The Arts of Government in Early Mesoamerica

Abstract

This review addresses issues of governmentality for Mesoamerica's earliest kingdoms. About 3200 years ago the Olmecs instituted stratified society based upon sacred kingship. Supervision of public works projects, the creation and deployment of monumental art, and control of ritual and ideology were the kings' principal means of governance within their kingdoms. Evidence for Olmec governance outside their region is equivocal. Olmecs may have conquered the societies of the Mazatan region, but they interacted with societies in the Mexican Highlands on a less coercive and more equitable basis.