OK that’s perfect thank you I would’ve read it much more better. There is nothing wrong with anybody hearing from our awards pronounce correctly. For instance I’ll be speaking in English to you and if I come across a word from Iran I’m not going to pronounce English style I’m going to pronounce it the way they do. That’s the honor a gift to all cultures especially when we’re talking about scholarly material. If I speak in English to you and there’s an Italian word like lasagna, that’s how you say it I did not say la Sagna. Take very little effort to change the Eurocentric/ethnocentric way of approaching saying native words of the Americas. I know someone will come back at me and say but that’s how we do it exactly that is how it’s done but just like you pronounce those Italian words and some French words and even German words correctly say these ones correctly
I could cite more examples but you’re all smart enough to know what I’m talking about.
That was quite a number of other words the guy said that I know could be said in their native pronunciation but you can do it too. I did have an adult one time said to me but I speak English and I told him “brother you and I have the same muscles and vocal cords I am no different than you”.
Wish they would’ve talked about chocolate a little more because there are some more very powerful thing there was quite a few other things that were in accurate in the book and strange supposition like that weird conversation about who invented the tortilla or the fact that chocolate was only consumed by Nobles. There is no documentation anywhere that says that if you go to Tabasco right now like I went there a couple years ago cacao trees grow in every neighborhood we all mix weren’t the first ones to eat it they were the earliest findings and findings means “that’s all we found at this point”, If you go buy one of these trees you’ll want to eat it your first impulse will be to eat it it’s not like there are chocolate bars in the air so these things have been eaten I’m sure since the first humans or in the Americas. People always talk about the art and they always, and I get especially bothered by this because I’m a musician, they always leave out music music and sound direct guides and influence of people in a Nueroscientific manner this is all been proven! So the omitting of musical instruments is just absolutely insane.
Other than that I learned just a couple of things but really not much that I’ve already seen. For the average layman this is a great book I would say hire me and I’ll read the whole thing for free and pronounce the words 1 billion times better
Sincerely Martin Espino

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