Oaxaca: Cradle and Destiny of American Civilization

This English translation of a Spanish-language original argues that the Oaxaca valley in southern Mexico is the source of civilization on the American continents. With 50 illustrations in colour and black & white, it presents considerable archaeological and genetic evidence to support this claim. Drawing on both historical and modern sources, Ramos, the author, paints a picture of stone-age life in the valley, and traces the development of various modern civic conventions to the semi-nomadic people who inhabited his state some 10,000 years ago, and their ancestors who maintain that habitation to this very day. Translated and edited by Owen Ferguson, this English-language version has been edited and expanded to better convey its convincing argument against the "Olmec Mother-culture" myth that sedentary civic technology in Mesoamerica developed first among the peoples of the Gulf Coast region.