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Postcontact Cultural Perseverance on the Central California Coast: Sedentism and Maritime Intensification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2022

Terry L. Jones Open the ORCID record for Terry L. Jones [Opens in a new window] ,
William R. Hildebrandt ,
Eric Wohlgemuth  and
Brian F. Codding
Terry L. Jones*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Sciences, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA
William R. Hildebrandt
Affiliation:
Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Davis, CA, USA ([email protected]; [email protected])
Eric Wohlgemuth
Affiliation:
Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Davis, CA, USA ([email protected]; [email protected])
Brian F. Codding
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Archaeological Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA ([email protected])
*
([email protected], corresponding author)
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Abstract

Indigenous people throughout North America were dramatically affected by the invasion of European colonizers. Growing evidence suggests that, among many strategies for survival and perseverance, increased sedentism was common; it often resulted from either forced resettlement or attempts to access European resources. We present artifactual, paleoethnobotanical, and faunal findings from the yak tichu tichu yak tilhini northern Chumash village of Tstyiwi (CA-SLO-51/H) where a reasonably discrete postcontact component provides evidence for extreme resource intensification and year-round site use following contact. Although there is evidence for diachronic settlement shifts preceding arrival of the Spanish, the postcontact occupation at Tstyiwi contrasts significantly with 35 exclusively pre-invasion components in its seasonal profile, artifact diversity, density of plant remains, and abundance of fishing equipment and fish bone. High frequencies of the latter two features seem to reflect use of a resource that became the primary focus of subsistence for this coastal community as its inhabitants intensified their work effort to levels never before seen in attempts to avoid the Spanish whose presence had restricted their foraging radius.

Los pueblos indígenas de América del Norte se vieron dramáticamente afectados por la invasión de los colonizadores europeos. La creciente evidencia sugiere que entre muchas estrategias de supervivencia y perseverancia, el aumento del sedentarismo era común, a menudo como resultado de un reasentamiento forzado o de intentos de acceder a los recursos europeos. Sintetizando un registro completo de asentamientos arqueológicos y movilidad de la costa central de California, aquí revelamos evidencia de que la población local aumentó el sedentarismo y la intensificación económica para mantener su autonomía social en un entorno circunscrito colonialmente. Presentamos hallazgos de artefactos, paleoetnobotánicos y faunísticos de la aldea de yak tichu tichu yak tilhini en el norte de Chumash de Tstyiwi (CA-SLO-51/H) donde un componente posterior al contacto razonablemente discreto proporciona evidencia de una intensificación extrema de los recursos y el uso del sitio durante todo el año. siguiente contacto. Si bien hay evidencia de cambios de asentamiento diacrónicos antes de la llegada de los españoles, el componente posterior al contacto en la ocupación de Tstyiwi contrasta significativamente con otros 35 componentes exclusivamente anteriores a la invasión en su perfil estacional, diversidad de artefactos, densidad de restos de plantas, abundancia de equipo de pesca, y espina de pescado. Las altas frecuencias de los dos últimos parecen representar un recurso que se convirtió en el foco principal de subsistencia de esta comunidad costera, ya que sus habitantes intensificaron su esfuerzo laboral a niveles nunca antes vistos en un intento de evitar a los españoles cuya presencia había restringido su radio de alimentación.

Keywords

postcontactmarine intensificationcentral California coastcultural perseverancepostcontactointensificación marinacosta central de Californiaperseverancia cultural
Type
Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 3 , July 2022 , pp. 505 - 522
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology

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