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. Ning Guan, the discoverer of the stone statue, has published two articles, speculating on the representative significance of this giant statue and the nationality of its carving object. At that time, the theory of cultural exchange prevailed in academic circles, and many scholars believed that the Native Americans in the pre-Columbian period never had enough wisdom or ability to create such a large and outstanding artistic work as Olmec's head. Affected 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, this giant statue was gradually forgotten by people. It was not until 1939 that the archaeologist Sterling began to study the Omek culture that the relevant information of the giant statue was 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. The book Son Before Columbus published by Van Setima in 1976 advocates the theory of "black race". Before Columbus discovered America, Africans had sailed to America many times, which created or at least strongly influenced the early civilizations of Central America 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 African-centrism movement in North America. According to Van Thutma, the revisionist historian of the Africa Center 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 Van Setima and other authors: written characters in different periods of 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 it one by one. Haslevy and others believe that because Olmec culture plays an extremely important role 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 downgraded to inferior races and could not develop as great cultural achievements as the ancient old world countries. Despite these arguments, no matter what race 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.