Foragers of the Far West II: California

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Foragers of the Far West IICalifornia
Lecture 10 North American Archaeology Winter
2007 UCSC
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• Language Diversity
• Over 80 mutually unintelligible native languages
  at European contact
• 20 of all language diversity in North America

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• Population Density
• Densest population North of Mexico

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• Ethnic Diversity
• Small,bounded social groups (tribelets)
• Territoriality, social closure
• But, with lots of exchange across social
  boundaries
• Economic and political alliances

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Environment and Resources

• Ethnic Diversity Environmental Diversity
• Four Regions
• Mountains Sierra Nevada
• Central Valley San Joaquin and Sacramento
  Rivers
• San Francisco Bay Sacramento Delta
• Coast and Coastal Ranges
• Major Resources (highly localized)
• Deer, antelope, Tule elk
• River fish salmon
• Acorns, edible seeds (chia, buckeye)
• Coastal Resources sea mammals, shellfish, deep
  sea fish (tuna, halibut)
• Managed Resources
• Deliberate burning
• Planted and tended wild seeds and roots
• Incipient Horticulture??
• Highly specialized, complex foragers
• Regional trade and interaction

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Southern California Sequence

• Santa Barbara Channel
• Chumash--7000 yr sequence
• Development of complex social systems, based on
  personal prestige and control of production and
  exchange (Jeanne Arnold)

Rafael Solares, 1878, chief or wot of Ineseño
Chumash community
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San Dieguito Complex

• 9000-6000 BC
• Interior hunting sites near Pleistocene Lakes
• Groups moving up and down river systems from
  coast to interior??

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Early Maritime Adaptations

• Channel Islands
• San Miguel Island
• 9500 BC
• Arlington Springs Woman
• 11,000 BC
• Mainland
• Cross Creek
• 8350 to 5670 BC
• Point Conception
• 7000 BC
• Substantial coastal populations by 6000 BC
• In-shore fishing, shellfish collecting, sea
  mammal hunting
• Broad coastal plain rich in seeds
• MILLING STONE HORIZON

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Early Period5500 600 BC

• Atlatl and dart points, grinding stones
• Dynamic climate and coastline (Middle
  Holocene--5000-3500 BC)
• Decreasing mobility
• Shift to off shore fishing, acorn processing,
  hunting
• More intensive processing and storage technology
• Explanations??

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Glassow et al. 1987

• Climate Change Population Growth
• Optimal Foraging Model
• Large game over hunted
• Intensify exploitation of new resources
• ACORNS
• Hard to process, but
• Storable
• Shellfish
• Plucking vs. stripping
• Deep sea fish and sea mammals
• Terry Jones
• More gendered division of labor

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Middle (600 BC to 1150 AD) and Late (AD 1150 to
1800) Periods
by 600 BC emergence of distinctive maritime
adaptation

• Intensive food processing and storage
• Pop increase
• Changing patterns of production and division of
  labor
• Unstable climate
• Medieval Warm Period (A.D. 1150-1300)
• Emergence of social complexity (Chiefdoms)

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Emergence of Complex Chiefdoms

• Shell Money (Olivella)
• Chester King vs. Jeanne Arnold
• Bartered for food and commodities
• Evened out food shortages
• Alleviated conflict and competition
• Production and exchange controlled by emergent
  elite

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Archaeological Evidence

• Paleoclimatic evidence of drought, rising ocean
  temps, and reduction of marine resources (Larson
  and Raab)
• Massive increase in microlith and shell bead
  production on islands access to lithic resources
  restricted (Jeanne Arnold)
• Physical evidence of nutritional stress, disease,
  violence (Phil Walker)

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Canaliño Culture

• Ancestors of Chumash
• Trade between coast and inland
• Controlled by elites
• Tomols plank canoes
• Carved steatite, sandstone grinding tools, shell
  and bone points and hooks.

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Steatite Carvings
Most of this material looted in 19th c. from
rich, high status burials (shamans burials?) in
caves.
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Tomols
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Chumash Rock Art

• Campbell Grant (1978)
• Astronomical observations?
• Shamans visions
• Tolache
• Entopic images

Painted Cave near San Marcos, CA
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Contact with Spanish
Jose Cardero 1791, Mission San Carlos