64 pages • 2 hours read
1491
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Symbols & Motifs
Maize
Maize represents the concrete link between the present and the past, and the continuing endurance of "lost" civilizations in our world day. The difference between the terms "maize" and "corn," however, reflect how civilizations understand themselves, and their progenitors. To this end, the most significant fact about maize or corn is its development from a wild plant into a crop for consumption by the ancient civilizations of the Americas. Maize was developed and cultivated to ensure the survival of these civilizations, and continues to be an important staple today.
Corn is such an important aspect of our economic and cultural world today that its ancient, almost prehistoric origins are hopelessly obscure. The descendants of natives in the Americas today still describe themselves as "people of the maize"; such is the centrality of this food staple. The ubiquity of maize as "corn" in the modern word belies its origins but typifies a significant fact of cultural change: no civilization is entirely destroyed or wiped away.
Olmec Stone Heads
The stone head is one of the more difficult symbols in Mann's book. While the term "Olmec" is a more well-known name in Mesoamerican archaeology and anthropology, very little is actually known about the civilization to which it refers.
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