What do scholars think about the racial struggle of Olmec's giant stone carving head?

Like other Central Americans, Olmecs regard all parts of their bodies as part of the universe. They put most of their energy into the details and retouching of the head, which may symbolize the center and be regarded as the sky or the domain of the gods. Melgar, the discoverer of the stone statue, published two articles, speculating on the representative significance of the giant statue and the nationality of the carving object. At that time, the theory of cultural exchange prevailed in academic circles. Many scholars believed that the Native Americans before Columbus had never had enough wisdom or ability to create such a large and outstanding artistic work as Olmec's head. Influenced by this, Melgar assumed that the designers and sculptors of the colossus must be immigrants from the old world, and the carving objects should be Africans, especially Ethiopians.

Later, the colossus was gradually forgotten by people. It was not until 1939 that the archaeologist Sterling began to study the Olmec culture that the relevant materials of the colossus were rearranged. Strong's research in Spa Potous, La Benta and Sanlorenzo made Olmec culture famous in academic circles, and his articles were published in many national geographic magazines. Fansetima 1976 published the book Purple Before Columbus, which advocated the theory of "black people". Before Columbus discovered America, Africans had sailed to America many times, which created or at least strongly influenced the early civilization of Central and South America. Based on this, Olmec civilization is probably created by Africans. Although this idea is not accepted by professional scholars, it has become the basic argument of the contemporary North American African centralism movement. According to van Thutma, a revisionist historian at the Africa Center, he claimed: "All the early civilizations in the world, including ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Europe and America, were mostly created by blacks, or at least inspired by their cultures." There are five main evidences cited by Fansetima and other authors: the characters of different periods in the old world; The "black" characteristics of Olmec's giant stone carving head; Olmec mound has many archaeological similarities with the stone pyramids in Egypt and Nubia. Plants native to one hemisphere appear in another hemisphere; The custom of mummifying also appeared in America.

Another scholar, HasRivera, and his colleagues have also discussed this topic thoroughly recently. HasRivera and his colleagues carefully examined every piece of evidence and refuted them one by one. Haslevy and others believe that because Olmec culture occupies an extremely important position in the history of Central American civilization, it is not surprising that African centrists think that Olmecs belong to Africans. Ironically, the argument they strongly advocated reinforced another wrong racial argument, that is, Native Americans were relegated to inferior races and could not develop as great cultural achievements as the nations of the ancient old world. Despite these arguments, no matter what race the Olmec's megalithic heads belong to or what their exact use or significance is, they are undoubtedly one of the most spectacular megalithic sculptures in the world.