a more complex, hierarchical one: "When their society became stratified, the new rulers needed emblems ... to justify their rule over people who used to be their equals." Summary Olmec-influenced objects are found throughout Mesoamerica. The consensus among most, but by no means all, archaeologists and researchers is that Olmecs weren't purely a mother nor a sister to other Mesoamerican cultures, but the hallmarks of the Olmec iconography were developed within the Olmec heartland and that this iconography became, in the words of Michael Coe, an "all-pervading art style" throughout Mesoamerica (though Coe himself admits on the same page that there is "nothing [in the Xochipala figurines ] which would lead into the Olmec pattern"), promoting a "powerful, unitary religion" and an “official ideology”, an ideology that was adopted by distant indigenous chieftains and other elites eager to validate and bolster their claims to privilege. Notes References (2000), "Teopantecuanitlan", in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, Carraso, David, ed., Oxford University Press. (2006) "Smokescreens in the Provenance Investigation Of Early Formative Mesoamerican Ceramics" in Latin American Antiquity, Volume 17 Number 1 March 2006. (1987), Paléopaysages et archéologie pré-urbaine du bassin de México. Tomes I & II published by Centro Francés de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos, Mexico, D.F. (Resume) (1996) "Olmec Horizon Guerrero", in Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico, eds. E. P. Benson and B. de la Fuente, Washington D.C., . , “Art, Ritual, and Rulership in the Olmec World” in Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica: a Reader, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, p. 369-395. (2005) "Olmec People, Olmec Art", in Archaeology (online), the Archaeological Institute of America, accessed February 2007. (2007) “Olmec-influenced city found in Mexico”, Associated Press, accessed February 8, 2007. , "Petrographic evidence shows that pottery exchange between the Olmec and their neighbors was two-way", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, August 9, 2005, v. 102, n. 32, pp. 11213-11218 . ; "Mother Culture, or Only a Sister?", The New York Times, March 15, 2005. External links "The Mother-Sister Controversy in Mesoamerica" - a useful survey article that finds "both factions believe pretty much the same thing — that the Olmec were first in some things in Mesoamerica and had some two-way trade with the other burgeoning societies". Olmec Origins in The Southern Pacific Lowlands Olmec History of Mesoamerica Mesoamerican society Olmec art Social influence