20 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 146 
of forested areas for farming. Houses constructed of pole and thatch 
were grouped in small villages, perhaps under the loose control of a 
council of elders or shamans. Some of these villages gradually in- 
creased in size until they might be called towns or communities of 
the simple nuclear centered type (Beardsley et al., 1956, p. 141). 
Magic was the most predominant aspect of religious belief, with 
cults of fertility and of rain, as might be expected of a group de- 
pendent upon, but with as yet limited technological control over, 
agriculture. A deity with feline characteristics appears first on the 
Gulf coast and moves to the Central Plateau. Death practices include 
direct earth burial, in extended or flexed position, accompanied by 
offerings of pottery, implements, ornaments, figurines, and sometimes 
food. Burial was in cemeteries, below the floor of the house, or in 
fields. In some instances, dogs, children, or even adults were ap- 
parently sacrificed to act as companions to the deceased in the after- 
world. 
Cranial deformation and tooth mutilation were practiced, espe- 
cially by the Olmec of the Gulf coast. Other forms of personal or- 
namentation included painting of the face and body, shaving of the 
head, and tattooing. If we may judge by the figurines, nudity was 
customary at the beginning of the period, but clothing was later 
adopted. 
The first pottery vessels are monochrome in surface color (black, 
white, cream, red), with rounded bottoms and composite silhouette. 
At a slightly later time painted decoration becomes popular, includ- 
ing red-on-white, red-on-cream, and white-on-red techniques. Vessel 
shapes become more varied as well, and forms such as bottles, plates, 
rounded jars (tecomates), effigy vessels, whistling jars, and stirrup- 
spout jars are represented, as well as the low annular base. The ear- 
liest decoration is principally fine incision in geometric motifs, but 
punctation, excision, fingernail marking, rocker stamping, cord mark- 
ing, pseudo fresco, negative painting, and other techniques become 
common as well. Motifs are arranged in zones or panels, and some- 
times appear to have symbolic significance. Flat-bottomed jars and 
plates appear. 
Figurines are constructed at first principally by applique. The ad- 
dition of incision and punctation, and the combination of these tech- 
niques in a variety of ways, produce a wide range of figurine styles. 
Other pottery objects include flat and cylindrical stamps or seals, 
spherical rattles, animal whistles, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic 
masks, and napkin-ring ear plugs. 
In some places the Olmec tradition of the Gulf coast met and in- 
