Olmec influences on Mesoamerican cultures

Sister culture

The "sister culture" proponents, on the other hand, state that Mesoamerican cultures evolved more or less simultaneously. Major proponents of this theory include Joyce Marcus and Kent V. Flannery, who argue that the Olmec were merely the first among equals, rather than the wellspring of cultural change.

"It is the adaptive autonomy and frequent competitive interaction of such chiefdoms that speed up evolution and eventually make useful technologies and sociopolitical strategies available to all regions.".[10]
In a subsequent, and feisty, paper, they imply, for example, that Olmec iconography may have originated in the early Tlatilco culture.[11]

This viewpoint is echoed by a minority of other researchers including art historian Caterina Magni who nonetheless agrees that the Olmecs bequeathed a rich heritage to later cultures.[12] However, Magni does not agree that what is presently labelled as Olmec culture was first and foremost the product of the heartland.

"Contrary to [this] generally accepted idea, the brilliant [Olmec] culture did not originate in the Gulf coast of of Veracruz and Tabasco. In truth, the varied and voluminous archaeological data shows a much more complex reality; [instead] Olmec religious and political centers emerged simultaneously throughout a vast part of Mesoamerica: from Mexico to Costa Rica."[13]
Magni attributes these concepts to noted archaeologist Christine Niederberger