Abstract :
The two decades since the publication of Regional Perspectives on the Olmec have seen a great expansion of basic archaeological research in
the “Olmec heartland” region of Mexico’s southern Gulf lowlands aswell as important newwork on Formative period interregional interaction
and its effects on local economies and polities. Olmec research, however, has not achieved as prominent a place as it merits in comparative
research on the evolution of social complexity. In this essay I review this work and make some suggestions for future research directions.
