Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T11:17:35.618Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mortars, Pestles, and Division of Labor in Prehistoric California: A View from Big Sur

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Terry L. Jones
Terry L. Jones*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The mortar and pestle, technologically linked to intensive acorn economies, appeared initially in low frequencies over a large portion of California ca. 4000-3500 B.C. Three sites on the Big Sur coast of central California illuminate the circumstances surrounding the advent of this new technology, which initially supplemented hand stones and milling slabs. Excavation results suggest that ca. 3500 B.C. production of hunting-related flaked-stone tools increased relative to ground stone, and hunted resources became more important, as part of a transition from a highly mobile, selective use of the coastal resources, heavily focused on gathering, to a less mobile, more intensified lifeway. Obsidian hydration profiles indicate that interregional exchange increased at the same time. Evaluation of alternative mussel collection techniques further indicates that shellfish-harvesting strategies became less efficient at this juncture, promoting the emergence of a processing specialization, concomitant with increased hunting intensity. These transitions apparently mark the appearance of lineal descent organization and the system of gender-specific task appropriation observed at European contact.

Resumen

Resumen

El mortero y la mano, vinculados tecnicamente a las economías intensivas de bellota, apareció originalmente disperso en una gran área de California ca. 4000–3500 a.C. Tres sitios en la costa de Big Sur en California central revelan el contexto de la llegada de esta nueva tecnologia, que sirvió alprincipio como un suplemento a las manosy metates. Los resultados de las excavaciones indican que la producción de utensillos de la caza hechos de piedra tallada subió, comparados con los de piedra pulida, cerca de 3500 a. C. La caza llegó a ser más importante, como parte de la transición de el uso selectivo y transitorio de la zona costera, con su énfasis en la recolección, a un modo de vida mís sedemtario e intensiv. Una evaluación experimental de las alternativas técnicas la recolección de mejillones indica que las estrategias de la cosecha de mariscos perdieron progresivamente su eficiencia en este período, lo cual promovió el desarollo de una especialización en el procesamiento, concomitantemente con una elevada intensidad en la caza. Estas transiciones marcan la aparición de descendencia lineal y división sexual del trabajo, las quefueron observadas en el momenta de la conquista.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , April 1996 , pp. 243 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Adam, D. P., Byrne, R., and Luther, E. 1981 A Late Pleistocene and Holocene Pollen Record from Laguna de las Trancas, Northern Coastal Santa Cruz County, California. Madrono 28: 255–272.Google Scholar
Antevs, E. 1948 Climatic Changes and Pre-White Man. In the Great Basin, with Emphasis on Glacial and Post-Glacial Times. University of Utah Bulletin 38: 168–191.Google Scholar
Antevs, E. 1952 Climatic History and the Antiquity of Man in California. University of California Archaeological Survey Reports 16: 23–31. Axelrod, D. I. Google Scholar
Antevs, E. 1981 Holocene Climatic Changes in Relation to Vegetation Disjunction and Speciation. American Naturalist! 17: 847–870.Google Scholar
Basgall, M. 1987 Resource Intensification Among Hunter-Gatherers: Acorn Economies in Prehistoric California. Research in Economic Anthropology 9: 21–52.Google Scholar
Baumhoff, M. A. 1963 Ecological Determinants of Aboriginal California Populations. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 49: 155–236.Google Scholar
Baumhoff, M. A. 1978 Environmental Background. In California, edited by Heizer, R. F., pp. 16–24. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8, W. C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Baumhoff, M. A., and Heizer, R. F. 1965 Postglacial Climate and Archaeology in the Desert West. In The Quaternary of the United States, edited by Wright, H. E. and Frey, D.G. pp. 697–708. 7th Congress of the International Association for Quaternary Research. Princeton University Press, Princeton. New Jersey.Google Scholar
Bean, L. J., and Lawton, H. 1976 Some Explanations for the Rise of Cultural Complexity in Native California with Comments on Proto-Agriculture and Agriculture. In Native Californians: A Theoretical Retrospective, edited by Bean, L. J. and Blackburn, T.C. pp. 19^18. Ballena Press, Menlo Park, California.Google Scholar
Beaton, J. M. 1991 Extensification and Intensification in Central California Prehistory. Antiquity 65: 946–952.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beaton, J. M. 1987 Shell Bead and Ornament Exchange Networks Between California and the Great Basin. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 64(2): 79–175. New York.Google Scholar
Bettinger, R. L. 1991 Hunters-Gatherers, Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bickford, C, and Rich, P. 1984 Vegetation and Flora of the Landels Hill Big Creek Reserve, Monterey County, California. Environmental Field Program Publication No. 15. University of California, Santa Cruz.Google Scholar
Bouey, P. D. 1987 The Intensification of Hunter-gatherer Economies in the Southern North Coastal Ranges of California. Research in Economic Anthropology 9: 53–101.Google Scholar
Bouey, P. D., and Basgall, M. E. 1991 Archaeological Patterns along the South Central Coast, Point Piedras Blancas, San Luis Obispo County, California: Archaeological Test Evaluation of Sites CASLO- 264, SLO-266, SLO-267, SLO- 268, SLO-1226, and SLO-1227. Far Western Anthropological Research Group. Submitted to the California Department of Transportation, Contract No. SA05B86100. Copies available from California Department of Transportation, San Luis ObispoGoogle Scholar
Breschini, G. S., and Haversat, T. 1989 Archaeological Investigations at Fisherman s Wharf, Monterey, Monterey County, California. Archives of California Prehistory No. 29. Coyote Press, Salinas, California.Google Scholar
Breschini, G. S., and Haversat, T. 1992 Zooarchaeology, Method, Theory, and Goals. In Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 4, edited by Schiffer, M. B., pp. 1-35, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Carrier, R. 1993 The Saunders Site: MNT-391: A Littoral Site of the Early Period. Monograph No. 1. Scotts Valley Historical Society, Scotts Valley, California.Google Scholar
Claassen, C. P. 1991 Gender, Shellfishing, and the Shellmound Archaic. In Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, edited by Gero, J. M., and Conkey, M. W., pp. 276–300. Basil Blackwell, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Coe, W. R., and Fox, D. L. 1942 Biology of the California Sea Mussel I: Influence of Temperature, Food Supply, Sex, and Age on the Rate of Growth. Journal of Experimental Zoology 90: 1–30.Google Scholar
Coe, W. R., and Fox, D. L. 1989 The Development of Maize Agriculture in the Viru Valley, Peru. In The Chemistry of Prehistoric Human Bone, edited by Price, T. D., pp. 68–104. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Erlandson, J. M. 1988 Of Millingstones and Molluscs: The Cultural Ecology of Early Holocene Hunter-gatherers on the California Coast. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Erlandson, J. M. 1991 Shellfish and Seeds as Optimal Resources: Early Holocene Subsistence on the Santa Barbara Coast. In Hunter-Gatherers of Early Holocene Coastal California, edited by Erlandson, J. M. and Colten, R.H. pp. 89–100. Perspectives in California Archaeology No. 1. Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erlandson, J. M. 1994 Early Hunter-gatherers of the California Coast. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Erlandson, J. M. 1981 Woman the Hunter: The Agta. In Woman the Gatherer, edited by Dahlberg, F., pp. 121–151. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Ferguson, A. F. (editor) 1984 Intertidal Plants and Animals of the Landels Hill Big Creek Reserve. Environmental Field Program Publications No. 14. University of California, Santa Cruz.Google Scholar
Fitch, J. 1972 Fish Remains, Primarily Otoliths, from a Coastal Indian Midden (SLO-2) at Diablo Cove, San Luis Obispo County, California. In 9000 Years of Prehistory at Diablo Canyon, San Luis Obispo County. Papers No. 7, edited by Greenwood, R., pp. 101–120. San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society, San Luis Obispo, California.Google Scholar
Foley, R. 1988 Hominids, Humans, and Hunter-gatherers: An Evolutionary Perspective. In Hunters and Gatherers: History, Evolution and Social Change, vol. I, edited by Ingold, T., D. Riches, and J. Woodburn, pp. 207–221. Berg, New York.Google Scholar
Fredrickson, D. A. 1974 Cultural Diversity in Early Central California: A View from the North Coast Ranges. Journal of California Anthropology 1: 41–53.Google Scholar
Fredrickson, D. A. 1984 The North Coastal Region. In California Archaeology, by M. J. Moratto, pp. 471–528. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Fredrickson, D. A. 1988 The Clear Lake Basin and Early Complexes in California's North Coast Ranges. In Early Human Occupation in Far Western North America: The Clovis- Archaic Interface, edited by Willig, J. A., Aikens, C. M., and Fagan, J. L., pp. 75–86. Anthropological Papers No. 21. Nevada State Museum, Carson City, Nevada.Google Scholar
Gerow, B. A., and Force, R. 1968 An Analysis of the University Village Complex with a Reappraisal of Central California Archaeology. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, California.Google Scholar
Gibson, R. 1988 An Analysis of Shell Artifacts and Stone Beads from CA-SLO-7 and CA-SLO-8, Diablo Canyon, San Luis Obispo County, California. In Archaeological Excavations at CA-SLO-7 and CA-SLO-8, Diablo Canyon, San Luis Obispo County, California, edited by Breschini, G. S. and Haversat, T., pp. 99–118. Archives of California Prehistory No. 28. Coyote Press, Salinas, California.Google Scholar
Gibson, R. 1992 Results of Archaeological Investigations on Portions of CA-SLO-165, along Hill Street, Morro Bay, California. Gibson's Archaeological Consulting. Submitted to Pacific Bell Telephone Company, San Luis Obispo. Copies available from the Central Coast Information Center of the California Archaeological Inventory, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Gilliland, L. E. 1985 Proximate Analysis and Mineral Composition of Traditional California Native American Foods. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Nutrition Science, University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
Glassow, M. A. 1991 Early Holocene Adaptations on Vandenberg Air Force Base, Santa Barbara County. In Hunter-Gatherers of Early Holocene Coastal California, edited by Erlandson, J. M. and Colten, R.H. pp. 113–124. Perspectives in California Archaeology, vol. 1. Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Glassow, M. A. 1992 The Relative Dietary Importance of Marine Foods through time in Western Santa Barbara County. In Essays on the Prehistory of Maritime California, edited by Jones, T. L., pp. 115–128. Publication No. 10. Center for Archaeological Research, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
Glassow, M. A., Kennett, D. J., Kennett, J. P., and R., L. 1994 Confirmation of Middle Holocene Ocean Cooling Inferred from Stable Isotopic Analysis of Prehistoric Shells from Santa Cruz Island, California. In The Fourth California Islands Symposium: Update on the Status of Resources, edited by W L. Halvorson and G. J. Maender, pp. 223–232. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, California.Google Scholar
Glassow, M., and Wilcoxon, L. 1988 Coastal Adaptation Near Point Conception, California, with Particular Regard to Shellfish Exploitation. American Antiquity 53: 36–51. Early Period of Santa Barbara Channel Prehistory. In The Archaeology of Prehistoric Coastlines, edited by Bailey, G. and Parkington, J., pp. 64–77. Cambridge University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Gordon, E. A. 1993 Screen Size and Differential Faunal Recovery: A Hawaiian Example. Journal of Field Archaeology 20: 453–160.Google Scholar
Greengo, R. E. 1948 Aboriginal Use of Shellfish as Food in California. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Harrington, J. P. 1942 Culture Element Distributions, XIX: Central California Coast. Anthropological Records 7: 1–46. University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Harrison, W M., and Harrison, E. S. 1966 An Archaeological Sequence for the Hunting People of Santa Barbara, California. Annual Reports of the University of California Archaeological Survey 8: 1–89. Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Hayden, B., Deal, M., Cannon, A., and Casey, J. 1986 Ecological Determinants of Woman's Status among Hunter-Gatherers. Human Evolution 1: 1–449.Google Scholar
Hensen, P., and Usner, D. J. 1993 The Natural History of Big Sur. University of California Press, Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heusser, L. 1978 Pollen in Santa Barbara, California: A 12,000 Year Record. Geological Society of America Bulletin 89: 673–678.Google Scholar
Hill, K., Kaplan, H., Hawkes, K., and Hurtado, M. 1987 Foraging Decisions Among Ache Hunter-Gatherers: New Data and Implications for Optimal Foraging Models. Ethnology and Sociobiology 8: 1–36.Google Scholar
Jackson, T. L. 1991 Pounding Acorn: Women's Production as Social and Economic Focus. In Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, edited by Gerow, J. M., and Conkey, M. W., pp. 301–325. Basil Blackwell, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Jochim, M. 1988 Optimal Foraging and the Division of Labor. American Anthropologist 90: 130–135.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. L. 1977 The Late Quaternary Climate of Coastal California: Evidence for an Ice Age Refugium. Quaternary Research 8: 154–179.Google Scholar
Jones, T. L. 1988 A Shell Projectile Point from the Big Sur Coast. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 10: 100–103.Google Scholar
Jones, T. L. 1991 Marine-Resource Value and the Priority of Coastal Settlement: A California Perspective. American Antiquity 56: 419–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, T. L. 1995 Transitions in Prehistoric Diet, Mobility, Exchange, and Social Organization along California's Big Sur Coast. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
Jones, T. L., and Haney, J. 1992 Excavation and Conservation of Six Archaeological Sites at Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve, Monterey- County, California. Submitted to The Nature Conservancy, 785 Market Street, San Francisco. Copies available from Anthropological Studies Center, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California.Google Scholar
Jones, T. L., and Haney, J. 1995 On Mussels: Mytilus californianus as a Prehistoric Resource. North American Archaeologist 16: 33–58.Google Scholar
Jones, T. L., and Waugh, G. 1995 Central California Coastal Prehistory: A View from Little Pico Creek. Perspectives in California Archaeology No. 3. Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Kahn, M. I., Oba, T., and Ku, T. L. 1981 Paleotemperatures and the Glacially Induced Changes in the Oxygen Isotope Composition of Sea Water during Late Pleistocene and Holocene Times in Tanner Basin, California. Geology 9: 485–490.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. L. 1991 Sedentism, Sociopolitical Inequality, and Resource Fluctuations. In Between Bands and States, edited by Gregg, S. A., pp. 135–158. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 9. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. L. 1992 Mobility/Sedentism: Concepts, Archaeological Measures, and Effects. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 43–66.Google Scholar
King, C. D. 1990 The Evolution of Chumash Society: A Comparative Study of Artifacts Used in Social System Maintenance in the Santa Barbara Channel Region Before A.D. 1804. Garland Publishing, New York.Google Scholar
Kroeber, A. L., and Barrett, S. A. 1960 Fishing among the Indians of Northwestern California. University of California Anthropological Records 21: 1–210.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B., and Devore, I. 1968 Problems in the Study of Hunters and Gatherers. In Man the Hunter, edited by Lee, R. B., and I. Devore, pp. 3–12. Aldine Publishing, Chicago.Google Scholar
Lyman, R. L. 1979 Available Meat from Faunal Remains: A Consideration of Techniques. American Antiquity 44: 536–546.Google Scholar
Lyman, R. L. 1993 A Political Economy of Western Mono Acorn Production. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
McGrew, W. C. 1981 The Female Chimpanzee as a Human Evolutionary Prototype. In Woman the Gatherer, edited by Dahlberg, F., pp. 35–73. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.Google Scholar
McGuire, K., and Hildebrandt, W. R. 1994 The Possibilities of Women and Men: Gender and the California Milling Stone Horizon. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 16: 41–59.Google Scholar
Masters, P. M. 1983 Detection and Assessment of Prehistoric Artifact Sites off the Coast of Southern California. In Quaternary Coastlines and Marine Archaeology: Towards the Prehistory of Land Bridges and Continental Shelves, edited by Masters, P. M. and Fleming, N.C. pp. 189–214. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Meighan, C. W. 1959 California Cultures and the Concept of an Archaic Stage. American Antiquity 24: 289–318.Google Scholar
Meighan, C. W. 1978 California. In Chronologies in New World Archaeology, edited by Taylor, R. E. and Meighan, C.W. pp. 223–240. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Meighan, C. W. 1984 California Archaeology. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Moratto, M. J., King, T. F., and Woolfenden, W. B. 1978 Archaeology and California's Climate. The Journal of California Anthropology 5: 147–161.Google Scholar
Pisias, N. G. 1978 Paleoceanography of the Santa Barbara Basin during the Last 8000 Years. Quaternary Research 10: 366–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, S. C, and Denton, G. H. 1967 Chronology of Neoglaciation in the North American Cordillera. American Journal of Science 265: 177–210.Google Scholar
Rogers, D. B. 1929 Prehistoric Man of the Santa Barbara Coast. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, California.Google Scholar
Rudolph, J. L. 1985 Changing Shellfish Exploitation in San Luis Obispo County, California. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 7: 126–132.Google Scholar
Sassaman, K. E. 1992 Lithic Technology and Hunter-Gatherer Sexual Division of Labor. North American Archaeologist 13: 249–261.Google Scholar
Schulz, P. D. 1981 Osteoarchaeology and Subsistence Change in Prehistoric Central California. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
Seed, R., and Suchanek, T. H. 1992 Population and Community Ecology of Mytilus. In The Mussel Mytilus: Ecology, Physiology, Genetics, and Culture, edited by Gosling, E., pp. 87–169. Developments in Aquaculture and Fisheries Science No. 25. Elsevier, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Suchanek, T. H. 1981 The Role of Disturbances in the Evolution of Life History Strategies in the Intertidal Mussels Mytilus edulis and Mytilus californianus. Oecologia 50: 143–152.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P. J. 1993 A Complete Program for Radiocarbon Age Calibration. Radiocarbon 35: 215–230.Google Scholar
Walker, P. L., and DeNiro, M. J. 1986 Stable Nitrogen and Carbon Isotope Ratios in Collagen as Indices of Prehistoric Dietary Dependence on Marine and Terrestrial Resources in Southern California. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 71: 51–61.Google Scholar
Wallace, E. 1978 Sexual Status and Role Differences. In California, edited by Heizer, R. F., pp. 683–689. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8, W G. Sturtevant, general editor, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Google Scholar
Wallace, W 1955 A Suggested Chronology for Southern California Coastal Archaeology. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 11: 214–230.Google Scholar
Wallace, W 1978 Post-Pleistocene Archaeology, 9000 to 2000 B.C. In California, edited by Heizer, R. F., pp. 25–36. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8, Sturtevant, W. C., general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Google Scholar
Wallace, W 1967 The Southern California Milling Stone Horizon: Some Comments. American Antiquity 32: 233–236.Google Scholar
Wallace, W 1968 Cultural Tradition and Ecological Adaptation of the Southern California Coast. In Archaic Prehistory in the Western United States, edited by C. Irwin-Williams, pp. 1–14. Contributions in Anthropology 1(3). Eastern New Mexico University, Portales.Google Scholar
White, G. 1989 A Report of Archaeological Investigations at Eleven Native American Coastal Sites, MacKerricher State Park, Mendocino County, California. Submitted to California Department of Parks and Recreation, Sacramento. Copies available from California Archaeological Inventory, Northwestern Information Center, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California.Google Scholar
White, G., and King, R. F. 1993 The Mostin Site Revisited. In There Grows a Green Tree: Papers in Honor of David A. Fredrickson, edited by White, G., Mikkelsen, P., Hildebrandt, W. R., and Basgall, M. E., pp. 121–140. Publication No. 11. Center for Archaeological Research, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
Willoughby, N. C. 1963 Division of Labor among the Indians of California. University of California Archaeological Survey Reports 60: 7–79. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Yamada, S. B., and Peters, E. E. 1988 Harvest Management and the Growth and Condition of Submarket Size Mussels, Mytilus californianus. Aquaculture 74: 293–299.Google Scholar
Zihlman, A. L. 1981 Women as Shapers of Human Adaptation. In Woman the Gatherer, edited by Dahlberg, F., pp. 75–120. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar