Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T13:19:10.792Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Contexts of Cultural Change in Insular California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jeanne E. Arnold ,
Roger H. Colten  and
Scott Pletka
Jeanne E. Arnold
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Roger H. Colten
Affiliation:
Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, P.O. Box 208118, New Haven, CT 06520-8118
Scott Pletka
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Archaeological and ethnohistorical researchers in California are reaping the rewards from a wealth of new information about precontact and early historical cultural diversity, technologies, and marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Our recent investigations into the later prehistory of the island groups of southern California have centered on processes of sociopolitical evolution, including the emergence of status differentiation, evidence for intensification of craft production, and associated changes in human uses of animal resources as societies became more complex. We have linked some specific changes in diet, labor organization, and exchange to documented climatic disturbances, suggesting that opportunities created by such disruptions may have accounted in part for the timing of changes, but were not their cause in any mechanistic or simplistic sense. A recent American Antiquity report overlooks the primary results of this research and isolates the environmental data from a broad multidimensional model of cultural change in coastal California. We provide an update on the status of Channel Islands archaeology and identify the fundamental problems with approaches that extract and decontextualize environmental processes from cultural processes by assessing limited faunal data sets.

lnvestigadores en arqueología e historia étnica de California están cosechando los frutos de la enorme cantidad de informatión reciente acerca de tecnologías, ecosistemas marinos y terrestres, y la diversidad cultural antes del contacto espahol y durante la primera fase histórica después de este contacto. Nuestras recientes investigaciones en la prehistoria de los grupos de islas al sur de California se han centrado en la evolutión socio-política, en la aparición de diferentes rangos sociales, en la evidencia de intensificatión de la productión artesanal especializada, y en los cambios en el uso de recursos animates mientras la sociedad se organiza en forma mas compleja. Hemos asociado algunos cambios especificos en la dieta, organizatión del trabajo, e intercambio, a disturbios climáticos documentados, sugiriendo que oportunidades creadas por esos disturbios pueden explicar en parte cuándo estos cambios ocurrieron, pew estos disturbios no fueron la causa de los cambios en ningún sentido mecánico o simplista. Un reporte reciente en American Antiquity omite los resultados primarios de estas investigaciones y separa la informatión relacionada al medio ambiente de un modelo multidimensional de cambio cultural en la costa de California. Proveemos nueva informatión sobre el estado de la arqueología de Channel Islands e identificamos problemas fundamentales en los enfoques que sacan de contexto procesos medio ambientales al evaluar grupos limitados de informatión faunística sin relacionarlos con procesos culturales.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , April 1997 , pp. 300 - 318
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1997

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

Apt, K., D'Antonio, C., Crisp, J., and Gauvain, J. 1988 lntertidal Macrophytes of Santa Cruz Island, California. Publication No. 6. The Herbarium, Department of Biological Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 1987 Craft Specialization in the Prehistoric Channel Islands, California. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 1991 Transformation of a Regional Economy: Sociopolitical Evolution and the Production of Valuables in Southern California. Antiquity 65: 953–962.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 1992a Complex Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers of Prehistoric California: Chiefs, Specialists, and Maritime Adaptations of the Channel Islands. American Antiquity 57: 60–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 1992b Cultural Disruption and the Political Economy in Channel Islands Prehistory. In Essays on the Prehistory of Maritime California, edited by Jones, T., pp. 129–144. No. 10, Center for Archaeological Research at Davis, University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 1993 Labor and the Rise of Complex Hunter-Gatherers. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 12: 75–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 1995a Transportation Innovation and Social Complexity among Maritime Hunter-Gatherer Societies. American Anthropologist 97: 733–747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 1995b Inter-Household Variability in Status, Wealth, and Production in the Later Prehistory of the Channel Islands. National Science Foundation grant no. SBR-95-11576. On file, Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 1996a The Archaeology of Complex Hunter-Gatherers. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 3: 77–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 1996b Organizational Transformations: Power and Labor among Complex Hunter-Gatherers and Other Intermediate Societies. In Emergent Complexity: The Evolution of Intermediate Societies, edited by Arnold, J. E., pp. 59–73. International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Arnold, J. E. 1997 Geophysical Surveys of Stratigraphically Complex Island California Sites: New Implications for Household Archaeology. Antiquity, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, J. E., and Munns, A. 1994 Independent or Attached Specialization: The Organization of Shell Bead Production in California. Journal of Field Archaeology 21: 473–489.Google Scholar
Arnold, J. E., and Tissot, B. N. 1993 Measurement of Significant Marine Paleotemperature Variation Using Black Abalone Shells from Prehistoric Middens. Quaternary Research 39: 390–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barlow, J. 1994 The Abundance of Cetaceans in California Waters. Part I: Ship Surveys in Summer and Fall of 1991. Fishery Bulletin 93: 1–14.Google Scholar
Blackburn, T. C., and Anderson, K. (editors) 1993 Before the Wilderness: Environmental Management by Native Californians. Ballena Press, Menlo Park, California.Google Scholar
Bowser, B. 1993 Fish Remains. In Archaeological Investigations at CA-SBA -1731: A Transitional Middle-to-Late Period Site on the Santa Barbara Channel, pp. 141–170. Dames and Moore. Technical report prepared for Exxon Company, Goleta, California. Copies available from Dames and Moore, Santa Barbara, California.Google Scholar
Brumfiel, E. M., and Fox, J. W. (editors) 1994 Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chartkoff, J. L., and Chartkoff, K. K. 1984 The Archaeology of California. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, California.Google Scholar
Colten, R. H. 1992 Preliminary Analysis of Faunal Remains from Four Sites on Santa Cruz Island, California. Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology 5: 247–267.Google Scholar
Colten, R. H. 1993 Prehistoric Subsistence, Specialization, and Economy in a Southern California Chiefdom. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Archaeology Program, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Colten, R. H. 1994a Prehistoric Animal Exploitation, Environmental Change, and Emergent Complexity on Santa Cruz Island, California. In The Fourth California Islands Symposium: Update on the Status of Resources, edited by Halvorson, W. L. and Maender, G.J. pp. 201–214. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, California.Google Scholar
Colten, R. H. 1994b Faunal Exploitation during the Middle to Late Period Transition in the Santa Barbara Channel Region. Paper presented at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Society for California Archaeology, Ventura.Google Scholar
Colten, R. H. 1995 Faunal Exploitation during the Middle to Late Period Transition on the Northern Channel Islands, California. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 17: 93–120.Google Scholar
Colten, R. H., and Arnold, J. E. 1997 Prehistoric Marine Mammal Exploitation in Economic and Evolutionary Perspective. Manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Dorman, C. E., and Palmer, D. P. 1981 Southern California Summer Coastal Upwelling. In Coastal Upwelling, edited by Richards, F. A., pp. 44–56. American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engle, J. 1994 Perspectives on the Structure and Dynamics of Channel Islands Nearshore Marine Assemblages. In The Fourth California Islands Symposium: Update on the Status of Resources, edited by Halvorson, W. L. and Maender, G.J. pp. 13–26. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, California.Google Scholar
Erlandson, J. M. 1993 Summary and Conclusions. In Archaeological Investigations at CA-SBA-1731: A Transitional Middleto- Late Period Site on the Santa Barbara Channel, edited by Gerber, J. L., pp. 187–196. Dames and Moore. Technical report prepared for the Exxon Company, Goleta, California. Copies available from Dames and Moore, Santa Barbara, California.Google Scholar
Erlandson, J. M. 1994 Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast. Plenum, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erlandson, J. M., and Colten, R. H. (editors) 1991 Hunter-Gatherers of Early Holocene Coastal California. Perspectives in California Archaeology No. 1. Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eschmeyer, W. N., Herald, E. S., and Hammann, H. 1983 A Field Guide to Pacific Coast Fishes of North America. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.Google Scholar
Eschmeyer, W. N., Herald, E. S., and Hammann, H. 1985 The Ecology of Giant Kelp Forests in California: A Community Profile. Biological Report 85(7.2). Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Gerber, J. L., Rockwell, T., and McDowell, D. 1993 Site Structure, Stratigraphy, and Chronology. In Archaeological Investigations at CA-SBA-1731: A Transitional Middle-to-Late Period Site on the Santa Barbara Channel, edited by Gerber, J. L., pp. 39–65. Dames and Moore. Technical report prepared for the Exxon Company, Goleta, California. Copies available from Dames and Moore, Santa Barbara, California.Google Scholar
Glassow, M. A., Wilcoxon, L. R., and Erlandson, J. M. 1988 Cultural and Environmental Change during the Early Period of Santa Barbara Channel Prehistory. In The Archaeology of Prehistoric Coastlines, edited by Bailey, G. N. and Parkington, J., pp. 64–77. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Glynn, P. W. 1988 El Nino-Southern Oscillation 1982-1983: Nearshore Population, Community, and Ecosystem Response. Annual Review of Ecological Systematics 19: 309–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horn, M. H., and Allen, L. G. 1978 A Distributional Analysis of California Coastal Marine Fishes. Journal of Biogeography 5: 23–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, T. L. (editor) 1992 Essays on the Prehistory of Maritime California. Center for Archaeological Research at Davis No. 10. University of California, Davis.Google Scholar
Jones, T. L. and Hildebrandt, W. R. 1995 Reasserting a Prehistoric Tragedy of the Commons: Reply to Lyman. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 14: 78–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, T. S. 1976 Environmental Analysis of the Little Harbor Archaeological Site on Santa Catalina Island, California. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Kennett, J. P., and Ingram, B. L. 1995 A 20,000-Year Record of Ocean Circulation and Climate Change from the Santa Barbara Basin. Nature 377: 510–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambert, P. 1993 Health in the Prehistoric Populations of the Santa Barbara Channel Islands. American Antiquity 58: 509–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambert, P. 1994 War and Peace on the Western Front: A Study of Violent Conflict and Its Correlates in Prehistoric Hunter- Gatherer Societies of Coastal Southern California. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Lambert, P., and Walker, P. L. 1991 Physical Anthropological Evidence for the Evolution of Social Complexity in Coastal Southern California. Antiquity 65: 963–973.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, D. O., Johnson, J. R., and Michaelsen, J. C. 1994 Missionization among the Coastal Chumash of Central California: A Study of Risk Minimization Strategies. American Anthropologist 96: 263–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, D. O., Michaelsen, J., and Walker, P. L. 1989 Climatic Variability: A Compounding Factor Causing Culture Change among Prehistoric Coastal Populations. Paper presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Atlanta.Google Scholar
Larson, D. O., Michaelsen, J., and Walker, P. L. 1993 Long-Term Developments in Complex Hunter- Gatherer Societies: Recent Perspectives from the Pacific Coast of North America. Journal of Archaeological Research 1(3): 167–201.Google Scholar
Lyman, R. L. 1995 On the Evolution of Marine Mammal Hunting on the West Coast of North America. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 14: 45–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, A. R. (editor) 1990 The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Whales and Dolphins. Portland House, New York.Google Scholar
Meighan, C. 1959 The Little Harbor Site, Catalina Island: An Example of Ecological Interpretations in Archaeology. American Antiquity 24: 383–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moratto, M. J. 1984 California Archaeology. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Moss, M. 1983 Faunal Analysis: Fish Remains. In Final Report: Archaeological Investigations at CA-SBa-1731, edited by Moore, J. and Luve, R., pp. 77–107. Office of Public Archaeology, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Moss, M., and Erlandson, J. M. 1995 Reflections on North American Pacific Coast Prehistory. Journal of World Prehistory 9: 1–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, W. J. 1976 Underwater California. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Pisias, N. G. 1978 Paleoceanography of the Santa Barbara Basin during the Last 8,000 Years. Quaternary Research 10: 366–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pisias, N. G. 1979 Model for Paleoceanographic Reconstructions of the California Current during the Last 8,000 Years. Quaternary Research 11: 373–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pletka, S. M. 1996 Chumash Fishers and the Emergence of Complex Social Organization on Santa Cruz Island in Their Economic and Ecological Context. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Quilter, J., and Stacker, T. 1983 Subsistence Economies and the Origins of Andean Complex Societies. American Anthropologist 85: 545–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raab, L. M., Bradford, K., Porcasi, J. F., and Howard, W. J. 1995 Return to Little Harbor, Santa Catalina Island, California: A Critique of the Marine Paleotemperature Model. American Antiquity 60: 287–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roemmich, D., and McGowan, J. 1995 Climatic Wanning and the Decline of Zooplankton in the California Current. Science 267: 1324–1326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roemmich, D., and McGowan, J. 1986 The Birth of El Nino: Geoarchaeological Evidence and Implications. Geoarchaeology 1: 3–15.Google Scholar
Sails, R. A. 1988 Prehistoric Fisheries of the California Bight. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Archaeology Prpgram, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Soutar, A., and Isaacs, J. D. 1969 History of Fish Populations Inferred from Fish Scales in Anaerobic Sediments off California. California Marine Research Communications, California Cooperative Fisheries Investigations 13: 63–70.Google Scholar
Stine, S. 1994 Extreme and Persistent Drought in California and Patagonia during Mediaeval Time. Nature 369: 546–549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tegner, M. J., and Dayton, P. K. 1987 El Nino Effects on Southern California Kelp Forest Communities. Advances in Ecological Research 17: 243–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
von Bloeker, J. C, Jr. 1967 Land Mammals of the Southern California Islands. In Proceedings of the Symposium on the Biology of the California Islands, edited by Philbrick, R. N., pp. 245–264. Santa Barbara Botanical Garden, Santa Barbara, California.Google Scholar
Walker, P. L. 1986 Porotic Hyperostosis in a Marine-Dependent California Indian Population. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 69: 345–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, P. L. 1989 Cranial Injuries as Evidence of Violence in Prehistoric Southern California. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 80: 313–323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, P. L., and Lambert, P. 1989 Skeletal Evidence for Stress during a Period of Cultural Change in Prehistoric California. In Advances in Paleopathology, edited by Capasso, L., pp. 207–212. Monographic Publication 1, Journal of Paleopathology. Marino Solfanelli, Chieta, Italy.Google Scholar
Walker, P. L., and Snethkamp, P. 1984 Archaeological Investigations on San Miguel Island: Archaeological and Physical Anthropological Research, vols. I and II. National Park Service, San Francisco.Google Scholar